Suggestions for teaching with The Mystery of the Moonlight Murder.
(Teachers - please feel free to adapt these ideas to your classroom needs.)
Idea One – Turn a Favourite Scene into Comic Book Panels (combines social studies, language, art)
Turn a favourite scene or chapter in The Mystery of the Moonlight Murder into a comic book assignment. Students will have to plan panels, draw scenes and establish voice.
Idea One – Turn a Favourite Scene into Comic Book Panels (combines social studies, language, art)
Turn a favourite scene or chapter in The Mystery of the Moonlight Murder into a comic book assignment. Students will have to plan panels, draw scenes and establish voice.
Idea Two – Creating a Westward Settlement Campaign (combines art, social studies)
After speaking about the campaign to settle the Canadian West, including the sharing of posters and related material, split the class into groups and have each group create their own poster (or larger marketing campaign) to attract immigrants to the province of their choice. Have a contest to see what part of Canada gets settled first depending on how strong the posters or campaign is.
Idea Three – First Nations’ Experience (critical literacy)
Ask students if they think the message passed on by the Queen on page 115 of the book (as remembered by Chief Five Hawks) was fair to Aboriginal peoples. Explain why or why not. Discussions might include fairness, cooperation, cultural differences, and the challenge of exploration.
Idea Four – Human Rights and Social Justice (critical literacy)
John Diefenbaker became a champion of human rights when he was a lawyer and later when he was prime minister. Show how this is foreshadowed in the book. Discussions might include his determination to clear the name of River’s Voice, the First Nations man accused in the murder of Hans Schneider. As well, students might point to young John Diefenbaker’s questioning of his father about First Nations and Métis lifestyle and rights, and his speech towards the end of the book about freedoms, cooperation, and immigration.
Idea Five – Suspense (language studies)
How did the author create suspense in the first sentence of this book? What was the hook? Did you want to keep reading after the first chapter? Why?
Idea Six – Character (embedding character discussions with language)
What character traits did John Diefenbaker demonstrate throughout the book? Students might point to courage, perseverance, tenacity, fairness, responsibility and others. Further research on Diefenbaker’s life will show he ran for political office multiple times and lost election after election. However, he never gave up and eventually won a seat in parliament and then went on to win the Conservative leadership. His courage on the apartheid file in South Africa and speaking out against the Soviet Union were also seen as defining moments.
Idea Seven – Using Drama to Explore Themes
Drama has always been an effective and relevant way of exploring emotions and story. Divide the class into groups and have them choose a scene from The Mystery of the Moonlight Murder: An Early Adventure of John Diefenbaker to act out in a play or improv. Students could focus on pivotal moments where specific character traits were exemplified by the characters. Or, studying Language constructs like suspense or establishing setting could also be focused on within the student play.
Idea Eight – Critical Thinking Skills
In a teacher-led discussion talk about how group dynamics played a role throughout the thread of the book in shaping opinion. Discussions might include collective feelings about the Métis or Cree. As well, feelings about immigrant groups in general and the rights of people accused and charged versus those who are actually found guilty. The importance of independent thinking and problem solving can also be emphasized, versus slavishly following ‘group think.’ Discuss how the end of the book was a testament to John’s individual thinking over ‘mob’ mentality. Students will come with prior knowledge about these issues through their own experiences with friends and classmates and should be able to speak about their own experiences.
Teachers, need a handy list of accomplishments of the real John Diefenbaker? Click here.
|
