Ms. Arriola's ENL High School Mystery Unit

Funded Feb 27, 2023

I can't thank you enough for all your support and contributions to make my dream a reality. There are no words to explain my gratitude. I want to share a little anecdote with you all. Growing up, I was never a reader. On the contrary, I absolutely hated to read. I believe there were two reasons for this misfortune. The first reason was, that I never owned an actual book. I come from immigrant parents who never had the time to read to me and they never emphasized the importance of reading. As a result, they never bought me a book or had any books at home for me to read. I focused more on completing my homework and studying for exams instead of reading a book. The second reason I believe I didn't like to read was, I had never found a look I truly loved or caught my attention. I read boring books the teacher assigned and I never really found them interesting or could relate to them. I never shared any similarities with the characters and the theme of the books seemed boring to me.

However, I promised that when I became a teacher, I would emphasize the importance of reading and would spark a love in my students. The first step on this journey was finding a book they could relate to and find interesting. I began the unit by focusing on murder mysteries. Students worked in groups to create a presentation where they presented a famous real-world unsolved murder case. They researched a famous murder case and presented their findings to the class. Additionally, they read the book "One of Us is Lying" to obtain ideas on how to create their presentations. They mimicked their presentation of how the book was constructed. Their presentations were designed the same way the book was made. As they read the book, they gathered ideas on how to present their findings about the murder case. The students absolutely loved reading the book. This was because the characters were teenagers, the characters faced many challenges teenagers face, and the theme of the book caught their attention. My students were eager to find out how Simon died. Also, my students could relate to the characters and they were able to read about their real-life experiences displayed in the book. As a class, we created a murder board with the information we gathered from the book. Overall, my students had a blast reading this book. I believe I am one step closer to embedding this love for reading just by implementing a book they found engaging and relatable.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Arriola