Sherlock Holmes may have been the greatest detective in literary history. A study guide for The Hound of the Baskervilles introduces a story featuring the famous detective before sharing activities related to the text. Readers...

An 11-page teacher's guide that focuses on Delia Owens' bestseller Where the Crawdads Sing is packed with discussion questions and activities. Text-dependent questions, activities, and writing prompts are also included....

A legacy lives on. Even though Samuel Will Westing, a character in the The Westing Game, has passed away, his love for games lives on through the unusual selection in his will. Scholars read of the mystery, learn 10 new vocabulary words,...

Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code is filled with secrets. Help readers find the clues, solve the riddles and puzzles, and unwrap the mysteries with a six-page guide that includes before, during, and after reading discussion questions and...

Students complete a Web Quest on How to Write a Mystery. They listen to or read a short mystery story and discuss its elements. They write an outline of a mystery story using all of the elements.

The motto for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry warns that one should never tickle a sleeping dragon, but learners will definitely be tickled by the activities in a packet of materials designed to accompany a reading of the...

Students explore famous artists in order to write mystery stories incorporating their life and works. They write their own based on their research of a particular artist.

Scary stuff! Whether approached as the first horror story or a "serious imaginative exploration of the human condition," Frankenstein continues to engage readers. Here's a packet of activities that uses Mary Shelley's gothic...

This abstract for an instructional unit using three-minute mysteries, stories by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle, and Edgar Allan Poe includes a short history of detective fiction, sample plans, and suggestions for exercises and activities...

Terror, mystery, excitement. American writers of the 19th century, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Emily Dickinson, used these elements to create morally ambiguous tales that challenged the prevailing belief in...

A fan of Ari's Crispin trilogy? Here is a packet that contains study guides for all three Crispin novels: The Cross of Lead, At the Edge of the World, and The End of Time.

You'll be a star at your next grade level meeting with an educational unit on Louis Sachar's Holes. Based on both the novel and film, the lessons include applications to language arts with character studies and movie reviews; social...

Students examine the elements of mystery stories and read Rage in Harlem. In reciprocal teaching groups, they discuss the author's development of the story, and complete dialectical journals.

Students use literature to examine the violence and loss of innocence during the 1960s. In this U.S. history lesson, students read Robert McCammon's Boy's Life to investigate the social unrest, violence and loss of innocence in the...

Are all criminals bad people? Pupils answer this and other compelling questions in an anticipation guide for The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Designed for learners to complete before reading the text, the...

Readers analyze David Mitchell's techniques for introducing and developing the mystery surrounding Madame Crommelynck in the "Solarium" chapter of his novel Black Swan Green.

Students study the tale of Robin Hood to further their knowledge of character traits, improve their vocabularies, and increase their knowledge of the Medieval Ages. In this Robin Hood lesson, students complete 14 lessons that help them...

Immerse yourself in the beautiful, twisted world of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. A detailed lesson plan provides important details about the writing, stagecraft, music, and literary elements of the famous musical,...

Students explore the use of voice and title in William Faulkner's, "As I Lay Dying". They identify and discuss the use of image, symbols and narrative voice in the story.