They should then write the opening paragraph of their review (they can use the sentence starters on page 15 of the Reading Guide if needed). In this opening paragraph, they will need to:

state the title, author and genre of the book

give a brief outline of the plot

state a brief opinion on whether they enjoyed the novel, which could be developed in later paragraphs

write clearly and informatively, and interest the reader.

Students work independently to write their openings and then swap them with their partners. They should each suggest one improvement to each other’s work.

Review and reflect

Hand out the reading assessment on WS 12. Ask students to think about all the reading strategies they have used during their study of the novel – which reading skills do they feel they have made progress with?

Homework

Students complete their reviews. Effective examples could be posted onto the school website or a book review site.

OHT 12

Rules for detective fiction

The 1920s and 1930s are known as the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Golden Age mysteries were considered to be games, and generally followed a specific set of ‘rules’, which were written down by Ronald Knox in 1929. How many of these rules does Siobhan Dowd follow in The London Eye Mystery ?

Glossary

Chinaman at the time having a villain of Asian descent had become a predictable feature of popular fiction – the phrase essentially means: ‘Stay away from clichés.’

hitherto until now

intuition gut instinct

supernatural something above and beyond the laws of nature

preternatural something yet unknown, but with a rational explanation

Worksheet 12

Self-assessment sheet

Reading skills and strategies

You practised this when:

I do this

well

I can

do this sometimes

I need to practise this

Understand, describe, select or retrieve information, events or ideas from texts and use quotation and reference to text

You did this when you gathered information about key characters and events as the novel progressed.graph-definition>

You did this when you wrote your review.graph-definition>

Deduce, infer or interpret information, events or ideas from texts

You did this when you used information from the text to solve the mystery.graph-definition>

You did this when you role-played characters.graph-definition>

You did this when you explored how to tell the same story through different media.graph-definition>

Identify and comment on the structure and organization of texts, including grammatical and presentational features at text level

You did this when you looked at how the author built suspense and ordered events in the novel.graph-definition>

You did this when you predicted how the plot would develop.graph-definition>

You did this when you thought about Ted as a narrator.graph-definition>

You did this when you looked at the use of chapter headings as signposts.graph-definition>

Explain and comment on writers’ uses of language, including grammatical and literary features at word and sentence level

You did this when you analysed the writer’s use of metaphor and idioms.graph-definition>

You did this when you worked out the meaning of unfamiliar words using the context and other similar words.graph-definition>

Identify and comment on writers’ purposes and viewpoints and the overall effect of the text on the reader

You did this when you wrote your review.graph-definition>

You did this when you considered the writer’s use of setting. graph-definition>