Persuasive Writing - The Mary Celeste

I combined writing to literature and persuasive writing into one assignment. We read "The Mary Celeste, an Unsolved Mystery from History" by Lane Yolen, et al. My class loved the story and were engaged in the mystery of what happened to the Mary Celeste. This is a real event - we even googled it and looked it up on Wikipedia. I think that captured their attention even more - knowing that these events really happened and this mystery has never been solved. We talked through the theories, listing them on chart paper. Then we listed the facts about the case - like real detectives would. I had them each write what their theory is as to what happened. They needed to defend their position using facts from the story and answering questions that would discredit their theory. I was very pleased with the results. My favorite theory from my students is the theory that all on board the Mary Celeste came across an island and wanted to explore it. While they were on the island, the boat became unanchored and floated away - leaving them stranded. One of my students drew the boat on the bulletin board.