Mystery Stories

Hello Everyone!

As part of our unit on problem solving, and in connection with language arts curriculum, we have been looking closely at mystery stories!

We went over together the elements of a mystery story, including characters, setting, clues, red herrings and distractions, and the conclusion.

We also reviewed together how to write dialogue between characters, working on examples of how to use quotation marks and commas correctly. We went over in class how to use the tag line (or who says the quote) at the beginning, end, or in the middle of a sentence, and how the punctuation changes when we do this. Ms. D also encouraged everyone to use other synonyms for “said” to  make our stories more interesting, and there is a handout in the binder on interesting words that everyone can use to help with this!

We watched Scooby Doo Aloha and then broke down the elements of a good mystery afterwards. We read a variety of mystery stories, some from Chris Grabenstein’s book Super Puzzletastic Mysteries, which is a collection of short story mysteries by a variety of popular authors at this grade level. All of this was to help us see how mystery stories are structured, so that we could write our own!

Now, we are writing mystery stories of our own, mainly during class time. Here are some guidelines, which we already went over earlier last week:

  • Minimum 4 pages long, maximum 6 pages.
  • Typed on the computer. Use size 12 font, and one of two styles: Arial or Comic Sans.
  • Make sure your story has a title and author at the top of the first page.
  • Double Space your story using 1.0 or 1.5 spacing. If you need help with this, let Ms. D know.
  • Use your planning handout in your binder to structure your mystery AND to make sure your mystery has all of the elements we have talked about. Use the handout as a checklist!
  • Your story needs to include dialogue between characters so I can see that you know how to use quotation marks and commas correctly. Make sure you start a new paragraph for each new speaker.
  • Use descriptive language so we can really imagine the characters and setting.
  • Use transition words and conjunctions to make your sentences more complex, just like we did during term one.
  • Do not indent the first paragraph of a chapter or of your story, but every other paragraph needs to be indented using the tab button on your computer.
  • If you find your story is too short, you likely need more description and not just plot! Tell me more about the characters and location. Add dialogue so I can hear the characters talking.
  • Edit your story carefully using the editing handout in your binder. You will also need one peer to read over the story carefully and also do a peer editing handout for you, so you know what to improve.

I look forward to reading your mysteries! Due Date: January 30th.