Close Reading Mystery Unit Years 7 to 9 | Analytical Writing No Prep | Emberwick

A no-prep close reading and analytical writing mystery for Years 7 to 9 (Grades 7 to 9): thirteen ready-to-teach lessons, plus an end-of-unit assessment with an analytical essay. Open one file on your projector, press the right arrow and teach. No logins, no student devices, and it works offline.

Your students become investigators in Emberwick, a harbour town. On Friday the Harbour Board will take the Arden family's home because of one night in 1926, when the lighthouse went dark and the steamer Marigold was wrecked and robbed. Wren and Felix have found a box of old evidence. Every lesson opens one piece of it and asks how it makes its meaning, and a claim only counts when the class can quote the words that prove it.

WHAT A LESSON LOOKS LIKE

You run every lesson from the computer on your projector or board. Your students write on paper, in their own printed Investigator's Casebook. Every lesson has a short voiced story, a case to crack, one analytical skill, a model you reveal step by step, a whole-class activity, an analytical paragraph and an exit ticket. The class activity changes every lesson: a scan race, two chairs in role, a case conference, a lock room, a reopened inquiry.

Your notes are on every step. Press ? for what to say, questions to ask and the answers. A timer, hints and reveals are one key away.

REAL TEXTS TO ANALYSE

The evidence is a newspaper front page, a letter, a diary, three photographs, a ballad, an inquiry record, the Gazette's editorial on the inquiry, an unsigned letter, a keeper's log and a letter written thirty-two years later. Two real poems sit beside them: "The Inchcape Rock" (Robert Southey, 1802) and seven stanzas of "The Lighthouse" (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1850). Every piece of evidence on screen has a "Hear it read" button.

ONE ANALYTICAL SKILL A LESSON

Inference and the analytical sentence, point of view and the limited narrator, framing and angle in photographs, form and structure in poetry, evaluative language and nominalisation, synthesising evidence, imagery and symbol, comparing texts, context and values, reading an unseen text, and weighing evidence to argue a case. Writing grows from a TEEL paragraph in Lesson 1 to a 130-word plan in Lesson 12 and a 250-word analytical essay in Lesson 13, each with a model.

A CASE TO CRACK EVERY LESSON

Each lesson's case is opened only with evidence the class has read. Desks write their answer on paper before anyone touches the screen, so everyone has a go, not just the fastest hand. Each clue lights a place on the Night Map, five suspects are weighed card by card, and in Lesson 13 the class reopens the 1926 inquiry and argues its finding.

FOR THE STRUGGLERS, AND THE FAST FINISHERS

Every writing task has a word bank and a TEEL frame, printed straight after its writing page in the Casebook, and the frames fade as the case goes on. There's a plainer "quick read" of the longest letter, and the Lesson Guide has EAL/D notes for every lesson. For every writing task the Lesson Guide shows a model answer and what separates a C answer from an A in Year 8, and what shifts in Years 7 and 9. Fast finishers get a stretch task and a Second Lamp challenge every lesson.

FITS YOUR TIMETABLE

Every lesson is planned for about 60 minutes, and the Lesson Guide shows how to split one across two 45 or 50-minute periods.

COVERED WHEN YOU'RE AWAY

Every lesson in the Lesson Guide has a relief teacher's version: how to run it cold.

READY FOR REPORTS

The Open File is the end-of-unit assessment (three lessons): an unseen 1934 case dossier of six texts, a 30-mark reading check, an analytical essay of 600 to 800 words (Year 7: at least 500), an optional oral argument, an A to E rubric, a marking guide and model essays at A, B, C, D and E.

THE LESSONS

1. The Box Marked "Not Yet" (active reading)
2. A Letter to Martha (inference and the analytical sentence)
3. The Red Diary (point of view and the limited narrator)
4. Three Photographs (reading images: framing, angle and caption)
5. The Ballad of the Dark Light (form, structure and intertext in poetry)
6. The Inquiry Record (evaluative language, nominalisation and bias)
7. The Case Conference (synthesising evidence and arguing a claim)
8. The Poem Behind the Clock (imagery, symbol and poetic voice)
9. Side by Side (comparing texts: form, purpose, voice and perspective)
10. Chalmers Lane (context: a text, its time and its values)
11. The Letter Under the Floor (reading an unseen text)
12. Building the Case (weighing evidence and planning an argument)
13. The Inquiry Reopened (writing and presenting a sustained argument)

HOW IT RUNS

• One HTML file. Open it in Chrome or Edge and press F for full screen.
• Arrow keys, Space or a presentation clicker move you through the lesson.
• Works offline, needs no logins and stores nothing about your students. There's a one-page sheet for your IT team in the zip.
• Settings has a reading font, larger text, less movement and Australian or US spelling.
• Art, voices and music are all inside the file.

CURRICULUM

Written for the Australian Curriculum: English (v9) in Years 7 to 9. The Lesson Guide has a unit programme with the codes for each lesson, and The Open File maps the assessment to Common Core.

WHAT'S INCLUDED

• The lessons: one offline HTML file for your projector or board (13 lessons)
• Investigator's Casebook (PDF, 63 pages): the case file (suspects, the Night Map, a clue log and a timeline), three or four pages a lesson with a TEEL frame after each writing page, Second Lamp pages and a certificate
• Evidence Pack (PDF, 20 pages): one sheet per piece of evidence, sealed until its lesson, plus the quick read and claim cards
• Teacher Lesson Guide (PDF, 75 pages): the whole case and every answer, a unit programme, a 60-minute plan for every lesson, teacher notes, support and EAL/D notes, extension, a model answer for every writing task and a relief teacher's version of each lesson
• Casebook answers (PDF, 2 pages)
• The Open File (PDF, 26 pages): the end-of-unit assessment
• For Your IT Team (PDF, 1 page)
• START HERE quick guide

MORE FROM EMBERWICK

The Emberwick narrative writing editions and The Emberwick Gazette (news and media literacy) are set in the same town and are in the Star Class Academy store. This unit is complete on its own.

HOW IT WAS MADE

The voices and the music were made with an AI voice and music tool, and the paintings and drawings with an AI image tool. We chose and edited all of it.

LICENCE

For use by the purchasing teacher with their own classes. You may put these files on a password-protected or school-internal site (such as your school's learning platform) for your own classes. Please don't post them on a public website or share them outside your classes.

Questions? Ask us in the Q&A on this page.

Made by two teachers, one primary and one secondary, who have taught in classrooms around the world.