District: East Greenbush Central Schools
District Representative: Mr. Terrence Brewer
SLO Project Name: Mystery Unit/Ancient Culture Setting
Authored by: Mina J. Barry
E-mail: minabarry@aol.com
Homepage address: http://egcs.nycap.rr.com/mystery/index.htm
Grade Level: Sixth
Subject Area: English
Objectives:
1. List and define the essential elements of a mystery story and become familiar with the development of the mystery genre.
2. Conduct research about the ancient cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia used as the setting of two mystery stories: Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie and The Egypt Game by Zylpha Keatley Snyder.
3. Read one of the above mysteries and set up a working hypothesis about who did it and how.
4. Participate in a webquest to produce the front page of Can You Dig It?, a trade newspaper for future archaeologists/anthropologists.
Prior knowledge: Familiarity with a web browser and a word processing program (if desired) for production of newspaper page.
Assessments: See TEACHERS page.
Procedure and Instructional Modifications : Detailed on TEACHERS page under the heading "Unit Overview with Teacher Links."
Time Required: 8 weeks
Resources: See Webquest page, "Places to Visit" under "What to Do"
Actual Learning Standards Referenced: English Language Arts
Standard #1 - Students will read, write, listen and speak for information and understanding. Listening and reading to acquire information and understanding involves collecting data, facts, and ideas; discovering relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and using knowledge from oral, written, and electronic sources.
Standard #2 - Students will read, write, listen and speak for literary response and expression. Listening and reading for literary response involves comprehending, interpreting, and critiquing imaginary texts in every medium, drawing on personal experiences and knowledge to understand the text, and recognizing the cultural, historical and social features of the text.
Standard #3 - Students will read, write, listen and speak for critical analysis and evaluation. Speaking and writing for critical analysis and evaluation requires presenting opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues clearly, logically, and persuasively with reference to specific criteria on which the opinion or judgment is based.
Standard #4 - Students will read, write, listen and speak for social interaction. Written interaction for social interaction requires using written messages to establish, maintain, and enhance personal relationships with others.
Performance Indicators:
make distinctions about the relative value and significance of specific data, facts, and ideas
understand and identify the distinguishing features of the major genres and use them to aid their interpretation and discussion of literature
develop arguments with effective use of details and evidence that reflect a coherent set of criteria
evaluate their own and others' work based on a variety of criteria and recognize the varying effectiveness of different approaches
express ideas and concerns clearly and respectfully in conversations and group discussions
interpret and analyze information from text books and nonfiction books for young adults, as well as reference materials, audio and media presentations, oral interviews, graphs, charts, diagrams, and electronic data bases intended for a general audience
distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information and between fact and opinion
compare and synthesize information from different sources
Reflections:
Students work at varying rates to read and take notes for their newspaper articles. In the whole class computer lab setting, each student used a Microsoft Word page to keep notes as they read. Allowing the slower workers to copy and paste their notes will keep this problem manageable. Faster readers can read, paraphrase and type notes onto their note page.
At the planning stage outlines, webs, venn diagrams and other graphic organizers helped students to organize their notes before writing.
A teacher prepared Word document which simulates the newspaper shown in the sample template was accessible to students when each reporter team was finished planning their lay-out. This final product can be completed on classroom computers if lab time is scarce. A classroom cluster of 5 - 6 computers would allow most classes to finish this task in two or three days.
Since this work was all being done during class time, once students were introduced to their book the actual reading was assigned for homework. A multiple choice assessment on the books was taken at the end of the 8 weeks.
Exemplars:
| Graphic Organizer | |
| Click for Newspaper in PDF format |
History~Mystery Time Travel
Congratulations.
You must have arrived here because you are a curious and quizzical adventurer. You will not be disappointed. I am your tour guide. This trip will begin with a language orientation session, continue with a visit to the Mysto People (creators of mystery genre) and come full circle with an inside look at the secret lives of the Histos (mysterious ancient people). Bring some good reading along. I recommend the books The Egypt Game and Murder in Mesopotamia to all of my tourists. It always helps to educate yourself a bit before reaching your destination. And since some of you have been on this tour before, we divide our travelers into two groups. Choose from below:
Links to other sites...
copyright© 1999 Mina Barry
send comments to minabarry@aol.com