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© 2005 Peter Burkhart

 

Sherlock Holmes Obituary Lesson:

Unit/Theme: Sherlock Holmes      Level: Honors

Subject: Seventh Grade English

NYS Standards/ Benchmarks: E2b Student produces a response to literature that demonstrates an understanding of the literary work. E2c. Creates an organizing structure.

OBJECTIVES/OUTCOMES

• Students will use the writing process to create responses to literature.
• Students will begin the writing process by gathering appropriate information.
• Students will work together in groups to combine information and create a lead paragraph.

QUOTABLE QUOTE

"He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organizer of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city. He is a genius, a philosopher, an abstract thinker. He has a brain of the first order."

-Sherlock Holmes

RESOURCES

• Sherlock Holmes text
  

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

• Students have had a prior lesson about obituaries and have written obituaries about each other.
  
  NOTE: At the time of this assignment students should have read "The Final Problem."

  ACTIVITIES/ OUTCOMES
  

• (Mini-lesson) Brief review of the purpose of an obituary, who receives one, the types of obituaries and where they appear.
• Students, as a class, brainstorm what should be included in an obituary.
• A sample obituary will be read aloud.In small groups students will begin compiling information they will include in an obituary for Sherlock Holmes.
• Groups that finish can begin starting a lead paragraph that they have practiced before.
• Silent reading if time permits.

  INTEGRATION OF OTHER SUBJECTS

• Social Studies

  ASSESSMENT
  

• Homework: You have seen that a well-written obituary contains quotations by the subject and friends, colleagues and family members of the subject. Using your text for details invent some quotations that might have been said by people Holmes knew after his death. You will share these with your group tomorrow.

Click thumbnail above to enlarge the lesson rubric.

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