Great Mystery Skype Questions to Get You Started

My students have grown into being quite good Mystery Skypers but it has taken them most of the year and many practice calls.  One thing they have really worked on has been the act of asking great questions so we thought it would be nice to offer up some great sample questions for when you get started with Mystery Skype.  However, the best way to grow is to not follow a list but instead discuss throughout the year what the best questions are for your class.

For the USA

• Are you in North America?
• Are you in the United States?
• Are you east of the Mississippi?

Depending on the answer to that, you can go in different directions:

• Are you one of the original 13 colonies?
• Do you border a Great Lake?
• Do you border an ocean?
• Do the Appalachians run through your state?
• Do you border Canada?
• Are you Northeast/Midwest/Southeast region?
• Do you border the Gulf of Mexico?

If west of the Mississippi:

• Are you in the West/Southwest region?
• Do you border the Pacific?
• Do the Rocky Mountains run through your state?
• Do you border Canada?
• Is your state landlocked?
• Are you one of the contiguous states?

• Are you in North America?
• Are you in Canada?
• Do you border a ocean?
• Do you border Alaska?
• Do you border the Hudson Bay?
• Are you landlocked?
• Does your province have a NHL team?
• Do you border the United States?
• Do the Rocky Mountains touch your province?
• Are you north of British Columbia?

• Vague questions such as weather related ones unless they are specific.
• Guessing states too quickly.
• Not having a student write down the questions and answers.
• The teacher having their location on their Skype profile.
• Wearing a shirt that represents or is a clue to your location.

Things we do recommend doing:

• Paying attention to the questions that the other team asks – often it gives away clues.
• Paying attention in general.
• Having a sign signaling thinking or someone telling jokes/stories.
• Staying calm and don’t be rude to each other.
• Assigning jobs and sticking to them.
• Having a student-led discussion after the call to discuss success/failures and figure out how to improve.