A murder mistery- Modals for speculation
Pre-intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide practice of modal verbs for speculation in the context of a murder mistery which at the end of the lesson, the learner will solve. Giving not only language useful for the task, but also for real-life situations.
Subsidiary Aims
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By the end of the lesson, the learner will have learnt crime vocabulary related, which will help them to make speculations. (poison, alibi, motive, evidence, inspector, witness)
Procedure (49-57 minutes)
The teacher presents the first slide of a Canva presentation, the teacher opens the class by asking the student: 1. Would you a good or bad detective? why? 2. Is mystery/ thriller or crime fiction a genre you like to read or watch? 3. Do you know about any crimes and how they were solved? how many suspects and witnesses were involved? Afterwards, in slide two, the teacher will tell the learner that for this class, they will work alongside The Inspector Granger to solve The Travers murder case.
Mini task 1 (5 min): The teacher will present the case to the learner, [Mr Travers died the night of her 60th birthday at his country house. That night there was an intimate party dinner where his wife Amanda Travers, his daughter Barbara Travers, his business partner Gordon Summers, and his secretary Claudia Pasquale were present. As it was getting late and the house is far from the city, Gordon and Claudia were invited to stay that night at the Travers House. Next Morning, Amanda Travers found Jeremy Travers dead. The inspector Granger has the case, this class you will help him to find the murderer.] The learner will be shown nine images that represent extracts of Amanda Travers' alibi the night her husband died. 1. These images are mixed, the learner will place them in order. 2. To check their answers, the learner will listen to the interrogation that Inspector Granger did to Mrs Travers. Mini task 2 (7 min): The teacher will ask the learner: Do you have enough information to say Mrs Travers is the murderer? The teacher will present a chart with questions that the Inspector will ask to the rest of the suspects, the learner will now listen to the rest of interrogations and complete the chart with their notes. Mini-task 3 (8-10 min): The teacher will show a chart with notes they wrote about information the learner may have missed. This one includes speculations (using the target language), clues & timetables, and evidence & suspect notes. The teacher will tell the learner to highlight useful language that may help them to make their own speculations. elicit grammar used through questions: Are these sentences 100% true? What type of verb is the one that is before 'have'? In which form is the main verb? e.g (poison/know)
1. Discussion (5 min): The student will answer questions to promote imagination by giving the learner guidence to come up with more ideas for speculation in case they struggle. 2. Planning (10 min): The student will write two speculations for each suspect, eight in total, using the target language: modal verb+have+verb in past participle (V3). The learner will keep their speculations for themselves, they won't show them to the teacher yet. 3. Reporting (3-5 min): The learner will now come to a final verdict and criminal hypothesis, they will present the case by saying the speculations of each suspect they have, explaining the reasons why they could be or not the guilty, and finally revealing who the murderer they think is, and the reasons behind their crime.
The teacher draws attention to the emergent language, they will give feedback (correct mistakes and/or highlight useful language) that came up throughout the stages. After focusing on emergent language, the learner will listen to the final audio where the murderer is revealed. The learner will answer to the final question: Were your speculations right? why did he/she kill Mr Travers?
