Who Dun It? - Murder Mystery Activity

Update! This is available on my Teachers Pay Teachees website. Please check it out! 

It has been a while since I wrote and for that, I apologize. It has been a crazy school year considering school started on August 1st. Yes, you read that correct, August 1st! As Thanksgiving break is nearing, I cannot imagine how ready the students are as I feel I need a little break as well. So how did I spend my day off today? Writing lesson plans and making items for my classroom of course. I enjoy it when I don't feel like I am on a time crunch. When I can just sit back, listen to music, and work, I truly enjoy it. I made a DBQ on the Blitzkrieg for my students today. However, that'll be a post for another day.

Today, I am going to share with you the Who Dun It? Mystery. After talking to a colleague, she sparked my interest by explaining that she set up Archduke Ferdinand's murder as a mystery for students to solve. I continued to brainstorm ideas of how to make this work in my classroom and when I pulled it off, the kids loved it!

The set-up:




The first thing I did, was scour the internet for primary sources to use as clues. I did not want students to just see a crime scene. I wanted them to investigate using the skills I have been teaching them this year. I wanted students to be able to analyze and make observations and inferences as to what happened and to whom it happened.


Once I found a variety of clues including newspaper clippings, eye witness accounts, photos, and even a mugshot. I cut them out and glued them onto construction paper. I laminated them but quickly realized a laminator and construction paper do not mix very well. My clues did not stay laminated and all day I had to endure hearing "Mrs. Johnson, this is falling apart." I digress. Next year, I am gluing them on cardstock and laminating. Oh well, you live and you learn.


Of course no clue is legit without a classified envelope or folder!


Then, I begged and borrowed enough clipboards so each group could have an official clipboard when they began their activity.

I made a worksheet, "Who Dun It" Murder Mystery, for students to complete. Of course, I had to endure this all day, "Mrs. Johnson, you spelled 'done' wrong." I had to then explain to them what this meant and that I had not spelled it incorrectly. Kids can be so literal sometimes ;)

Within their groups, students went from station to stay and opened the envelopes. I had 6 groups so I had 6 stations set up with clues inside the envelopes. It was so great to hear the conversations students were having and I knew they were truly engaged and having a blast. To this day, 3 months later, students can still tell you everything about the murder of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. Isn't having fun and learning what it really is about, in the end?

My amazing partner, the language arts teacher, paired up with me to make a culminating activity in which students had to write a news report about the murder based on the clues they had pieced together in my class.

This was probably one of the most fun days I have ever had teaching. While yes, it did take a few hours for me to get everything together, I had so much fun doing it. Now, other than having to relaminate, I have a great activity I can continue to use and tweak each year.

The clues and worksheet will be available on my Teachers Pay Teachers website at a later date.

Web Questing through Iran!

With only 9 school days left, I am beginning to spazz about getting all my material covered. I know I have taught the essential skills my students need to take with them to be successful in the 7th grade BUT I love my content so much I just want to teach it all. I am fortunate enough to cover WWI through present day issues and I enjoy it. I use to believe WWII was my favorite unit to teach but I have really grown to love the Cold War Era. It is all very fascinating to me and the kids love it because of the espionage aspect. Gotta love a good spy story!


We have made our way through Vietnam and have made it into the Nixon, Ford, and Carter years. The goal is to keep my students engaged because at times, history can become a bit monotonous. To actively engage my students, I have created a WebQuest on the Iran Hostage Crisis. I created a website for the students to navigate. I have done WebQuests in the past where I have just given the students various links to sort through. However, I did not find this as effective because since I was not maintaining those websites, I would often not be aware the websites were down or of broken links until a student would raise their hand which then prompts the other 10-15 students to raise his or her hand and tell you the exact same thing, "Mrs. Johnson, it's broken!" So, to eliminate these issues, I decided to use Google Sites and create a website designed specifically for my students and this WebQuest.


If you have never used a WebQuest in the classroom, I strongly urge you to do so. It is a great way to teach students to use resources to look for an answer. A WebQuest is similar to a scavenger hunt. Students have certain pieces of information they are looking for and you give them specific sites in which they can find the information. When I created my WebQuest, I incorporated primary sources: maps, photos, interviews, and video footage. Students are expected to analyze and study the documents to answer text dependent questions. I think added a RAFT activity (role, audience, format, and type) to the assignment as a final project.


My students are currently working on this activity and they seem to enjoy it. I'll post some pictures of completed RAFTs next week!

Differentiated Instruction with WWII

Wow, we have been hit with this "polar vortex" and it has made teaching very sporadic lately. I struggled trying to get my WWII unit finished. I struggled with whether or not to keep my final project, the choice board but I decided to go out on a limb and keep it. I AM SOOO HAPPY THAT I DID! I must admit, I was almost guilty of doing quantity instead of quality. I was so worried about whether or not I was going to be able to fit in all my curriculum this year, that I was almost ready to cut corners. I am so grateful that I stuck with my gut and decided to allow the students an opportunity to really shine with this final assessment. My students did not disappoint!

At the conclusion of my WWII unit, I presented students with a choice board that held 9 project options. I wanted to give students enough wiggle room but structure at the same time. This was the first time I had introduced a choice board of this size. My students really loved this project. I was amazed at how different each project looked. It is truly amazing what students can do when we step back and just let them learn and discover on his/her own!

I have included some photographs of students' work below: