 |
Detective stories |
|
 Each class focuses on one fictitious detective of their choice. The two detectives represent different kinds of characters who act in their social, historical and cultural background. The aim is to find their similarities as well as their differences. Many activities such as polls and questionnaires on each others work enhance a close collaboration between the partner schools.
One example is a comparison of Miss Marple by Agatha Christie and Inspector Wallander by Henning Mankell. This analysis includes regarding different countries, times as well as male and female role models. |
|
Age group: 15 – 19
Duration: Half a school year – or longer
ICT Tools: Email, presentation tools, video (conference),
shared file archive, poll
Subject: Literature, Languages
Theme: Literature
Pedagogical value:
Books and movies about these detectives are translated into almost every language and are accessible in all countries. Pupils derive many new psychological and social aspects from a topic full of suspense and become like detectives themselves. To enrich this process a variety of creative exercises and follow-up activities can be done. The books can be compared with the movies.
Objectives:
Students learn
- How to analyse and compare literary works
- About the genre and its historical development, its special literary devices
- About authors and their contemporary background
- About regional, cultural and historical differences in the attitude towards
- crime
- characters of detectives, criminals and victims
- solving a crime and fighting for ‘good’
- male/female role models
- social classes
- ethics - attitudes towards crime – right and wrong
- How to prepare a short presentation on a literary text
- How to create their own crime story
Process:
1. Getting started
Contact
Teachers from the partner schools get in contact and check their availability - days, times, contact addresses, etc. Both partners agree on a communication language and each chooses a detective character.
Prepare your school/s
Each partner
- Chooses a novel and identifies already existing teaching material
- Gives a general introduction into literary analysis and the genre of ‘detective stories’ (special features, historical development etc.)
- Reads one story of the chosen fictitious character
- Asks his/her pupils to focus on the following aspects while reading:
- Setting – time and place of the action
- Main characters (detective, victim, suspects) – special features
- Plot - how is the crime solved?
- Prepares a map of the region, where the story takes place. Pupils follow the action and see where the crime happened, the clues were found and the crime was solved
- Asks his/her pupils to prepare a five minute presentation about a crime story/movie or detective or an author (biography) of their own choice
- Prepares his/her pupils for own creative writing exercises
Collecting and sorting information
Each partner:
- Collects and inserts the title of the books read and linked material (lesson plans, authors’ biographies, pupils’ presentations, etc.) in a shared file archive
- Uses a shared calendar to organise the work in their schools and the cooperation
- Collects the information(setting, characters, plot, etc.) their own pupils prepared during their focused reading sessions
- Shares a common document in which they can easily see the historical, cultural and social differences
- Collects geographical information and uses maps to indicate important places for the plot
Exchanging information
Both partners:
- Share common documents (e.g. tables) for analysing and comparing literary works (typical features of the genre, its historical development, etc
- As both partners work with different novels they can upload short summaries (incl. plot, characters, settings) of it and thus inform the other ones in a brief way which content they are dealing with
- Both classes work out and share a vocabulary list/mind map (literary terms/word field ‘crime’)
Prepare questionnaires together with their pupils on their five minute presentations which they ask the other school to answer – this can be related to special features of an author or detective, etc.
- Prepare a common poll – for instance, ask pupils to vote for their favourite detective story/movie or detective
- Exchange their creative writing exercises (see below) and compare them
Outcome
Some results could be:
- A shared power-point presentation on the comparison of the two detectives
- Shared file archive including biographies of authors
- List of ideas for creative writing exercises as well as the stories produced by the pupils
- Power point presentations of pupils’ contributions
- Polls (hit list), quizzes and questionnaires on detectives
Consider to reflect on and evaluate your collaborative work process.
Follow up ideas
1.Creative writing activities
- Give an imaginary title to both classes and let them develop their own detective story.
- Ask pupils to change the literary style (e.g. novel into a screen play,)
- Ask pupils to change the setting (social class, time, country)
- Pupils invent their own detective and let him/her experience an adventure
- Think of a spooky scene and let the pupils develop a story or a short video from it
2.Cross- curricular activities
- Invite the two detectives to a talk show and make them talk about their adventures and experience regarding victims, murderers and ways of solving a crime. Record and exchange the videos
- Compare the books with the movies (if they are available). Beforehand you need to give a short introduction on the analysis and production of movies
- You can also find interactive exercises using detective stories on the internet. (cf. list of links)
List of literary works and movies
General information on the genre
Detective Story – Encyclopedia Article
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761559994/Detective_Story.html
The great detective stories
http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/grtdtecs.htm
Wikipedia: Detective fiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fiction
Detective Stories – Who is the guy and why havent’t I heard of him?
http://www.chesterton.org/discover/nutshell/detectivestories.html
Single authors and detectives
Agatha Christie – created the characters of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/christie.htm
http://uk.agathachristie.com/site/home/
Henning Mankell – created the character of Inspector Wallander
http://www.inspector-wallander.org/
Creative writing
Twenty rules for writing detective stories
http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/vandine.htm
How to write a detective story
http://www.chesterton.org/gkc/murderer/howto.htm
Online activities
The case of the barefoot burglar – interactive crime story
http://www.cyberbee.com/whodunnit/crimescene.html
Online mysteries, mystery games, mystery books and resources. For everyone who enjoys a mystery...
http://www.mysterynet.com/
Movies and TV films
Film analysis
http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/ (long)
http://www.essex.ac.uk/filmstudies/
current_students/Guidelines_for_analysis_of_film_sequences.htm (shorter)
|
Web Editor: |
Sylvia Binger |
|
|
|
|
Last changed : |
17/03/2007 |
|
|
|
|
Directorate-General for Education and Culture |
Disclaimer |
Contact |
Site map |
About this site
eTwinning by subject
