TAG Strategy Lesson - Mystery

Stephanie Beckles

Title: The Case of the Open Window

Subject: ELA
Grade Level: 1st grade
Duration: 30-45 minutes or longer as a modification for groups that need it.
Type of Lesson: Mystery

Standards and Elements:

TAG - Advanced Communication Skills #7: The student responds to contributions of others,
considering all available information. Creative Thinking & Creative Problem Solving Skills #8:
The student tolerates ambiguity when solving problems.
ELA - Reading Literary 1.RL.2: Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate
understanding of their central message or lesson. 1.RL.7: Use illustrations and details in a
story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Summary: Using background knowledge and clues provided, students will form a hypothesis
in order to solve their mystery.

Enduring Understanding: At the end of this lesson the students will have used problem
solving and advanced communication skills to solve the mystery of the case of the open
window, and will show tolerance for ambiguity.

Essential Question: What really happened to Mr. Little?

Evidence of Learning:

What the students should KNOW: Students should be able to retell the story, identify
key details or clues, and write a hypothesis to solve the mystery.
What the students should BE ABLE TO DO: Use illustrations and clues to write a

hypothesis in order to solve a mystery. They should be able to tolerate ambiguity if others
have a different hypothesis from their own.

Suggested Vocabulary: Hypothesis, sleet, bitter, shivering, cozy, Lieutenant, elevator,

instantly, thermostat.

Procedure:

Hook: Show children the picture, and ask What do you think is happening in this
picture? Take children for a brief walk outside (December) so they can feel the difference
between the temperature inside and outside.

Background Information: Read the passage to the children, up to but not including the
sentence that says: Sam stated, Then, John, you are not telling Introduce vocabulary
words, providing pictures for some words, or having students act out words learned.

Assigned groups: Group children by vertical reading levels (one-two child/ren from each
level). Have 3-4 children per group. Give each child an envelope with sentence clues
(adapted from the passage) typed out and cut into strips. Children will read the sentence
strips and discuss the clues they noticed that they could use to solve the mystery. They
will then glue the sentence strips onto chart paper and write or draw about the clues they
noticed, or create a book using Book Creator (I-pad). Using this modification they are able
to choose a format that suits their learning needs.

Hypothesis: Students will work together to answer the question that has been posed
(What really happened to Mr. Little?). They will write this hypothesis on the chart or in
Book Creator.

Sharing: Museum walk - students will walk around the class and look at and discuss what
the other groups have. They will look for hypotheses that are the same and different to
their own hypothesis, and discuss.

Conclusion: We will all meet back on the mat and discuss their findings.

Extension Activity: Write about a time when there was a storm. What did they do during
the storm? Did anything strange happen? Alternatively have students act out what they
think happened to Mr. Little.

Assessment: Take pictures of the children as they are working. Walk around as they are
doing their museum walk and listen to their discussions of their hypotheses.

Technology Integration: Use the document camera to display the picture during the Hook, or
use of Book Creator on the I-pad.

Differentiation: Use of vertical teams for grouping so that each group has a mixture of
reading levels and abilities. Use of chart paper or Book Creator to suit the learning needs of
students. The length of the lesson may also be extended based on the needs of students.

Resources/Materials: Picture, document camera, story (The Case of the Open Window),
envelope with clue strips, chart paper, markers, glue, I-pad.

Picture to use for HOOK:

The Case of the Open Window

(cut paragraphs apart for children to sort and glue to chart)

The storm was getting worse as the day wore

on. The snow was mixed with sleet and
coming down hard. It was bitter cold.
John, Mr. Littles secretary, said he was talking
to his boss when suddenly his boss lost his
balance and fell out of the sixth story window.
Sam looked at the large, open window and
then noticed that the rooms thermostat was
set very high.
John said, Mr. Little was not well. He kept
the room very warm. He couldnt stand fresh
air or draft.

Students working on their assessment.

What really happened to Mr. Little?

TAG Mystery Lesson Reflection
The children were very excited to begin this activity when they heard it was a mystery lesson.
They were keen to offer their thoughts after looking at the picture, used for the hook.

When the group work began, it was obvious that the younger children have difficulty working
together. I had a boy with three girls in a group of four, and he hardly participated, despite my
repeated efforts to encourage him to contribute. Another group of three had one child take
charge and the other two, just played with each other and only contributed when I redirected
them (four times in all).
One group just reiterated the information that had been given, and didnt consider that there
could have been an alternative solution. They said He died. It is very clear in this activity
that children at this age tend to be very literal.
I decided not to give the children the choice of using Book Creator on the I-pad, because I only
have one I-pad and didnt want to create an issue with sharing.
The discussion at the end of the lesson was interesting, and one or two children had some
alternative ideas about what might have happened, but the majority still had a very literal
understanding of the task.

I think this is a great activity, but it would be better suited to older grades. If I was to use this
in 1st grade I would like to have given my children plenty of opportunities to work in small
groups with defined group roles prior to this activity. This would ensure they are better
equipped to work in a small group without constant redirection from the teacher