8th Grade English Mystery Unit

I am getting ready to plan a new Mystery unit with the other 8th grade English teachers in my building and would love any ideas from other teachers who've taught similar units.

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Permalink Reply by AngelaStockman on July 26, 2007 at 9:04pm

We did a mystery unit in my 8th grade classroom near Halloween. Kids had choice of novels to read from a list provided by our team. We did a lot with Poe in class as well, and we researched local "haunted" places, "mysteries" and other creepy things....in addition to the story elements, plot structure, comprehension strategies, vocab. and all of that good stuff. My favorite part? Asking kids to dress like one of the characters from their novel for Halloween while they presented a relevant creative response to their books. It was fun!
Angela

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Permalink Reply by Donna Hebert on July 27, 2007 at 7:26pm

I like the costume idea . . . that's something to think about. What kinds of activities did you do? Were there any specific reading or writing skills that you incorporated into your unit? I'd love to know.

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Permalink Reply by Jennie on July 28, 2007 at 9:51am

I have a unit centered around Sherlock Holmes' "The Blue Carbuncle" and "The Speckled Band". I end it with a "station rotation" where the kids have six different activities to complete on Victorian times, mystery genre details and etc. We've always had a great time creating a "comic" from the mystery and planting the clues somewhere in the pictures. It really helps to solidify the intent of the author.