"Ordeal by cheque" - This series of lessons allows students to explore a story told in a very unique way: through checks (or cheques as the original title of the story spelled it) written by a father and son throughout various moments in the son's life. Students build their skills in making inferences and then apply the claim, evidence, reasoning method to write out their own version of the story as the final part of this activity.

In all, it is a five class series of lessons. It starts with a lesson on making inferences which ends with a "Murder Mystery Walk and Talk," then next class students explore the decade of the 1920s through a unique context quest which has them examining numerous documents from that time period. The third and fourth classes are spent with the actual story, broken into two parts, and read by sorting the actual checks and discussing with other students what they find (with additional help provided by supporting documents such as postcards and telegrams). Finally, the fifth class is spent turning their notes from previous sessions with their various inferences into their own unique interpretation of the story.