MYSTERY
LESSON OBJECTIVES
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to…
- describe the general story and characters of a Mystery novel excerpt
- find genre elements present in Mystery novels
- discuss cultural aspects present in the Mystery novel excerpts
PREPARATION AND BACKGROUND
- Ideally, read each of the novels. At the very least, read the excerpts for each of the novels and be familiar with the overall plot, themes, and historical contexts of each novel.
- Be prepared to share to share (e.g, by emailing the pdf, by emailing a link to the pdf, by giving a print-out) excerpts of the Realistic Fiction novels that students sign up for.
MATERIALS
- The excerpts for this Mystery lesson are listed below in order from easiest to more difficult. Click on the titles to open the link to the pdf.
MYSTERY (6000-7000 words)
| |||
Title
|
Author
|
Average Grade Level (Native Speaker)
| |
Thomas Harris
|
83.3
|
5.3
| |
Dennis Lehane
|
83.2
|
6.2
| |
Stephen King
|
80.8
|
6.9
| |
John Grisham
|
79.3
|
6.4
| |
Gillian Flynn
|
78.7
|
6.7
| |
Dan Brown
|
68.8
|
7.8
| |
LESSON PLAN
A. Teacher greeting and introduction (whole class) (3 min)
B. Discussion on Assigned Reading (small groups) (10 min)
**NOTE: Students who read the same excerpt should be in the same group together. (The group size will depend on how many students are in your class.)**
Students should get into groups to discuss the "Homework: Reading Questions" handout. Encourage students to be prepared to discuss any cultural insights or questions they have from the reading. Encourage students to be prepared to share the plot and characters later in class.
C. Context Discussion (whole class) (10 minutes)
Discuss as a class how the readings they read this time relate to American culture. Briefly discuss any social or historical significance. (They will do the research later, so there is no need to go into too much detail here.) Ask students if they have seen any of the movies based on these novels. Tell them that all of the books actually have movies based on them and the movie is one interpretation of the book.
D. Jigsaw Discussion (small groups) (15 min)
Arrange students so that students who read different excerpts are in a group together (i.e., each excerpt should be represented by one student in each group).
Instruct students to share the plot so far and the characters in their stories. Encourage students to ask each other questions about the books.
E. Finding Genre Characteristics through Similarities (same small groups as Part D) (10 min)
Students should try to figure out similarities between their stories. Students should discuss the general genre characteristics that they found through sharing the stories and how close they are to what they learned about the genre in the first lesson.
F. Wrap-up (2 min)
Homework: Tell students to read the Realistic Fiction excerpt and be prepared to discuss the questions on the "Homework: Reading Questions" in class.
