"The Landlady" Investigation

Grade/Class: Grade 7 Humanities

Context: Students read and study Roald Dahl's short story "The Landlady" in Humanities.

Learning: Captain Lebowitz and the Grade 7 Detectives of the Netivot HaTorah Precinct conducted an investigation into the Missing Person Case of Billy Weaver in which The Landlady is suspected of foul play. Detectives listened to the recordings of conversations between Billy and The Landlady from having bugged The Landlady's house, as well as searching the Landlady's Parlour (as allowed by the judge's warrant). Detectives identified a variety of facts at the crime scene, and inferences were drawn from the evidence and from the recordings. Each student then completed a creative assignment (either a police investigation report, newspaper article, creating a new end to the short story, or writing up a criminal psychology report on The Landlady's state of mind) focussing on one character from the story.