Westing Game Interactive Unit

The Westing Game Interactive Unit is language arts based, with supporting lessons in creative writing, writing analysis, guided reading, math, science, and social studies. The unit consists of three phases: the scripted pre-reading simulation (a la How to Host a Murder), the reading of the Newbery Award-winning novel by Ellen Raskin, and several interdisciplinary activities inspired by the book.

In Phase 1: The Westing Game simulation, students act out one of seventeen characters in an effort to discover who “killed” Samuel W. Westing, become the Westing heir, and inherits $100 million dollars, all prior to reading the book as a class.

Phase 2: the reading of The Westing Game, if read at a rate of two (short) chapters a day, can be completed in fifteen class periods.

The interdisciplinary activities which accompany the simulation, Phase 3 of The Westing Game Interactive Unit, accommodate multiple modalities and require students to synthesize prior knowledge and life experiences while analyzing information and clues from the perspective of their Westing characters. Interdisciplinary activities included in this unit are as follows:

*What Would you Do with a $10, 000 Inheritance?: writing assignment
*Spend it Wisely or Go for Broke!: Stock market activity
*Enigmas: Mysterious events in history study
*Improving Deductive Reasoning Skills: logic puzzles
*Chess - A Game or Rules of Society?: chess lessons
*Heir A-Parent: Genealogy investigation
*The Westing Game Dictionary Detective: Vocabulary investigation
*Stereotype Busters: Gross generalizations and stereotyping lesson
*Yet Another Convenience Brought to you by Westing Paper Products!: Inventions and inventors study and activity
*Additional Activities, Lessons, Resources, and Fun

"You, too, may strike it rich who dare play The Westing Game!"