Partners in Crime : Integrating Language Arts and Forensic Science, Grades 5-8

Partners in Crime offers middle school teachers an innovative and highly entertaining resource for integrating language arts and science strategies that will challenge students while meeting standardized learning goals. With a creative approach of focusing on the practical application of critical thinking, problem solving, and prose nonfiction expression, Partners in Crime engages your students by asking them to solve a crime using the skills of forensic science while simultaneously teaching them key concepts in language arts. As flexible as it is creative, Partners in Crime can be used for a variety of classroom settings whether as a single activity, weekly lesson, full unit, or school and community project. The activities in Partners in Crime can also help you build teamwork by tapping into your school community, resources, and technology. Throughout the book, your students are encouraged to conduct original research and challenged to draw conclusions based upon their ability to weigh evidence. Partners in Crime also contains suggestions for helping you and your students make connections with local law enforcement that will provide support for deeper understanding of the exercises. The book is filled with ideas for encouraging students to create written reports, presentations, and producing films and videos. The book also includes activities and guidelines for benchmarking student performance during and after the each unit.