http://www.abax.net/storage/downloads/Whodunitcc.pdf
Gray, Adam, & Benevides, Marcos (2010) Fiction in Action: Whodunit? Singapore: Abax. 160 pages in 12 chapters, divided into two stories and related exercises.
This book is cataloged among adult education titles, but is usable down to a secondary education level. It is best suited for students operating on WIDA levels 2-3 Beginning and developing). The book comes with an audio CD, although, being a teacher of humble means, I wasn't able to review it.
The theme of the book is the literary genre of mystery – there are two stories, a robbery and a murder – which makes it suitable for the older audience the book targets. Each chapter unfolds a new part of a crime investigation in a logical manner – the detective investigates the crime scene, interviews suspects, and eventually makes an arrest. Language instruction is given in the form of vocabulary in the beginning of each chapter, which is used in the chapter and tested at the end. I found the evaluation and assessment especially clever: at the end of each chapter, the reader is asked a series of multiple choice questions – but the letters for each answer are random, not the standard “A, B, C, D.” If the reader answers every question correctly, their correct answers will spell out an extra clue for the chapter. That way, students can assess themselves based on whether or not their answers spell a coherent sentence.
Reading is the primary language skill used, although the audio CD supplements this with listening exercises. The language function most used involved making judgments of fact or opinion, where readers are asked to make judgments about characters based on information given in the chapter, for example, “Why did Sara Sweet go to the Police Station?” or “Which of the following statements can we guess about Sofia?” Grammar instruction is given alongside vocabulary, usually to help readers use new vocabulary words, for example, “proof and evidence are uncountable nouns.” Vocabulary is introduced at the beginning of every chapter in a section called, “Crime Talk.”
The exercises are presented logically at the beginning and end of every chapter, as well as within each chapter, beginning with pre-reading group/individual exercises, and, from chapter 2 onward, a review exercise covering the story up to that point. The exercises at the end of each chapter are for individual work – the multiple-choice questions previously mentioned. The pre-reading and review exercises show variety, as well as provide much-needed scaffolding, while the multiple choice questions fall into a steady pattern of vocabulary questions followed by content questions. The book also makes a very clever accommodation for less proficient readers: Throughout the story, a fingerprint image will appear near some vital clue or answer to a future question, cuing the reader that the passage should be read carefully. This is useful to beginning readers who would otherwise be unfamiliar with the nuances of the “whodunit” genre.
The book is well illustrated throughout, using hand-drawn illustrations of characters, settings, and events which match up with the book's descriptions. Some exercises encourage readers to draw their own illustrations based on descriptions in the story, or asks them to fill in missing information in n existing illustration. Characters depicted are from a variety of cultures (the lead detective in both stories is Asian), and their clothes, hair, props, etc., are contemporary.
I was very impressed with this book. It introduces students to the literary genre of the mystery story and manages to give them enough vocabulary beforehand and comprehension checks afterward to insure that the readers are following the story. I would've liked to have seen more grammar-based exercises included in either the pre-reading or the end-of-chapter exercises, as I think the book's only notable flaw is that it lacks grammar instruction, but otherwise, I found this to be a very well-written and well-presented ESL reader.
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