Year 6 - English
Exploring a fictional mystery in the Victorian era
'Sherlock Holmes': descriptive and letter writing
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Study Guides
This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
In this unit, pupils learn about conventions of detective fiction via one of the English canon's most famous series 'Sherlock Holmes'. They use knowledge of the central character to write a setting description and a persuasive letter from a member of the public in need of his services.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to summarise the key events of a mystery based on a journalistic report and you can empathise with a character from the report.
Key Notes
- Our persuasive letter must include a summary of the mystery.
- We can base the details of this summary on a journalistic report about the mystery.
- The letter must also give reasons that will persuade Holmes to investigate the crime.
- We can generate these reasons by empathising with the main character.
- We can record all these ideas in note form.
Vocabulary To Learn
- journalistic report: a newspaper or magazine report
- inference: a conclusion drawn from information and evidence in a text
- mystery: a puzzle or problem that requires solving
- summarise: to pull out key information and ideas from the text
- empathise: to get inside a character's head
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Pupils may struggle to identify what the key points are to summarise.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain this English learning goal in two key points.
Our persuasive letter must include a summary of the mystery. We can base the details of this summary on a journalistic report about the mystery.
2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'journalistic report'
a newspaper or magazine report.
3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.
Mistake: Pupils may struggle to identify what the key points are to summarise. Correction: Refer to the model letter - it summarises the mystery in only a couple of sentences, but we are still very clear what has happened. We need to do the same here.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Analysing the main character in 'Sherlock Holmes' Study Guide
- Building knowledge of the historical context of 'Sherlock Holmes' Study Guide
- Exploring conventions of detective fiction Study Guide
- Exploring vocabulary for a setting description in 'Sherlock Holmes' Study Guide
- Generating persuasive techniques for a letter to Sherlock Holmes Study Guide
- Identifying features of a persuasive letter written to Sherlock Holmes Study Guide
- Peer editing a persuasive letter to Sherlock Holmes Study Guide
- Planning a setting description in 'Sherlock Holmes' Study Guide
- Understanding 'The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle' Study Guide
- Writing the conclusion of a persuasive letter to Sherlock Holmes Study Guide
- Writing the first half of a setting description in 'Sherlock Holmes' Study Guide
- Writing the first paragraph of a persuasive letter to Sherlock Holmes Study Guide
- Writing the introduction to a persuasive letter to Sherlock Holmes Study Guide
- Writing the second half of a setting description in 'Sherlock Holmes' Study Guide
- Writing the second paragraph of a persuasive letter to Sherlock Holmes Study Guide
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