About This Worksheet
This Grade 7 reading activity helps students break the mystery plot of The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin into its main stages. Students study the exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution to see how the mystery becomes more complicated and is eventually solved. The worksheet shows that plot structure is the organized path a story follows from its opening situation to its final outcome. For example, the introduction of the heirs and the will belongs in the exposition, while the major turning point belongs in the climax.
Learning Goals
The main goal is to help students understand how each stage of plot contributes to the development of a mystery. Students should already know the basic names of common plot parts. This activity moves them toward explaining how clues, conflicts, and turning points build suspense and lead to the ending. It supports CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.5, which asks students to analyze how a story’s structure contributes to meaning and development.
Student Tasks
On this worksheet, students will explain what important background information appears at the beginning of the novel. They will then describe key events from the rising action and show how those events increase suspense or complicate the mystery. Students must identify the climax and explain why it serves as the major turning point. Finally, they will describe how the resolution solves the mystery and makes earlier clues more understandable.
Common Challenges
Some students may confuse the climax with the most exciting event instead of the moment when the story changes direction. Others may list several rising-action events without explaining how they increase tension. The resolution may also be reduced to a simple ending summary. Encourage students to explain how each section performs a different job in moving the mystery forward.
Teaching Suggestions
A teacher can sketch a basic plot mountain and place one known event from the novel in each section. Students can then use sticky notes to add more events and discuss where they belong. At home, a parent can ask which event changes the mystery most and which earlier clues make sense only after the ending. This makes plot structure feel like a connected chain rather than four separate labels.
Worksheet Features
The worksheet provides a separate writing area for each major part of the plot. Guiding questions direct students toward background, suspense, turning points, and solved clues. The layout encourages complete explanations rather than one-word answers. This page is useful for mystery study, plot review, independent reading, or preparation for a literary analysis.