Criminal
Craig Brierley (description by Ed Edgar)

This article was given to me by Ms. Sakamoto of Wakakusa junior high school. She got it from Craig Brierley, my predecessor here in Nasu. I'm not sure exactly how Criag used it, and it's getting a bit out-of-date, but I think the idea could be really useful. Also see Evening News

Give the students a made-up newspaper article describing the murder of a well-known TV talent. (In this case, Morita from V6). Here's Craig's original text: (scanned copy here)

V6 Star Killed!!!

Go Morita is Dead

It was cold and windy on Monday evening. Go Morita came home from a V6 concert. He said "Goodbye" to his friends and then went to his room. Police found Mr. Morita on Sunday morning. He was dead. A knife was in his back! Ken Miyake said, "Go was my friend. He was a good singer." Police said, "Mr. Morita had many enemies. Many musicians and TV stars didn't like him. But who killed him?"

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The kids' job is to find the killer. They have seven different suspects - six famous people and one ALT. Somebody plays the role of each person, and they have information about where they were on the night of the murder. Either the teachers could play all the roles or you could get some of the kids to be some of the people and give them a copy of the worksheet with everything blanked-out except their own column.

The kids have to question the suspects and write the answers on their worksheets. If they find someone whose story doesn't add up, they must be the murderer.

Here's the kids' worksheet, with answers. (Obviously you would blank all or most of them out.):

Who are you?	Ken Miyake	[ALT]	Tomoya Nagase	Mr. Nagashima	Ami Suzuki	Takashi Okamura	Anna Umemiya
Where were you on Monday evening?	I was at a V6 concert	I was at a V6 concert	I was at a V6 concert	I was at a baseball ground	I was in Hawaii	I was in Alaska	I was at my house
What time were you there?	from 6pm. to 8pm.	from 6pm. to 8pm.	from 6pm. to 8pm.	from 7pm. to 9pm.	from 6am. to 11pm.	a whole day	from 5am. to 10pm.
What were you doing?	I was singing.	I was singing.	I was dancing behind V6.	I played the baseball game.	I was sleeping.	I was sleeping.	I was reading a book.
Who were you with?	I was with V6.	I was with my friend.	I was with Tokio.	I was with Giants.	I was with my staff.	I was with my partner Yabecchi.	I was alone.
How was the weather?	It was cold and windy.	It was cold and windy.	It was cold and windy.	It was sunny.	It was hot.	It was snowy.	It was cold and windy.

Obviously these need to be updated to keep up with fickle teenage trends.

In this case the murderer is Mr. Nagashima. He can't have been at a baseball game on Monday because there aren't any baseball games on Mondays.

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