After School Class Murder Mystery

[Stephanie.]

Hello!

This is my favourite lesson that I have done with my students. I teach an advanced level after school class and the girls LOVED this activity. It seriously got them talking in English for three classes straight and they got sooo into it. They were yelling at each other and calling each other murderers, it was awesome.

I got the idea from my TESOL coursebook. Basically, there has been a murder. Every student is given a character and they have to interview the other students to try and figure out who the murderer was. The girl who was the murderer was so good at lying, that not a single person guessed that she was guilty!

I have 15 students in my class so there are only 15 characters but you could easily make some more if you needed to. Hope this works as well for you as it did with my class

I have attached the lesson plan, the interview worksheets and the character descriptions. Enjoy!

[helen_chin]

Thanks a heap. Im sure my after school class will enjoy this! Its a lot of reading and writing however. In my one of my 3rd grade after school classes (I teach 2 3rd grade after school classes) there are 2 low level students and the rest are high level. I will probably give them a simple role of being Robin's pet cat/ dog or something, so there isn't too much reading involved.

[chingu]

It looks good! I wish I could use this for my classes. I like the idea and format, I'm trying to work on a theft mystery lesson plan for my elementary summer camp. I'll post it here when I finish. Thanks for the inspiration!

[jamierlyon]

Thanks, I've been looking for something just like this.  My students love the Mafia game, but I'm honestly getting sick of playing it so I'm sure this will be right up their alley!

[ciastar]

This is an awesome idea. Thanks. Definitely going to modify for middle school.

[EnglishandKorea]

This looks great.  I'm going to use this for my after school class.  It's going to be fun.

[Krowg]

Wow!  I'm definitely using this!  It will certainly challenge my kids, but it serves them right for enrolling in the "Summer Camp for Gifted Students" routine!    Thanks a million!

[yangyeelor]

Wow...this sounds like a lot of fun! I haven't started my after school classes yet but I will be soon.  I've started collecting some really great lesson ideas and I'm going to be adding this one to them too!  Thanks!

[bsweet]

I want to use this, but after reading all the character write-ups, I can't see how the students could possible solve the mystery based solely on the information provided. How were you able to make it work?

Also, one of the classes I want to use this for is only 6 advanced-level 3rd grade (Middle School) girls. Which characters would you recommend using?

[kyletr05]

I want to use this, but after reading all the character write-ups, I can't see how the students could possible solve the mystery based solely on the information provided. How were you able to make it work?

I'm wondering the same thing...

[danielteacher]

This sounds great. I can't wait to try this out with my class!

[lstephenson556]

Great work! It is too high level for my kids, so I will edit and make a PowerPoint for it, for explanation purposes.

[Kaht]

What a great idea.  This was on a episode of the Office....I can't wait to use it in my classroom.  Thanks!