In today’s episode of the Teaching ELA Podcast, I discuss several short stories by perhaps the most popular American short story writer ever, and certainly one that resonates with young scholars. Let’s talk about the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe.
Today, we’ll discuss classics, such as “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Black Cat,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and more.
For our 2-minute lesson plan we’re going to go with “Making Sense of Difficult Sentences.”
One of the overlooked aspects of Poe’s short stories is the complexity of the language, especially in the opening paragraphs. So here’s a way to overcome that challenge and get your students interacting with literature right away.
- Step 1: Grab a copy of your EAP story and open it to the first paragraph. Chances are the first paragraph is full of complex sentences with difficult vocabulary.
- Copy 3-4 of those sentences on the board.
- Write above it the title of the story and the lesson’s objective: Use context clues to determine the meaning of words and phrases.
- Read the first paragraph of the story together.
- Instruct students to “translate” the sentences. You can do this in a variety of ways–small groups, as a class, divided, whatever.
- Discuss and begin reading again,
This is a great way to introduce a Poe story because it helps students get accustomed to Poe’s style. In addition, the first paragraph of a Poe story sets forth his philosophy, which gives insight to the story’s theme and, in many cases, the unreliability of the narrator.
The One Thing
As you’ve heard so far, there are a ton of literary elements you can teach when teaching the Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe, but the ONE THING you have to teach is suspense.
Students can cite textual evidence to analyze suspense. Once students understand how suspense is created, they better understand conflict and other elements of plot. Once they understand how suspense is created, they better understand the narrator, his point of view, and his lack of reliability.
And of course, all this citing of textual evidence to support analysis leads to understanding the story’s theme.
Takeaways
- Students’ interest in Edgar Allan Poe establishes not only the probability that teenagers are weird but that students will fight through reading complexity if they find interest in the stories they are reading.
- Help reluctant students fight through the complexity by helping them with the story openings.
- Although primarily known for suspense, Poe stories are also excellent for teaching just about all literary elements.
Links and Resources
- Poe Lesson Plans Collection
- “Masque of the Red Death” lesson plans
- “The Cask of Amontillado” lesson plans
- “The Tell-Tale Heart” lesson plans
- “The Pit and the Pendulum” lesson plans
- “The Fall of the House of Usher” lesson plans
- “The Black Cat” lesson plans
