Mapping Mysteries

Explore the power of mapping mysteries! Let's look at a few ways this simple process helps kids pump up their reading skills:

• Sifting through the plot to pinpoint key events (clues).
• Exploring genre-specific vocabulary (mystery, clue, sleuth, suspect, red herring, solution, etc.)
• Summarizing with a flow chart.
• Recognizing unnecessary information and/or false clues (red herrings).
• Inferring to find a solution.

In my class, we map one mystery together. (This picture shows the puzzle pieces from our map of an Encyclopedia Brown mystery.)

After they get the hang of it, students love mapping their own mysteries!

Enjoy!