ACTIVITY 20: BE A DETECTIVE

The game consists on giving the class a list of clues and ask what might have happened. This is a proposal adapted from the book "A creative approach to writing" by Steve Bowkett:

• The back door leading to the kitchen is open
• A tea cloth is lying on the kitchen floor
• A plate on the worktop has no food on it
• There are grease marks on the plate and in the worktop around it
• The family dog does not appear when called

Then, the students are asked them to think about what might have happened explaining why. A common scenario is that the family dog came in using the back door or was in anyway. He smelt the food on the plate, wrestles the tea cloth covering the food on the floor and ate the food leaving prints in the process. Then, he went out and hid guilty when one of the family called to him. Next, students are asked to write in groups another short clue in a scrap of paper. Put it in a bag, pull them out one at a time and discuss how the new evidence influences peoples ideas about what happened (e.g.: the lock on the back door has been forced). Then, ask students to think about a different scenario and imagine a scale of 1-5. The scenario of the dog eating the food would be 1 on the scale. For example, escale 5 might involve aliens or zombies. Finally, students write the story in a different scale.