May 28 and 29- 12 Angry Men prewriting

In preparation for reading 12 Angry Men, students worked with a partner on the following:

You are a reporter for a murder case. You’ve been listening to the entire trial and the closing arguments have just finished. Here are the facts of the case:

STRANGE KNIFE

There was a very unusual knife found stuck in the body of a man.

The man’s 18 year-old son was seen showing off the exact same knife to his friends earlier in the day.

OLD MAN

The old man who lived downstairs heard the son shout “I’m going to kill you!”

The old man heard the thud of a body hitting the floor, then he ran to the door and watched the son run down the stairwell.

OLD WOMAN

An old woman who lived across the street looked out her window and saw the son stab his father in the chest with a knife

BOY’S MEMORY

When the son was questioned by the police after the murder, he said that he was at the movies. But he couldn’t remember the names of the movies or the people who starred in them.

BOY’S PAST

The son was raised in a poor neighborhood

In the past, the son has been arrested for assault and knife-fighting

 

Discuss the five pieces of evidence.

Cut them out and paste them to the back of this sheet in order of most convincing to least convincing

STRANGE KNIFE           OLD MAN          OLD WOMAN               BOY’S MEMORY     BOY’S PAST

Most convincing-1	2	3	4	Least convincing-5

               

Explain your thinking behind placing the evidence in box 1.

Explain your thinking behind placing the evidence in box 5.