Wow your students with the Thomas Paine Reading Comprehension CSI Spy Mystery! Students will complete 4 reading comprehension tasks all while playing detective and finding clues to the case. Students will LOVE this close reading challenge! Great addition to your American Revolution unit.

Topics include: Revolutionary War, Thomas Paine, Common Sense, Patriots and Loyalists

Students will work individually (or in pairs) and race to see who can solve the case first! A friendly competition always increases engagement. After completing each “task” students will earn a “CLUE CARD” to help them eliminate suspects and evidence.

As students complete each task, they will bring you their answers for you to quickly check (don’t worry…each task is short). After checking, students will earn a “CLUE CARD” with clues to solve the case.

This activity can be used for individual work, partner activities, anticipatory sets, unit review, sub plans, extension activities, early-finishers, or just for fun the day before break.

A “Top Secret Case File” is read and your “lead detectives” have less than an hour to solve the case. (Time can be changed to whatever works best for you)

Oh, and before I forget…there’s also props included to make it feel like a “crime scene” and signs to hold up at the end when the CSI mystery is solved!

WHAT’S INCLUDED?

4 Reading comprehension tasks

Case file dossier (recording sheet)

Teacher answer key (when applicable)

Set up instructions

Props and signs

WHAT ARE THE TASKS?

Task 1: Cloze Reading – Fill in the blank

Task 2: Find and Fix – Fix incorrect statements

Task 3: True or False with a secret word

Task 4: Main idea and supporting details

**Please note that two “tasks” overlap with other products of mine on the same topic**

Click HERE to grab a F-R-E-E Color by Number Activity!