The Mystery Files · Case 01Key Language Use: InformELD-LA · Language for Language ArtsAbout 18 minutes · Recommended grades 3-5
The Lantern in the Stacks
Students describe what a witness observed and separate that observation from a guess about who moved the lantern.
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Standards Architecture
WIDA alignment for practice
Aligned for classroom practice to the WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. This is not an official WIDA score, ACCESS score, or proficiency level.
- Standard: Language for Language Arts
- Key Language Use: inform
- Discourse: A short investigative report that states observations before any inference.
- Sentence: Sentences that describe a thing and then give a reason with because or so.
- Word and phrase: observe, evidence, inference, witness, detail, report.
Instructional Guidance
Teaching notes
About 18 minutes. Recommended grades 3-5. Content area: language-arts.
Lesson Objectives
- Describe a scene with concrete details.
- Distinguish an observation from an inference.
Pathway ScaffoldingGuided pathway shows frames and a word bank. Developing pathway hides frames until the student opens them. Independent pathway adds a second source and no frames.
Likely language demands
- Students may treat a guess as if it were seen.
- Because-clauses may restate the claim instead of adding a detail.
What independent performance looks like
Independent performance is a recording or a revision made with the transcript off and the frames unopened, using a detail from the note.
Follow-up
- Five-minute speaking practice on describing a picture, then Mystery Files adventure 2.