The primary activities of this unit present various lessons related to children's detective fiction. They begin with simple riddles and end with the reading and examination of an entire chapter book. These activities attempt to train students to recognize various bits of information that they can use to assist them in drawing conclusions, making predictions, solving problems, and, generally, in achieving a better understanding of the situations being presented in the text that they are reading. Throughout the unit, activities are aligned to New Haven's Content and Performance Standards for reading. The unit also makes an effort to use children's detective fiction containing characters representative of a multicultural society. The contents are geared primarily for a third or fourth-grade classroom, but could be modified for some middle grade students.
(Developed for Reading, Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Social Development, grade 4; recommended for Reading, Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Social Development, grades 4-8)
