How was it used?

This unit was used to help develop literacy skills through a maths/ICT lesson.

The class were grouped and introduced to the activity by listening to one of the witness statements and taking notes. This was a great way of enhancing their listening and note-taking skills.

They then used the information they had gathered to search the database for the culprit.

Once they had completed this task they were given the spreadsheet and asked to work in pairs to choose a culprit and write a witness statement that they then acted out for the rest of the class – giving enough clues for the culprit to be found

The class then voted on the best witness statement

Impact and Outcomes

• Pupils were engaged throughout the process
• The fact that they were reading for a purpose gave some of the more reluctant readers the inspiration they needed to engage with the activity
• These activities helped pupils understand the purpose of a database and they learned how to manipulate the spreadsheet to filter out the information they needed
• Pupils whose written language is quite weak enjoyed writing the scripts and performing for the rest of the class
• They all worked really hard to ensure that the clues would lead the class to the culprit
• They offered sensible and insightful feedback when discussing the successes and failures of the witness statements

Learner Feedback

"’Whodunnit is really cool – I’m gonna try these out on my sister’

‘I loved the performances we did as a class – it was a right laught’

Other Resources

Computer suite with PCs,  Props, Excel spreadsheet, pens and paper

Lesson Learnt

The main lesson learned was that getting the children to read and write for a purpose helps develop their literacy skills without them realising that this is being focused on. Less able pupils seemed to appreciate this as they can often become quite uptight when they know that the main focus is on what they have written on the page.