Shh! Don't talk too loudly. We're at a crime scene! The only way to solve "whodunnit" is by applying your finely-honed skills collecting evidence, and coming up with insightful explanations to support a reasonable claim. Did I say "reasonable claim?" I meant, to solve a murder and make the streets safe again.

Take a moment to peruse the crime scene photographs that will serve as the cornerstone of our "close read" materials.

We'll start out by reviewing exactly what it means to observe and infer. We'll present a Slides presentation describing the difference between the two skills, and then watch a Sherlock Holmes clip to see what he observes, and watch his precise reasoning come to incredibly logical inferences.

After watching Sherlock show us how it's done, we'll take a quick assessment to make sure everyone understands the two skills before starting to watch our NCIS episode. 

We'll spend the remainder of the two in-person days learning observation and inference from the best in the business: Shawn Spencer! In this television episode, you'll see him carefully collect evidence and make logical inferences based on what he finds! Eventually, through careful observation and inference, he's able to put together all the pieces to tell a story that makes sense, and inevitably reflects the truth. We'll start by learning how to observe and infer, and how to use our observation and inference graphic organizer, before watching the episode in 8:00-12:00 increments, annotating our observations and inferences together.

As with all learning, there are just some words you need to be able to know, and easily use before any unit can start. The words to the right are sometimes easy for students (those tend to be the students who watch crime shows) and are completely random nonsense for other students (who don't watch crime shows.) We'll start by using a modified digital vocabulary technique piloted by a coworker, and then doing a response-card activity with the murder mystery words. We won't cross a word out until EVERYONE in class can identify it.

On these two days, students will perform their gallery walk, and finish their observation / inference graphic organizer. Everyone will start by closely reading the murder scenario to the left, and then spend about ten minutes at each station to collect as much information as possible. 

We'll finish our work this week by publishing our Evidence-Based Claims into a Google Slides format to aid in our oral presentations next week. As with all the work we do together during 8th grade ELA, the better students Observation / Inference sheet, the easier the discussion. The more engaged the discussion, the easier the EBC graphic organizer. The better the writing on the EBC graphic organizer, the easier and better the beautiful Slides presentation they create, and the better the Slides, the easier it is to present an oral presentation.

Our first day this week will be spent finishing up, or in some cases, improving and refining our Slides presentations and rehearsing for our oral presentations tomorrow. 

During our second day in person, students will spend their time presenting their finding to their peers! I get to sit back and enjoy while students do all the heavy lifting today.