Short story: Silver Blaze

Objective & content

Silver Blaze by Arthur Conan Doyle (1892), a Sherlock Holmes story retold at A2+. The language is simplified, the story is not: every clue and the ending are Conan Doyle's. Told by Dr Watson, as in the original. Silver Blaze, the most famous racehorse in England, disappears from his stable on the moor a few days before a big race, and his trainer is found dead nearby. The police arrest a stranger who bets on horses, but Holmes looks at the small things: the stable boy's curry, a half-burnt match in the mud, a very small knife, three lame sheep, and the most famous clue in detective fiction, a dog that did nothing in the night. By the end, pupils can follow a story of about 1,600 words and explain how each clue led Holmes to the truth.

Pedagogical guide

The story runs over four pages, set like a novel, with one drawing on each page; the pictures show the clues, not the accident. Page 5 holds the tasks. Six choice and true or false questions check the story. "Find the clues. How did Holmes know?" sends pupils back into the text: why the curry mattered, why the dog that did nothing was a clue, why the trainer took the little knife, and why the lame sheep were important. A box gives three verb forms from the story (the past simple of irregular verbs, had + past participle, and if + will), then pupils complete four sentences from the story with them. In the last task, pupils work in pairs: they invent a small mystery at school with one strange clue, like the dog, then swap and solve each other's case. Page 6 is the answer key with the teacher notes. The story is about bets on a horse race, and the trainer dies in an accident; nothing is described.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Ask "What makes a good detective? What does a detective look for?"
2. (20 min) Read the story aloud, or pupils read in pairs. Stop after "He was nowhere." and ask "Who do you think took the horse?" Stop again after "That was the curious incident," said Holmes. and ask "Why is it strange that the dog did nothing?"
3. (10 min) Pupils answer the choice questions, then the "Find the clues" questions; check together.
4. (10 min) Pupils read the box and complete the four sentences.
5. (15 min) In pairs, pupils invent a small mystery with one strange clue, then swap and solve it; a few pairs read their case to the class.

Adaptations

[S] Read the story over two lessons, two pages at a time, and go through the words they may need first (racehorse, trainer, stable, moor, bet, lame). Pupils can answer the choice questions and two of the clues only.

[A] Pupils write Holmes's notebook: the list of clues in the order he found them, and what each one told him.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy per pupil, in colour or black and white: pages 1 to 5 are for pupils, page 6 is the answer key. Pupils should know the past simple and will for the future.