The+Problem+with+Cell+13


 * Our minds are powerful. Extremely powerful. But "What if you could break out of prison using just your mind?" This unit will focus on the short story, "The Problem of Cell 13" by Jacques Futrelle. It is a story that reminds you that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. Even something as crazy as breaking out of prison. This story falls under the "locked room" mystery genre so we're going to be looking at some examples of mysteries and how to read them.**



__**About "The Problem of Cell 13"**__**:**

This is an excellent story of a locked room setting. Professor Van Dusen was known as The Thinking Machine. He told Dr. Ransome and Arthur Fielding that he could escape out of a prison cell. They didn't believe he could do it, but they decided to take him up on his offer. He was placed him in a locked cell by the warden's office. He had one week to escape. He also couldn't have anything in his possession to use to help him escape. You may think this setting seems like it would be impossible to escape from, but is it?

__**Unit Focus:**__

__Themes__:

This unit is designed to get you looking at multiple "locked room" mysteries. The point of all this is to practice your ability to make predictions, inferences, and to closely read a text. Some other themes from the "Cell 13" story mostly involve the idea that if you put your mind to achieving a goal, even one that seems impossible, you'll be surprised what you can accomplish.

The unit is also designed to think about: How does this relate to me and my life? You're not going to volunteer to go to prison to try and break out, but by focusing on the themes of the story and not only on the story details themselves, we can better connect our lives to those of the characters. Hopefully, maybe even learn a little something about ourselves along the way.

__Skills__:

This unit will focus on the following skills-
 * Background knowledge (activating schema)
 * Making connections (text to self, text to text, text to world)
 * Questioning (fat & skinny questions. What's the difference and how can we use them to go deeper?)
 * Making predictions and inferences (what do I think will happen next? What can I figure out the missing details based on clues given by the author?)
 * Understanding how an author uses story elements and lit. devices to tell a story (how can we identify them and use them ourselves?)
 * Summarizing a text (re-telling just the important details about a text)
 * Vocabulary (what is confusing? How do I find the definition to a word I don't know? How do I remember the definition?)
 * Paragraph and essay construction (how can I use a structure to clearly express my ideas about something?)


 * Click here for your 1st assignment**