eMysteries Toolkit

The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. [Project Number: 2019-1-DE03-KA201-060127] 8 characters, clues and evidence (factual knowledge) are a stimulus for the curiosity of readers and a challenge for deductive minds in mystery fiction. Additionally, contemporary mystery detective stories have a strong presence in social media and on the Internet, as adaptations to film, radio plays, TV series, animation films, theatre plays, and graphic novels. Secondary school students may not be reading mystery fiction, but they are familiar with film and TV series (thrillers) that develop around mystery, detective characters and suspense. They also like to play digital mystery games on and offline. Thus, the multimodality of classic and contemporary mystery detective stories offers youngsters a familiar starting point to engage with reading and close reading, provided teachers are able to surround reading mystery detective novels with opportunities for students to communicate, express themselves creatively, and participate meaningfully in digital collaborative social media about their reading. These are particular important strategies to reach young people who have reading disabilities or are among the few who read less or are reluctant readers. Teaching Mystery Detective Stories In Module 2 the eMysteries Toolbox highlights teaching methods that are student- centred, collaborative, interactive, creative, and cooperative in connection to reading. All these methods make use of the popular digital practices of young people outside the formal educational setting and extend them to meaningful learning and reading promotion though active engagement with reading. Reading promotion among secondary school students is still needed as many students (especially boys) who switch to secondary school are often not reading literate. When reading skills are severely limited, readers lack or lose their motivation to deal with literary texts because of their lack of competence. Lack of reading competence also impacts on other subjects across the curriculum. Thus it is important to find engaging reading material for young people that is cognitively demanding, thrilling, exciting, and capable of promoting reading skills to understand meaning both at the superficial and deep levels, as well as accumulate reading clues on characters, settings and plot in order to solve a case.