The Westing Game

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What are the elements of a good mystery? What tools are used by writers to create these elements?

Teaching Suggestion: The Westing Game is about a group of characters who live in Sunset Towers and have the opportunity to inherit from the eccentric Sam Westing if they are able to solve the mystery of his game. Suspicions are aroused as the characters are told Mr. Westing has been killed by one of the players. Before discussing the elements of the mystery genre as a group, students might work briefly together in pairs to brainstorm mysteries they know and examine elements they have in common. Information from these or similar resources can help students develop additional context on the topic.  

• This article explains the tools that are used by professionals to write a mystery book.
• This 5-minute video explores the important elements of a mystery story.

Short Activity

Create an original graphic organizer to use as you explore the characters, their motives, and clues in the novel. Use a character and clue list to determine your design and fill in information about those characters and clues as you read.

Teaching Suggestion: Students may find it beneficial to use the links in the Short Answer section before creating their chart. One method for a group graphic organizer involves creating a sticky note anchor chart listing each of the suspects from the novel using the bulleted character list. On the chart, list the characters’ names with a section titled “unknown” for clues that do not have a suspect attached to them. Nearby—or on a separate part of the chart—consider listing items students should look for when they read the novel such as motives, clues, red herrings, foreshadowing, and mannerisms. Students can look for these items as the novel progresses and take notes or create sticky note entries from the novel to place on the chart as they review each section of the novel.

This character list may be helpful in designing graphic organizers:

• Grace Windsor Wexler
• Jake Wexler
• Turtle Wexler
• Angela Wexler
• Denton Deere
• James Shin Hoo
• Sun Lin Hoo
• Douglas Hoo
• Sydelle Pulaski
• Otis Amber
• Flora Baumbach
• Christos Theodorakis
• Theo Theodorakis
• Judge Ford
• Berthe Erica Crow
• Samuel Westing
• Alexander “Sandy” McSouthers
• Julian R. Eastman
• Barney Northrup
• Windy Windkloppel

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Consider a novel or movie that has mystery elements in it. What about the novel or movie inspired you to keep reading or watching? How did the novel or movie create suspense? What was the driving question you felt needed to be answered?

Teaching Suggestion: The Westing Game’s characters seek to find the answer to Sam Westing’s game to win the prize. Though the characters seek to win the prize, some want to understand what happened to Sam Westing. Consider discussing elements in particular movies or novels students found engaging and discuss what questions drive the audience’s need to understand the mystery.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who require an additional challenge may find it helpful to analyze popular mystery novels or movies they know to identify mystery elements in those novels or movies. Consider asking the student to create a poster identifying the elements of the mystery genre in the movie/novel for students to refer to as they read The Westing Game.