"Sherlocked"

One of the best things about being an English Teacher is teaching students about literary characters that I adore myself. It makes me really enthusiastic and that means I want to create 'out-of-the-box' resources that generate excitement in my learners too. It's a fabulously infectious chain reaction. To create a buzz before starting an Arthur Conan Doyle author study, I sent the class on a clue hunt around the school. That's right...I let them all loose! This was carefully managed as they were all in small groups with a responsible and sensible student leading. There were 15 clues to find and I staggered the starting points of each group (so one group started at clue number one, the second group started at clue number five and so on). Each group was given a list of locations around the school building. They were given stop watches and a 20 minute limit - the first group to return with all clues was declared the winner! These were the clues they had to locate:

221b Baker Street (sign)
Professor Moriarty (sign)
A cigar (pic)
The Sign of Four/A Study in Scarlet/The Hound of the Baskervilles (sign)
Deerstalker (pic)
Sherlock (sign)
Violin (pic)
Arthur Conan Doyle (sign)
Holmes (sign)
Inverness cape (pic)
Consulting Detective (sign)
Laboratory glassware to represent Chemistry (pic)
Cane (pic)
Dr. John Watson (sign)
Bare knuckle fighting (sign)

Once back in the classroom, they had to use deduction (a la Sherlock Holmes) to build a profile of the main man. We had some really interesting answers and when I revealed what the clues actually meant, there were lovely flashes of enlightenment popping all over the place.

I must confess, this activity took a while to prepare (finding suitable offices and rooms to stick the clues in) but I'm so glad I did it. The unit kicked off with flare and I know this is something that my learners will remember. They've really taken to the character of Sherlock Holmes and as a fan myself, I'm thrilled to have more followers of the man in the Deerstalker.