Co-Beacon Award Winner 2007
Peter Burkhart
Peter Burkhart is a Sherlockian who was a candidate for his Master’s in Education at SUNY Oswego when he decided to use the Canon as an inspiration for his teaching curriculum for his 7th grade English class. In Burkhart’s own words:
- "As a fan of the Canon, I was surprised to learn that there is very little published about how to integrate Doyle’s work into middle and high school literature classrooms as a unit of study. There are many articles written in education journals about other literary characters and authors, but Doyle's is noticeably missing, even though his character has been imitated by other authors.
- "I made the decision to expose my seventh grade honor students to Arthur Conan Doyle’s work throughout the 2004-2005 school year when my school adopted the America’s Choice school model which requires schools to choose an author to study…
- "Doyle’s work…offered the opportunity for an in-depth study of a literary character that would challenge and enhance their development as readers and writers and provide the opportunity for exposure to numerous works by one author.
- "This unit demonstrates how middle and high school teachers can use Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes as an effective unit of study in the English literature classroom. It provides lesson plans and a comprehensive collection of Internet and library resources that I used during the 2004-2005 school year in my seventh grade honors language arts class."
Burkhart went on to complete 41 lesson plans and 35 quizzes and memorialized the process and the curriculum in a website called TeachingSherlock.com.
| 41 LESSON PLANS | 35 QUIZZES |
| Who Is Sherlock Holmes? | |
| A Study in Scarlet (13 plans) | A Study in Scarlet (13 quizzes) |
| The Sign of Four (12 plans) | The Sign of Four (12 quizzes) |
| Stasis and Intrusion | |
| A Scandal in Bohemia (2 plans) | A Scandal in Bohemia |
| The Red-Headed League | The Red-Headed League |
| The Engineer's Thumb | The Engineer's Thumb |
| The Blue Carbuncle | The Blue Carbuncle |
| The Speckled Band | The Speckled Band |
| The Five Orange Pips | |
| The Noble Bachelor | |
| The Copper Beeches | |
| The Final Problem | The Final Problem |
| Sherlock Holmes' Obituary | |
| Sherlockian Symbols | |
| Sherlock Quotations | |
| Holmes? A Role Model? | |
| The Man with the Twisted Lip | |
| The Beryl Coronet |