For several years now, I've been trying to TfT my Freshmen mystery unit. We have found over the years that if there is one place that non-fiction and fiction collide, it's with mysteries or solving crimes. This year we read several fiction stories, a fiction play and a non-fiction story. We also viewed fiction and non-fiction mystery stories. But in order to make it a little more real, we invited the experts into the class. After reading a story about a car accident, Deputy Waylon Pollema visited class with a little mystery of his own. He shared a car accident and pictures with the students to see if they could unwrap the mystery of the accident. What the victims told and what the accident scene told were not the same thing.
After all our reading, we ended our unit with a crime of our own. Three freshmen committed a set up crime at school. Through the use of Deputy Nate Huizenga and Deputy Pollema, eye witnesses, evidence left behind, and the school camera, the freshmen had to solve the mystery. It was fun to watch them unravel the evidence.
I was also quite surprised how "knowing the story", my storyline, fit with this unit. Every time we looked at a story, fiction or non-fiction, the idea of looking at the entire story played in important role.
