The Mystery of the Red-Headed League

Introduce the Story (5 minutes)  

Build Knowledge, Introduce Vocabulary, and Set a Purpose for Reading

• Build background knowledge about Sherlock Holmes, a fictional detective known for his exceptional powers of observation, by showing our Background Builder Slideshow. 
• Have students practice their own powers of observation by giving them one minute to look around at their surroundings, taking in as many details as possible. For example, how many windows are there? How many students are in class today? How many students are wearing jeans? Then have them close their eyes and recall as many details about the room as they can. Discuss how hard or easy it was to recall them. 
• Show or digitally assign the Vocabulary Slideshow to preview challenging words. Highlighted words: craves, fortune, auburn, dissolved, fishy, smudged, scoundrel, ruse, confirmed. Distribute the Vocabulary Skill Builder before or after reading the play.
• Call on a volunteer to read aloud the Up Close box on page 16 to set a purpose for reading. 

• Assign parts and read the play aloud as a class or in small groups. Students can also listen to our Editor Read-Aloud of the play as a first read. Note that larger speaking roles are marked with an asterisk in the character box on page 17; the smaller roles can be a good fit for students who feel less comfortable reading aloud in class.
• After reading, put students in small groups to discuss the close-reading questions. Then talk about the critical-thinking questions as a class. 

Close-Reading Questions

• In Scene 1,  Sherlock Holmes says, “My mind craves a puzzle!” Find two context clues from the scene to explain what Holmes means in this sentence. What does the sentence tell us about him?  (inference) Students may cite Holmes’s pacing, his boredom, or his question—“Watson, tell me there is news of some shocking crime. A murder, perhaps?”—to infer that he wants a crime or a new mystery to solve. This tells us that Sherlock Holmes is a detective who enjoys doing his work, and that he might not know what to do with himself without it. 
• What is Jasper Wilson’s problem and how has it affected him? How does this problem affect Holmes? (identifying a problem) Jasper Wilson is looking for a man who went missing after making him an important  promise. Wilson is upset because he needs something from the man. Students can infer that Holmes, on the other hand, is pleased because he now has a mystery to solve. 
• Reread Scene 2. Who introduces Jasper Wilson to the Red-Headed League? Why is Wilson interested in it? (character’s motivation) Wilson’s shop assistant, Victoria Spaulding, shows him an ad for the Red-Headed League and suggests that he try to get a new job from it. Wilson seems to want this job because it pays well for little work. Students might also add that Wilson’s shop doesn’t appear to be very popular or lucrative. He doesn’t have any customers when we see the store, and the shelves are dusty, suggesting that it may have been a long time since he has had any business. 
• Based on text evidence from Scene 2, what does auburn mean? Why are men and women with auburn hair walking toward the same address? (vocabulary) That day, a newspaper advertised easy jobs for men and women with red hair, so auburn must refer to a shade of red. The crowd of men and women with auburn hair walking toward the address seems to be headed in the same direction as Wilson and with the same goal: to get an easy job from the Red-Headed League. 
• How does the image on pages 18-19 help you understand Holmes’s questions in Scene 4? (text features) In Scene 4, Sherlock Holmes questions Miss Spaulding’s offer to work for Wilson at half pay and why her skirt is dirty. In the image, Miss Spaulding’s expression looks suspicious. Instead of helping Holmes and Watson like a normal shop clerk, she seems to have her guard up. 
• Reread Scene 4. How are Holmes’s and Watson’s observations about the case different? (compare and contrast) When Sherlock Holmes and Watson meet Miss Spaulding in Scene 4, they have two different ideas about why she helped Wilson get a job with the Red-Headed League. Watson wonders if she is “simply kindhearted,” but Holmes believes there must be another answer. We know this because he is more concerned about Miss Spaulding’s dirty skirt and her motivation to work for half pay. 
• How does Officer Jones’s presence in Scene 5 show us that new action is about to take place in the story? (inference) We can expect that Sherlock Holmes has solved the case when  we are introduced to Officer Jones because the policeman will be needed to arrest the criminal. 
• Personification is a description of a nonhuman thing as if it were a person. When Mrs. Merryweather opens the bank vault, “The great door swings open with a groan.” What makes this statement an example of personification? What does it tell us about the way the door swings? (figurative language) We know this is an example of personification because groaning is a human action; doors don’t literally groan. This description tells us that the door made a creaking sound when it opened. 

Critical-Thinking Questions

• The subhead of the play calls Holmes “the world’s sharpest detective.” What inferences does Holmes make in solving the crime that show how sharp he is? (inference) Sherlock Holmes shows that he is a sharp detective throughout the play. In Scene 3, Holmes finds it odd that Miss Spaulding introduced Wilson to the Red-Headed League shortly after offering to work as his shop assistant at half pay. At this point, Holmes infers that Miss Spaulding must have had another motivation to work for Wilson. Next, in Scene 4, Holmes notices that Miss Spaulding’s skirt is smudged and dirty as he bangs his cane on the floor in Wilson’s General Store. In Scene 6, we learn what Holmes inferred after he noticed this—that Miss Spaulding was digging a tunnel from Wilson’s store to Coburn Bank in order to rob it. 
• The author of the play, Arthur Goldwag, writes the first three scenes of the play out of order. Scene 1 takes place in April 1890, Scene 2 takes place two months earlier, and Scene 3 is back in April 1890. Why do you think the author wrote the play this way?  (author’s craft) Students’ answers may vary. They may say that Scene 2 takes place two months earlier because it’s a way to show us Wilson’s side of the story in detail. They might also say that Goldwag wrote the play this way to create suspense. We don’t know what happens right away when we go back in time in Scene 2 and need to wait a while longer to see how Sherlock Holmes solves the mystery of the Red-Headed League. 

Featured Skill: Inference

• Distribute or assign the Inference Skill Builder. Have students complete it independently or together with a partner. Then distribute our new Writing a News Article graphic organizer. This skill builder will help prepare students to respond to the writing prompt on page 20. Then you can send their work to our writing contest (see page 2 of the magazine for details)!