Ellen Rankin
Lesson plans and teaching ideas for The Westing Game

Finding Clues to Well-Defined Characters
Students search for character descriptions in, The Westing Game, and then in their own selected books. They find and read descriptions of characters to the class. Students draw rough sketches of a character from their books. This 3-page document requires MS-Word or compatible application.

Launch your own Murder Mystery
Students will write a murder mystery, choosing the victim, murder weapon and the suspect. The assignment asks them to write a story about the murder for their reader, giving clues through the story for the reader to solve as they are reading the story. Students are encouraged to use descriptive words that help to paint the picture for the reader.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Anticipation guides, guided imagery, vocabulary crossword, and other reading strategies tied to the novel.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Reading strategies connected to the novel, including story grammar, story frame, Venn diagrams, and more.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Three postreading activities.