Curated OER
The Game is Afoot - A Study of Sherlock Holmes
Mystery is an exciting genre for young readers to investigate. The plots are so intriguing! Here is a series of lessons featuring Sherlock Holmes stories that invite learners to enter the world of the mystery genre. Based on what they...
Curated OER
Detective Fiction: Focus On Critical Thinking
Turn your 6th graders into detectives while growing their love of reading. Using critical thinking skills, they will be able to describe the five basic elements of detective fiction, read detective novels, make predictions, use the...
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A Little Mystery and Intrigue in Writing Short Detective Stories
Students read and analyze the twelve short stories in the novel "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." They create their own detective that has to solve a new kind of crime, and write and edit a short story with their original detective as...
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Exploring the Mystery Genre
Young scholars determine the story elements of typical mystery stories including characters and plot structure. They look at vocabulary that is common to mystery stories before reading and responding to mystery chapter books. Working in...
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Planting Clues in Short Stories
Students examine short stories to determine how clues are planted in story stories of the mystery genre. They look at how Edgar Allan Poe planted clues in "The Purloined Letter." They write an original short story in which they plant...
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Mystery Lessons
Learn about mysteries with your readers. They will investigate plot, basic elements of mystery, famous characters, and become familiar with genre vocabulary. Bring in props and mystery books to begin and then have learners create story...
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The Gold-Bug
Does your class remember details from The Gold-Bug? Test them with fifteen multiple-choice questions that prove to be a bit of a challenge.
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Edgar Allen Poe: More Than the Master of Horror
Celebrate Poe's birthday with works that don't feature incorporeal hearts or evil houses.
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Developing Thinking and Reasoning Skills in Primary Learners Using Detective Fiction
Students are introduced to the genre of detective fiction. Based on their reading level, they are given a different series of books to read. For each story, they are to make predictions and practice decoding messages. To end the...
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It's A Mystery To Me
Students become both mystery readers and writers. They utilize the Internet to understand the elements of this classic genre; employ critical thinking skills when reading various stories in both print and electronic formats; form groups...
Scholastic
Midnight Magic Discussion Guide
This discussion guide accompanies the fiction book Midnight Magic written by Avi, enforces story elements, inferences, and theme/plot. Have the class work on it over time, it will engage even your reluctant readers.
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Lesson Mystery: The Game is Afoot
Students enter and experience the world of Sherlock Holmes and hard-boiled detectives in this unit on mysteries. They review and analyze the ""Whodunit Requirements" and the "Mystery Contract" that accompany this instructional activity....
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Edgar Allan Poe and Anna Katherine Green
Young scholars analyze the genre of detective fiction through stories by Edgar Allan Poe and Anna Katherine Green. In this detective fiction instructional activity, students read "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Second Bullet." Young...
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Literacy Lesson: Guided Reading
Here is a wonderful lesson designed for students with special needs. This well-thought-out lesson uses Big Books, familiar stories, and has a lot of review learning built into it. The book, The Keeping Quilt is used in the main part of...
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Ingredients of a Mystery
Students explore the concept of mysteries. In this mystery genre lesson, students identify the common characteristics of mystery books and use a story map to identify these characteristics in a given book. Students also discover the...
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Haunting Music
Students discover music that was inspired by the spooky and bizarre. In this music of Hector Berlioz and Camille Saint-Saens lesson plan, students identify elements of music and listen to the Symphonie Fantastique and Danse Macabre....
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Mystery Writing Lesson Plans
Introduce your class to the genre of mystery. Included is a vocabulary list, a rubric, and a sample mystery story called "Lethal Lesson." There are very limited directions on what to do with these resources, so you will need to plan some...
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Cemetery Art And Architecture Detectives
Students investigate the architecture found in cemeteries in order to separate different time periods of distinct design. The use of examples helps them to recognize the design in correlation to its time. The lesson is delivered in a...
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???The Hell of Mirrors??? by Edogawa Rampo
Learners read and analyze the story "The Hell of Mirrors," by Edogawa Rampo. They watch a video excerpt, answer discussion questions, construct a periscope, complete handouts, define key vocabulary terms, take a quiz, and write a book...
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Harriet The Spy
Fourth graders investigate the style of diary writing as its own genre of literature. They read Harriet The Spy in order to have a text for this literature study. Students use the skill of prediction to preview the story, and then...
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It's a Mystery to Me
Young scholars read a variety of mysteries to improve their reading and comprehension skills. Using a worksheet, they define and practice using new vocabulary. In groups, they read stories from Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and write...
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Wrapped in Mystery
Sixth graders can identify five basic elements that most mysteries contain. They put the elements of mystery into a graphic organizer they can follow. They construct meaning after reading Poe's short story and identify or infer the...
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Chocolate and Ice Cream Across the Curriculum
Sixth graders in a special education class discuss excerpts of two stories and read biographical information on the authors. In groups, they read the full text of both stories and try to solve the mystery as they read. They practice...
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Mystery Words
On this language arts worksheet, students locate 22 words on a word search. Each word is related to the mystery story genre. Students may self check their puzzles by selecting the link at the bottom of the page.