Across the Curriculum with Detective Fiction for Young People and Adults

Activity Three: What's the Sentence?

For this activity, I want the students to think about degrees of guilt as well as extenuating and mitigating circumstances. They should begin to read carefully for clues that the author provides directly and to infer from the text clues that might not be as obvious.

When we reach page twenty-two in Chapter three, I will read aloud the following remark spoken by Jeremy:

"I wasn't going to snitch on Nathan because he couldn't have done it. I mean I'd known him as long as I'd known Aaron."

I will ask the class if Jeremy really is saying Nathan couldn't have done it or that he just does not want to believe Nathan could have done it. I will ask them to list some reasons why Jeremy has trouble believing Nathan murdered Aaron.

Then I will tell the class that from now on we will be reading to look for clues, and that we will spend some time in groups of two going back to the beginning to look for clues that Nancy Springer gave us as to who might have murdered Aaron.

I will need to clarify for them here specifically the type of clue I want them to find because there are many foreshadowing clues that something awful is going to happen. For example, when Aaron says, on page three, "I'm scared, Booger," he is giving the reader a clue that something bad is going to happen, which is a foreshadowing clue. I want my students to only look for clues that give an idea of who the guilty party might be. An example of that is on page four where Aaron says specifically that he is afraid of Nathan.

They should write the clues down in their notebooks, with the page on which they located it. We will spend about ten minutes searching and I will set a timer. After the timer goes off, I will ask them to discuss the clues they found, and I will write them on the board so that I can be sure that each student has all the clues in writing. I will also talk with them about those which are more obvious and the ones that become obvious after more information has been revealed. One example is in the first chapter, when "Aardy" panics and runs home when Jeremy cannot reach Aaron by phone; after the murder, it becomes apparent that something is not right in the Gingrich home, but the reader overlooks that at first reading. This is because it does not seem important until after Aaron has been murdered, and this is a mystery trait that I would point out to the students.

There are only a few clues before page twenty-two. I would expect the students to find that 1) Aaron is afraid of Nathan (page four), 2) Aardy's rush to go home when Jeremy cannot reach Aaron on the phone is an indication that something is wrong in that household (page nine), and also on page nine 3) to recognize Nathan's weird behavior when he answers the phone and tells Jeremy that Aaron is not home at a time when Jeremy knows he is, and 4) to be alert on page fourteen when Jeremy wonders about the dark stains on Nathan's T-shirt.

I will point out to the students, who may have missed the second clue entirely, that it is an inferential clue. This calls for second order thinking that they are not accustomed to using, and that I want them to become aware of. The fact that Nathan and Aaron's younger sister panics when Jeremy cannot reach Aaron by phone is not an obvious clue that Nathan has committed the murder we now know about, but it does tell us she is aware that things are not as they should be in her home.

I will instruct them that from now on, as they read, they should be alert for clues, both obvious and inferential (not so obvious), and write them down along with the page number every time they find one. The rest of the clues can be found in Appendix B.

Aaron's funeral occurs in Chapter Eight. When the minister asks the congregation to pray for justice, I will have a student look up the definition of justice and we will talk about "the administering of deserved punishment." I will ask the class if they have ever heard the expression "The punishment should fit the crime?" We will discuss that for about five minutes, considering whether such a punishment would be "just."

At the book's end, Nathan has been arrested, but not tried. I will tell the students to go over all the evidence and clues they have listed in their notebooks. The author has provided many clues to convince the reader that Nathan is guilty.

I am going to ask them to think about his motives, what they know about the family, especially Aaron and Nathan's relationship, and what a just punishment would be. Then I will ask them to think about what questions they would have about a trial and how sentencing is determined, and to write them down. I am going to invite a juvenile or municipal court judge or an attorney specializing in criminal or juvenile cases to speak to the class. I will provide the speaker with an outline of our book, and pre-screened questions from the students to make sure we get the most relevant ones, with no repetition. I will also add some questions if I think crucial information I want them to have is missing.

After our speaker's visit, we will have our final writing exercise aimed at developing empathy and imaginative thinking. I will give them a choice of two persuasive letters to write to allow for choice based on gender.

1. Assuming Nathan has been convicted, if you are Mrs. Gingrich, mother to Aaron and Nathan, write a letter to the sentencing judge explaining why you think Nathan murdered his brother, the effect the entire situation has had on your family, what you think a "just" sentence would be for Nathan, a sentence that would be appropriate for him, but would also satisfy the family. Explain why you think so.
2. Assuming Nathan has been convicted, if you are Nathan, write a letter to the sentencing judge explaining why you murdered your brother, how you felt about it, the effects it had on you and your family, what you think a "just" sentence would be for you considering the effects your actions had on your family. Explain why you think so.

I will explain the range of punishments Nathan might receive, and ask them why they think that range exists. We will compare the responses written from the mother's perspective with those written from Nathan's. In a class discussion, I will have the students analyze whether they think some of the responses from Nathan's perspective show he is acting from self-interest or if some responses demonstrate understanding of the seriousness of his actions and how they impacted his family. This should provide a rich discussion that will allow students to reveal how they have grown in empathy and the ability to enter into a character's role in a novel.