Whodunit is used in English lessons and works across Danish and English. Pupils learn how a crime story is built – and use that knowledge to write a mystery of their own.

A group of four or five pupils creates a murder mystery. Each pupil has their own character in the story – including the murderer. The group describes the suspects’ personalities, motives and alibis and collects them in a case file, which another group then uses to solve the mystery.

Whodunit guides the pupils safely through every step of the writing process, prompts them for backstories and makes sure that every suspect could have committed the murder. The group is handed a set of clues, which another group must then match to the individual suspects.

Along the way the pupils train their spoken and written English – and are introduced to the narrative devices of the detective genre.

Developed together with teachers from Sønderbro Skole in Copenhagen, with support from the Danish Ministry of Education, and used as an extended teaching course at several schools.