I have to agree with Curly. Would be interested to hear what context it is in and what the previous lessons/books etc that are being read behind it all.
My first reaction is to be gobsmacked but then I think about when I was about that age I used to love playing Cluedo (the boardgame) and taht was all about guessing where the murder was and what with.
As a child though I never thought about gory stuff. I didnt really think about it at all.
Yeah, I'm going to agree with Curly on this one. I vividly recall some of the creative writing stories I did in primary school, the vast majority descended into gore and murder mysteries by the time 'the end' (in lovely cursive script lol) rolled around... and I don't think I was a particularly morbid child. Just found it interesting as it was a bit 'taboo', so to speak - I wasn't permitted to watch M-rated movies so I'd write my own M-rated (or at least pretty hardcore PG lol) tales for assignments
Context puts things in a whole new perspective, really... although I can't recall a teacher ever setting a similar task when I was in school - more just 'Okay, this week you have to write a story about (eg) cruise ships' and I turn in some story about a murder mystery in which the captain is thrown overboard with no life-jacket, the sauna door is mysteriously locked, leaving clients to fry in their own juices and there are blood spatters everywhere I could find an opportunity...
I'd vouch it's as age-appropriate as it can be for kids of that age - I'm sure they all have vivid imaginations and even if they don't grasp the reality of 'murder', I'd bet it's fun for them to let loose and write about something a bit 'naughty', kwim? Probably gets better results than asking them to write about the family of ducklings down at the pond :/
It would freak my DD who is nearly 9 out and she wouldn't be able to do it. I guess if they were given a free choice and that what a student wrote about because it interests them then it would be OK
Well, there's a whole literary genre - murder mysteries - that encompass everything from the morbidly gruesome to fantastically tame...think Agatha Christie. Kids are exposed to 'whodunnit' type conundrums at school too (the ones like there was a man found dead in the room with a goldfish, how did he die?) - so hmmm, while it's not my choice of topic it could be really engaging to some kids. My DD tells me that last year one of the teachers with 9 & 10 yr olds had them write spooky stories, and the murder theme came up in a lot of those stories.
LZ I am GOBSMACKED by what you said!!! Wow, I bet youre looking forward to THAT day at school
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