Time-to-Write Tuesdays-- It's a MYSTERY!

During the past two weeks, my students have been building background knowledge and researching details. Now it is time to bring it all together...

                              It's time to write a MYSTERY!

It all started one Tuesday in the computer lab... 
The students knew we were preparing for a new writing topic, but WHAT?

I simply told the students that they were to quickly find an informative website for THREE places of interest. I explained that these places could be places that they had been to before or places they would like to visit. Then, they were told to print only the first page of the website, hole punch the pages and slip them into their writing binders. I told them nothing else.

Nothing.

Their next clue came two days later... 
They were told to look over their pages and write a brief description of the three places that they chose. (I limited them by requiring 1/2 a page per place. Folding the paper in half before they started to write helped them see the "space" for writing.) At this point, they started to wonder, but thought they were writing research papers.

More clues came when they had to repeat the process, writing a 1/2 page for each destination, but changing the focus. All together, the students wrote three quick-writes about The Place, Things (found at the place) and People that they would meet at their chosen destinations.

Finally, I revealed that we were writing MYSTERIES! Wow, did that get them talking!

As the class discussed what happens in a mystery, they began to see that the places, things and people could all fit together like a big mix-and-match book by taking a few elements away.

On Monday, we watched an episode of Scooby Doo. I had discussed how a mystery can be as simple as Scooby Doo. By plotting and retelling, my students proved how the same elements we had discussed last week were evident in one basic cartoon.

Today, we finished our pre-writing. I handed them a simple graphic organizer with the key components: Main Characters, Suspects, Crime or Mystery, Clues (real and diversions) and the "Big Reveal" leading to the Outcome. (Actually, some started writing their first drafts today without this last step... I know they will complete the organizer for credit, but they couldn't help themselves and grabbed a computer to start tapping it out as the story materialized in their imaginations!)

The students are so excited! It makes me excited! (I believe that my NANOWRIMOs have found their topics!)

In the hallway, I set up an interactive "It's a Mystery" bulletin board for parent-teacher conferences and to tie-in with our lessons.

Throughout the next week, I plan to use the writings of Lemony Snicket, Blue Balliett and a few picture book authors to serve as models.

If you would like to try your hand at writing a mystery with your students or write one of your own you might want to purchase the new Pseudonymous Bosch's book, Write This Book: A Do-It-Yourself Mystery. It is a fabulous guide that isn't one of those expensive journals pretending to be a do-it-yourself books.