What Should I Share?
A new post is ready to go online — but wait. Some of it is safe to share, and some of it should stay private. Read the clues, solve four locks, and lock down what belongs to you.
The premise
Everything you post online can be seen, saved, and shared by others. Your job is to learn which details are safe to share and which private facts — like your home address, your passwords, and where you are right now — should stay locked away. Crack all four locks, and each one will show the reason its answer is correct.
How this breakout builds CLEAR thinking
Every Critical Thinking Online Breakout runs on the CLEAR process — Claim, Lens, Evidence, Alternatives, Response (full framework). Here is where students practice each step in this activity:
- Claim — for each lock, decide what answer it is really asking for, and make it specific.
- Lens — notice what you already assume before you choose.
- Evidence — weigh the six clues; “Classroom Gecko” is true but off-topic, so it is not evidence for any lock.
- Alternatives — the multiple-choice and multi-select locks force a comparison of competing options.
- Response — the reason revealed after each lock models the justified answer to act on.
Standards alignment
Aligned to Texas TEKS Technology Applications, Grade 5, §126.10, Digital Citizenship strand — subsections (c)(10). Skills are paraphrased; read the official standard at tea.texas.gov. This page shows the reasoning focus of each lock — not the answers.
| Lock | Reasoning focus | DigCit substrand |
|---|---|---|
| Lock 1 Keep or Share? |
Keep or Share? | (c)(10) Privacy, safety & security |
| Lock 2 Safe to Post |
Safe to Post | (c)(10) Privacy, safety & security |
| Lock 3 One Question First |
One Question First | (c)(10) Privacy, safety & security |
| Lock 4 The Safe Way to Post |
The Safe Way to Post | (c)(10) Privacy, safety & security |
In the classroom
- Warm up (5 min). Ask: “Think Before You Post” — what does this mean online? Surface prior experience before the activity.
- Model one clue. Open a single clue together and think aloud: what does this tell us, and which lock might it help?
- Reason, don’t guess. Require students to say why before checking a lock. After each solve, read the revealed reason and compare it to their thinking.
- Spot the decoy. One clue is true but useless. Debrief which one and how they knew — a core evaluation skill.
- Language support. The 🌐 picker offers 7 languages; pair newcomers to discuss clues in their home language, then answer.
- Extend. Have students write a new clue, or a real-life example, for the focus skill they found hardest.