Mystery Genre Lesson for Middle and High School

This Mystery Genre Library Lesson is for middle school library and high school library classes.

Part 1 introduces the mystery genre, with emphasis on characteristics of mystery and mystery subgenres. Part 2 is a scrolling slideshow with trivia questions, mystery genre literature quotes, would you rathers, and more!

This lesson has 57 total pages and slides, and it includes:

• 55-slide Lesson Presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint + Google Slides
  • All body text is editable; you choose which slides you want to use.
  • 24 slides are whole class lesson slides.
  • 31 slides are “scrolling presentation” slides that are great for extending lessons or scrolling in the library during checkout and downtimes.
• List of 50 recommended books to accompany this lesson (2 pages, PowerPoint and PDF)
  • The list is editable and great to hand out to parents, teachers, and students looking for related books.
• Google Classroom Basics (4 pages, PDF)
• Instructions on how to set up PowerPoint slide timings for scrolling slides (2 pages, PDF)

24 Lesson Slides:

Part 1 is a guided whole-class discussion. The slides walk you through the entire class discussion, from start to finish.

• Review of genre (what is genre)
• Students’ preliminary thoughts on the mystery genre
• Characteristics of the mystery genre
• Why we should read the mystery genre (strengthen reasoning and observation skills)
• Mystery often mixes with other genres – e.g., thriller, historical fiction, adventure, etc.
• Importance of motive
• Amateur vs. professional detectives
• Hook
• Clue
• Red herring
• Victim
• Villain/culprit
• Accomplice
• Misdirection
• Deductive reasoning
• Latin root – culpa
• Setting and niche setting
• List of mystery subgenres
• Subgenre focus – detective mysteries – characteristics and examples
• Subgenre focus – puzzle mysteries – characteristics and examples
• Subgenre focus – locked room (or escape room) mysteries – characteristics and examples
• 2 slides for checkout procedures and reminders

31 Scrolling Slides:

Part 2 is the scrolling slides. Set them on a timer to scroll on a screen during library checkout. If you time the slides at 45 seconds each, the historical fiction genre slideshow will be 23 minutes in length. 

• Words of the Week: “motive” and “red herring”
• 5 tips for writing mystery stories and novels
• 5 mystery genre YA and middle school book quotations
• 3 would you rather’s and 4 trivia questions + answers
• Daily and weekly schedule
• Announcements
• Reminders
• This week’s birthdays

Mystery Literature and Detectives Mentioned:

• “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie
• “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe
• Sherlock Holmes mysteries by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Miss Marple
• Cam Jansen
• Encyclopedia Brown
• Nancy Drew
• The Hardy Boys
• Sammy Keyes
• Multiple YA and middle school titles mentioned with the 3 mystery fiction subgenre focuses (detective mystery, puzzle mystery, locked room mystery)

Recommended Reads Booklists:

• One bookmark is Grades 6-8, and the other is Grades 9-12.
• All titles are recommended for Grades 6-8 and 9-12.
• All titles received positive reviews from professional library journals. Many received starred reviews.

Standards Addressed:

AASL National School Library Standards – See the AASL Standards Framework for Learners to view full text. 

• Inquire – A.2. – C.1. – D.3.
• Include – B.1. – C.2.
• Collaborate – A.2. – B.2.

Common Core English Language Arts Standards –
© Copyright 2010 National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.9. – CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.10.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.3. – CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.7.10.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.3. – CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.10.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.4. – CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.10.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.4. – CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.10.

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© Mrs. ReaderPants – By purchasing this product, you receive a one-user license. Copying or distributing to others is prohibited. See our Site Terms of Use for more information. For teacher-librarians: You may use this product with all of your classes and students.

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