Red Herring Mysteries Level 2

Students LOVE these entertaining mysteries and these mysteries develop students’ inferential and deductive thinking skills for more effective reading, listening, and logical thinking. The activities also sharpen analyses, synthesis, and investigative skills as well as encourage creative brainstorming and flexible thinking.

Each of the “mysteries” is part of a longer untold story which is “behind the scenes.” It is up to the students to deduce the rest of the story from clues derived from answers to their Yes/No questions. For example, the story behind the sentence, “If Leo had kept his hand down he might be a free man today,” can eventually be revealed if enough questions are asked and the answers are used to form a mental image of the event. It may take many Yes/No questions over several days to finally reveal that Leo is a not too-bright bank robber who incriminates himself at his trial by raising his hand when the prosecutor asks a witness, “Is the person who robbed the bank present in the courtroom today?”

Red Herring Level 2 includes: solution tips, suggestions, answers, a sample questioning session, and thinking map (organizer) to keep track of student thinking.