What happened to Emmett Till? Murder Mystery Enquiry

A standalone lesson that I planned and taught as a part of a wider enquiry about the Civil Rights Movement. The lesson involves the students working in small groups to “interview” witnesses and suspects to the murder that have been taken from real testimony. The murder of Emmett Till can be drawn back into the wider Civil Rights Movement using the questions and additional resources included in the presentation.

Resources includes a sheet on which students can documents the information they collect in order to reach a judgement what happened to Emmett Till and who murdered him?

Another resource is an exit ticket used as a plenary to register what students had learned in the lesson(s).

The joy of this is that it can be scaled up into an unforgettable lesson as we used it. We used crime scene tape, a white tape body outline and a range of artifacts at the crime scene to engage students and pique their curiosity. Rather than students reading the sheets containing testimony to find out the narrative, we had older students learn the testimony and be interviewed to find out their story, challenging students to ask the correct type of questions (closed/open).