Title: Detective's deduction

Lesson plan elaborated by: Katarzyna Maciejak

Topic:

Facts and assumptions, in the world of deduction.

Target group

7th‑grade students of an eight‑year elementary school.

Core curriculum

1. Literary and cultural education.

1) Reading literary works. Student:

1. recognizes literary genres: epic, lyric and drama; determines the characteristics of particular types and assigns the work to the appropriate type;

2. distinguishes epic genres (...).

1) Receipt of cultural texts. Student:

1. finds in the texts of contemporary popular culture (eg in films, comics, songs) references to traditional literary and cultural themes.

1) Creating statements.

1. Elements of rhetoric. Student:

2) collects and organizes the material material needed to create statements; edits the compositional plan of his own statement;

4) uses the knowledge of the principles of creating thesis and hypothesis and arguments in the creation of the essay and other argumentative texts;

6) carry out the inference as part of the argumentative argument;

7) agrees with other people's views or polemicizes with them, substantively justifying their own opinion.

1. Self‑education. Student:

6) develops skills of independent presentation of the results of his work;

8) develops the ability to think critically and formulate opinions.

The general aim of education

On the basis of reading a story about Sherlock Holmes, students learn the features of a criminal novel and become familiar with the method of deduction.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in foreign languages;

• learning to learn;

• social and civic competences.

Operational objectives

Student:

• indicates the characteristic features of the crime novel;

• uses deduction;

• differentiates facts from assumptions;

• uses vocabulary to express confidence / uncertainty;

• confronts the director's vision with his own ideas.

Teaching methods / techniques

• giving: talk;

• practical: simulation, subject exercises;

• programmed: using a computer, using an e‑manual.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• collective activity.

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Before the lesson

The teacher asks one student to prepare a short speech about the work of Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes' series.

Introduction

1. The teacher defines the purpose of the course: the students will learn about the genre features of the crime novel. Together with the students, the teacher formulates the criteria for success.

2. The teacher pays attention to different ways of learning about reality (by means of feelings – senses and intellect). He/she suggests that curiosity is one of the features of a good detective, and asks the students to indicate other features. Then he/she asks if they know any detective profiles presented in books or films/TV shows.

Realization

1. Students start the lesson „Detective’s deduction” (abstract) and read an excerpt from A. Conan Doyle's short story „The Adventure of the Golden Pince‑Nez”, paying special attention to Sherlock Holmes’ features of and his way of thinking.

2. The student chosen before the lesson presents information on the writing of Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes' series.

3. Students do interactive ex. no. 3 – on the basis of the text they read, they decide whether the information is true or false – and interactive ex. no. 4, which is to recreate the portrait of the owner of the object, thanks to Holmes' conclusions and to explain what deduction is. Then the students, working in pairs, indicate situations where logical thinking is useful.

4. The teacher encourages students to test themselves in the art of deduction. Students exchange objects (e.g. notebooks, pencil cases, etc. – these can be determined before the lesson) between themselves and try to deduce as much as possible about their owner based on their examination. Finally, the teacher asks if the information obtained from the deduction can be regarded as facts (the conclusion from the conversation should be a statement that these are only assumptions which should be confirmed).

5. Students do interactive ex. no. 4 – they determine whether a particular statement is a fact or a mere conjecture, and then they consider what language structures are used to express conjecture/uncertainty.

6. The teacher informs students that the stories about Sherlock Holmes are an example of criminal prose (as is the case with A. Christie's novels), and asks for the characteristics of such a prose (auxiliary questions: Who is the character? Around what is the exposition focused? What could be its resolution?).

7. The students do interactive ex. no. 7: they confront the film image of Sherlock Holmes (poster) with their own ideas.

Summary phase

The teacher distributes questionnaires to the students to evaluate their own work.

Next, the teacher sums up the lesson by asking questions:

• What problems can be solved thanks to the deduction method?

• Why the stories about Sherlock Holmes have gained so much popularity?

• Describe the composition proper to crime novels.

Homework

Go on a virtual trip to the Sherlock Holmes Museum (find his website on the internet). Watch the video there, try to solve the quiz.

Choose four questions from the quiz, write them down in a notebook and give the answers.

Find the Museum on the map of London using Google Maps.

Take a screenshot and bring it to class to show that you've completed the task.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Detective’s deduction

What is a sensory thing? It is something that people experience through their senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. The sensual experience connects people with the world of matter and is one of the ways of knowing it. One of, but not the only one. For the human mind experiences of a different kind are also available. Such experiences that cannot be described with the language of senses. These are abstract concepts and ideas. Sensual impressions are not enough to explain what is truth and false, justice and injustice or good and evil. Truth, justice or good cannot be seen, touched or tasted. With our senses we can experience some objects or situations that we describe as good or evil, true or false – depending on our beliefs. The meaning of abstract ideas is created above all as a result of intellect effort and inquiries.

Curiosity is one of the features of a good detective. What other features should a good detective have? Do you know any detective characters (from books or TV series)? depending on the way of creating the main character image, building and solving the intrigue and the picture of reality in which the action is set. Detective novel is one of this .... Conan Doyle's prose had many film adaptations, and is still very popular. It is evidenced by such productions as: Sherlock Holmes (2009) directed by Guy Ritchie or TV series Sherlock (2010) with Benedict Cumberbatch playing the title role. Although Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character, his creator has placed the hero's flat at the real address in London: 221B Baker Street, where currently the museum of Sherlock Holmes can be found.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859‑1930) was a Scottish writer and poet, known,above all, as the author of crime stories about Sherlock Holmes and doctor John Watson. The first story – A Study in Scarlet – was published in 1887. Among Doyle’s literary achievements we can find also adventure, historical and science fiction works.

Stories and novels by Arthur Conan Doyle in which the main character is Sherlock Holmes are classic example of crime prose (crime story or crime novel) These compositions – just like the famous novels by Agatha Christie who brought to literary life fictional characters of Hercules Poirot and Miss Jane Marple – are sometimes called detective stories or detective novels.

Can you list the crime prose features? Who is the main character? What is the plot about? What can be its solution?