Short story: The Red-Headed League

Objective & content

Arthur Conan Doyle's famous Sherlock Holmes story The Red-Headed League (1891), retold at A2+. The language is simplified, the story is not: every clue and the ending are Conan Doyle's. Mr Jabez Wilson, a red-haired shopkeeper, answers a strange advertisement and is paid four pounds a week to copy out an encyclopedia by hand. After eight weeks, the job suddenly ends. Holmes visits the shop, taps the pavement with his stick, and that night waits in the dark of a bank cellar. The story is told by Dr Watson, as in the original. By the end, pupils can follow a story of about 1,700 words, find the clues that led Holmes to the truth, and use three verb forms from the story.

Pedagogical guide

The story runs over four pages, set like a novel, with one drawing on each page. Page 5 holds the tasks. Six choice and true or false questions check the story. "Find the clues" sends pupils back into the text: why an assistant on half pay was a clue, why Holmes hit the pavement with his stick, what the assistant's knees told him, and why the League closing told him the thieves would come that night. A box gives three verb forms from the story (the past simple, had + past participle, going to), then pupils complete four sentences from the story with them. In the last task, pupils work in pairs: they write a strange job advertisement, and the partner writes what the trick could be. Page 6 is the answer key with the teacher notes.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Ask "Would you take a job with very good pay for very easy work? Why or why not?"
2. (20 min) Read the story aloud, or pupils read in pairs. Stop after "THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE IS CLOSED." and ask "Why did someone pay Mr Wilson?" Stop again after "What I expected to see." and ask "What did Holmes see?"
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. (10 min) In pairs, pupils write a strange job advertisement; the partner guesses the trick.

Adaptations

[S] Read the story over two lessons, two pages at a time, and go through the words they may need first (pawnshop, assistant, cellar, tunnel, lantern). Pupils can answer the choice questions and two of the clues only.

[A] Pupils retell the story from John Clay's point of view: the plan, the tunnel, and the night it went wrong.

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 of common irregular verbs.