How to Get Away with Murder Part 1: Using Murder Mystery to Teach Inferencing & Citing Evidence

Are you a Stabler or a Liv? A Holmes or a Watson? I always start discussing murder mysteries with my students by asking them what crime shows they like to watch. In my experience, almost all of my students have watched at least one crime show. It's not always Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, but it usually is. We inevitably end up talking about our favorite shows for way too long, but it gives the kids a minute to bond with me and lets me get some new Netflix recommendations.

I eventually transition by asking, "How do detectives solve a case? What do they look for?" We create a class list together, and I immediately point out that the things good detectives and lawyers do are a lot of the same things good readers and writers do. I love explaining this to them because it makes everything we do moving forward really authentic. This isn't just busy work — we're solving crimes! Detectives look for forensic evidence. Good readers look for textual evidence. Detectives and readers are both trying to use the information they have to prove a theory or inference. Good lawyers construct arguments based on the evidence found by detectives. Good writers use the evidence they find in the text to support a claim.

A great way to help them understand this is to show them this clip from BBC's Sherlock. Sherlock uses evidence and inferencing to completely analyze John Watson at first sight based on clues in his appearance. (You can also use this clip as a great example of indirect characterization.) It very clearly demonstrates the process of making an observation, turning it into an inference, and supporting that inference with evidence — which is exactly what they are going to do in this mini-unit.

So, if detectives and readers do all the same stuff, why do the kids love crime stories, but sometimes hate ELA class? It's all about engagement. So let's harness their inner #murderino for our own purposes.

DAY ONE: BUILDING THE FOUNDATION

(approximately 30 minutes)

I start slow when entering into a murder mystery unit, so I spend some time modeling and talking through short mysteries together. I want my students to understand that solving a mystery is not about randomly guessing the most outrageous outcomes; it's about finding the devil in the details.

First, I utilize a couple of picture mysteries tiptoe them into crime scene observations. (Disclaimer: I found these online. I did not create these.) Picture mysteries are great for letting them make visual observations before digging into textual observations. We talk a lot about expectations versus reality. We try to identify things that stand out as wrong or not fitting the narrative. For example, in the picture to the left, we discuss what is missing from the scene. If someone really broke in, what would be there? They almost always point out that the window is too small. I tell them the robber broke the glass and unlocked the window to get it. Next, they say the footprints never go to the door. If someone climbed in the window to break in, why wouldn't they exit out the door when they were finished? Which is great, but totally circumstantial; it doesn't prove anything except maybe the robber wasn't the brightest. What is missing from this scene that should absolutely be there if a stranger broke in? Glass. There should be glass all over the floor — unless the window was broken from inside the house.

Next, I push them further by having them try to cite some textual evidence to support their visual observations. Like the first image, ask the students to make observations about the scene. I gently nudge them — does anything stand out as strange or unusual? Is anything present or missing that shouldn't be? Once students realize it was the newspaper delivery person because two days of newspapers are missing, ask them to support that inference by highlighting or underlining the sentence that defends their answer.

Next, I pull a mystery from Two-Minute Mysteries by Donald J. Sobol. (It's super cheap and totally worth the investment in you are thinking about buying a copy.) Each mystery is about a page long and can be solved using the same logic and reasoning we used in the picture images — the two-minute mysteries are just more complex. I use "The Case of the Hunting Accident" for this lesson, but you could use any case you think your students can handle. As we read the mystery together, we annotate with two different colored highlighters. I ask students to tell me to stop when they see autopsy evidence or witness testimony, so we can highlight it together. I emphasize again that they are doing the same thing detectives do — reviewing reports and connecting the dots. I encourage the kids to compare the autopsy evidence with the witness testimony and look for things that don't add up. Once they solve the mystery, I usually have them construct a short paragraph that identifies the inference, supports it with quoted evidence, and explains how that evidence supports their inference.

DAY TWO: DIGGING DEEPER

(approximately 30 minutes)

If day one was about making observations and inferences, day two is about synthesizing multiple clues and observations into several inferences to solve a mystery. The complexity is stepped up significantly, so students are put into groups the workout the mystery together.

Years ago, I stumbled upon Peter Pappas' awesome First Day of School Murder Mystery lesson. It's my students' favorite activity by far, and I cannot thank Mr. Pappas enough for sharing this awesome lesson with the internet for free — even if I'm jealous I didn't come up with it myself.

I've used his Murder Mystery as a first-day activity as he suggests, but it tends to carry more weight within a murder mystery unit like the one I'm describing. For this activity, students are given a list of clues. You can divide up the clues among group members to increase dialogue and discussion between students, or you can post the activity as a Digital Escape Room. Students have to read through and analyze the clues to determine: the murderer, the murder weapon, the location of the murder, the time of death, and the motive. Last time I taught this, I assigned each student one element of the case to investigate (the murder weapon, location, etc.) I encourage my students to create lists and timelines to help solve the case, and it's genuinely touching how excited they get about solving the case.

Once they solve the case, we discuss the different strategies they used and I ask them to tell me which clues helped them solve the case. As an exit ticket, I have them construct a short paragraph explaining their inferences and evidence to support it. Sometimes I offer a small prize to the group who solves the case first.

The entire time they are completely engaged and invested in "the case." They have no idea I just asked to cite textual evidence to support an analysis of a text — which is something students avoid every chance they get.

Teaching voodoo for the win.

If you are interested in doing this mini-lesson with your students, here is a Pear Deck version of the lesson and the Digital Murder Mystery Escape Room you can use with your students. It includes everything except for the two-minute mystery.