Activities for After You’ve Read a Mystery

Here at Remedia, we love a good mystery! We’ve found that the mystery genre is a great way to engage students in reading, build comprehension skills, and improve critical thinking. That’s why we’ve put together this four-part series all about the wonderful genre of MYSTERIES!

Part 3: Activities for After You’ve Read a Mystery

Wanted Sign
Have students create a wanted sign for the villain of their whodunit. Students can draw the bad guy and then beneath the picture write who, what, where, when, why about the criminal.

Follow the Clues
As students read, have students write down the clues and the paragraph or page number they are found on. Then, once students have finished reading the mystery, have students go back to their notes and label each clue: useful or red herring.

Sequence
Have students write a summary of the sequence of events in the story, numbering the main highlights. First, ask students to pinpoint where they had solved the mystery. What gave it away for them?

Then, ask students to pinpoint where the detective solved the mystery. What was the clue that told the detective whodunit?

Lastly, ask students to identify where the narrator revealed the criminal. Were these three moments the same? Or were they all different?

So your students read a mystery…now what? Use these activities from @remediapub #mysterygenre #edchat
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Mystery Genre | Students draw the detective or the sleuth and site evidence from the story to explain why chose to draw that character trait. | Remedia Publications
Draw the Detective or the Sleuth

Draw the Detective or the Sleuth
Have students draw either the detective or the sleuth of the mystery. Then, have students create a web diagram around their drawing. In each bubble students should write an example/quote from the story to explain why they chose to draw that character detail.

Re-Write the Mystery
How would students rewrite the mystery if the criminal was a different person? What if the student author was the detective? What if the student author was the criminal? Use these questions to get your students thinking about how they could rewrite the mystery and make it their own. This writing activity is a also great way for you to assess students’ understanding of the vocabulary used in the mystery genre.

What activities do you like to do after you’ve read a mystery with your students?

Stock-Up Your Classroom with High-Interest/Low-Readability Mysteries from Remedia!
{Shop Remedia’s Mystery Materials}

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