Soraya R. Potter
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Objective:
The students will be able to demonstrate the concept of
Deductive Reasoning in a variety of ways.
Read Chapter 1 to your students
Pre Reading Activities
Teachers of this unit: Send each and every staff member (teachers, administrators, custodians and cafeteria workers) a brown paper bag labeled with a number. Ask each person to place a few items that will provide clues to his or her identity, such as area of expertise, sex general age, interests and favorite food—but nothing with a picture or name that will give him or her away. For example, I might put in a bookmark, a highlighter pen, a red pen, a seashell with some white sand glued around the edges, a Kent State University or University of Miami sticker, a covered elastic ponytail band and two hair clips. The goal is to have one bag for each student, however pairs of students or small groups could share bags and would benefit from trading observations and ideas.
As you hand out the bags explain that each contains items representing a staff member at school. By observing and analyzing these clues, students are to try to identify the person the items belong to. Have the students work at writing detailed descriptions of the items in their bags. Remind them that keen observation is the key to a detective’s success. For example a pink hair ribbon is not just “a ribbon”, but “a pink ribbon 12 inches long and 2 inches wide, worn and crinkled from frequent use.
Next have the students reread their observations, then draw a conclusion about their person’s identity based on each item. For example, the ribbon indicates the person is female, probably likes pink, and might use the ribbon to hold back long hair. As a last step, point out that many detectives rely on a vast amount of knowledge of human nature in making their deductions. Students should now consider what they know about their teachers and other staff that might illuminate their conclusions.
When students are ready to venture an educated guess, they write a suspect description. In keeping with the mystery mode, ask your student to create a crime that their suspect committed and to include such information as the suspect’s physical appearance, employment, food and (nonalcoholic)beverage preferences, present and past residences, hobbies and interests. By this time students are into the spirit of the activity and really use their imaginations in creating their sketches. Along with thinking and writing opportunities, this activity allows students to look at the master detective in a new way.
Active Reading
Have the students read the novel during class time. This will force them to pace themselves and to become more interested in finding out what happens next. Assign one question to be answered and allow one question to be asked (hopefully they will be able to answer it upon completion of the text) upon reading each of the fifteen chapters of the text. Also have the students write down any clues that they find and think are important while they are reading.
Post Reading
Activity 1:
Students who finish reading early will be one or two class periods ahead of the others. Instead of speeding ahead and hoping that the others will be able to catch up, this activity may well be worth while.
Have students look at their notes and see if they are in line with the notes of the detective in his solution of the case. If they are not, have the students write out the clues that they missed and be prepared to discuss why they thought that these clues were not as important as others.
Activity 2:
If more than one half of the class fails to grasp why the author relied on some clues more than others then this activity may come in handy.
How Writers “Plant” Clues in Plots by Patricia Osborn
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Foreshadow: to give clues or hints that help the reader make educated guesses about how a story will progress or end.
Imagine reading a story of a house, reportedly haunted, on a dark and stormy night. You’d naturally be disappointed if a ghost, real or imaginary, didn’t appear as you were led to expect through foreshadowing. Or, a character might warn another of a treacherous undertow that made swimming dangerous. It’s likely that someone will be caught in that undertow—and this, too, is an example of foreshadowing.
Directions:
Read the following examples , and explain how each uses foreshadowing. Then, answer the additional questions concerning each. Be prepared to explain the reasons for your answers.
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1. To George Williams went the distinction of being the first to suggest making Sam Billings the new town-treasurer. The moment he made the nomination at the annual town meeting there was an enthusiastic chorus of approval that resulted in the first unanimous election in the history of Androscoggin. . . .The election of Sam to the office of town treasurer pleased everybody. He was a good business man and he was honest. . . . After he was elected everybody wondered why they had been giving the office to crooks and scoundrels for the past twenty years or more when the public money could have been safe and secure with Sam Billings. The retiring treasurer was still unable to account to everyones satisfaction for about eighteen hundred dollars of the town’s money, and the one before him had allowed his books to get into such a tangled condition that it cost the town two hundred and fifty dollars to hire an accountant to make them balance.—”The Rumor” by Erskine Caldwell
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(1) The passage and title seem to foreshadow that ___________________
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(2) The probable plot order is _____________________
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(3) The action will likely take place in ___________________
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(4) What clues are given to the time period of the story? ___________________
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(5) What question about the action is raised in the paragraphs given? __________________
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2. Pan was a half white, half Chinese girl. Her mother was dead, and Pan lived with her father who kept an Oriental Bazaar on Dupont Street. All her life Pan had lived in Chinatown, and if she were different in any sense from those around her, she gave little thought to it. It was only after the coming of Mark Carson that the mystery of—”Its Wavery Image” by Sui Sin Far
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(1) The passage and title seem to foreshadow that ______________________________________
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(2) The probable plot order is _____________________
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(3) The action will likely take place in ________________________________________
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(4) What clues are given to the time period of the story? ________________________________
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(5) What question about the action is raised in the paragraphs given? ___________________________
Activity 3: The Project by Sue Jones Erlenbusch
Have your students choose one of the following projects or design their own. If they design their own project, then they should fill out the project proposal form provided and submit it to you for approval.
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1. Make a diorama of Baskerville Hall in its setting upon the desolate moor.
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2. Write a report on Monsieur Bertillon whom Dr. Mortimer described as the highest expert in Europe.
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3. Write a report on Neolithic man. Include illustrations of their homes clothing and tools.
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4. Write a bio-poem about the author or one of the characters in the story .
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5. Make a model of the fiendish hound.
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6. Write a biographical sketch of the famous author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
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7. With a group of classmates who have also read the story, create a cast of finger puppets and put on a play based on the story.
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8. Sir Henry traveled by ship from Canada to England. When he landed in Southampton, he took a train to London. From Waterloo Station, he took a horse-drawn cab to Baker Street. He and Watson took a train to Devonshire and a wagonette to Baskerville Hall. Draw a map of Sir Henry’s journey. Include illustrations of the ship, train, horse-drawn cab and wagonette.