Are you looking for a middle school short stories reading comprehension unit featuring a murder mystery middle school students will love? How about a Halloween short story that is filled with suspense and will keep them on the edge of their seats? Look no further than “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe. This engaging and rigorous close reading unit contains high-quality and critical thinking activities to accompany this thought-provoking short story.
Students will LOVE that they are engaged in an on-going discussion on the mystery genre and are given the opportunity to not only solve one mystery, but create their own. Teachers will LOVE that this unit contains scaffolded and differentiated close reading activities that are designed to help students deeply analyze the characters and events in this short story as well as several literary devices. This will help students not only tackle complex texts and skills, but also create a narrative writing response that requires them to create their own mystery story.
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Resource:
✅ Saves You Time with Quick and Easy Prep
✅ Scaffolded Lessons to Meet the Needs of All Learners
✅ Teacher Models and Answer Keys
✅ Anchor Charts
✅ Clear Student Directions and Criteria
✅ Strategies and Activities for Student Collaboration
✋ What Standards and Skills Are Addressed?
• Citing Text Evidence
• Context Clues
• Making Predictions
• Main Idea and Supporting Details
• Objective Summary
• Theme
• Inferences
• Setting
• Elements of Plot
• Characterization
• and MORE!
✍ What’s Included:
• Introduction to the Mystery Genre Mini-Lesson
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Probable Passage (1 Page):
➙ ➙ “The original template for Probable Passage is from When Kids Can’t Read/What Teachers Can Do by Kylene Beers. You can read more about this strategy on pages 87 – 95 of that book, which is available in e-format at http://www.heinemann.com/products/EBK03025.aspx.”
• “The Murder in the Rue Morgue” Differentiated Vocabulary and Context Clues Activity
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Close Reading Activity
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Assessment
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Narrative Writing Task
→ Task #1-Prewriting
→ Task #2-Rough Draft
→ Task #3-Self and Peer Assessment
→ Task #4-Final Draft
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Narrative Writing Reference Sheet
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Narrative Writing Task Rubric
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Choice Board Activity
• Teacher Models and Answer Keys
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Lesson Presentation (120 Slides)
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Lesson Outline Notes
