Project

Writing a Mystery Story- For four years in the Oakland Public School system the district has sponsored the inclusion of high school students in the Friend’s of Chester Himes Conference through a Chester Himes Mystery Writing Contest. My junior English students have won top prizes in the contest two years running and have produced over 175 mystery plots and stories, a hundred unique mystery solving detectives and nearly as many surprising and unique solutions to a variety of puzzling mysteries.

Essential Questions

• What made Chester Himes so popular?
• What made Harlem a popular place for African-Americans to live?
• What are the elements of a mystery from the writers point of view?
• What will make my mystery a “winning” performance?
• What would one wear in 1950 for a night out in Harlem?

Content Standards

Reading: Narrative Analysis of Grade-Level-Appropriate Text (11/12 3.2 – 9/10 3.3, 3.4 & 3.9)
Writing: Short Story Writing (9/10 2.1), Narrative Writing (11/12 2.1)
Deliver Multimedia Presentations (11/12 2.4) Deliver Descriptive Presentations (9/10 2.6)
The range of the standards is broad but will depend on the scope of the lessons the teacher selects for his unit. Check each lesson for these and other standards that may be emphasized.

Assessment

Students will submit the following

L 1: Web Quest on Chester Himes life and writings
L 2: Web Quest on Harlem life in the 1940’s and 1950’s
L 2a: Map Making – Harlem hot spots
L 3: Web Quest on How to Write a Mystery
L 4: Reading “Rage in Harlem” or “The Big Gold Dream.”
L 5: A Mystery Story Rough Draft – Can focus on “justice impacted” characters (people who go to jail, “homeys,” street life).
L 6: Joining (and winning) the Friends of Chester Himes Mystery contest.