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Are you studying Poe in school? Are you homeschooling your own children? Are you teaching in the formal school setting? Do you just want to learn more about Poe on your own? Here are 38 links to on-line lesson plans, teaching guides, study questions, class activities, and course outlines actually being used by teachers from elementary school through college. Ideal for learning about Poe, his life, and his works in new and fresh ways. And here are some Poe Study Guides that may come in handy, too.
The "Producing Edgar Allen Poe" Challenge by Ellen Moore and Christopher Moore, grades 7-8
Overview: "This lesson invites students into the macabre world of Edgar Allen Poe through theatrical exploration of the text of THE TELL-TALE HEART. Students will create and perform excerpts from their specific `productions' of this Poe classic."
Lesson on Poe's Story "William Wilson," 11th grade
Overview: Students team up and read the story. "The task for you and your partner is to reflect upon, analyze, annotate and illustrate Edgar Allan Poe's short story, `William Wilson.'"
The Life of Edgar Allan Poe, grades 7-8
Overview: "Students will learn about the life of Edgar Allan Poe and about the history of our country and the world during the early- to mid-1800s. They will use a variety of research methods and modes, including computer technology, to collect information. Students will also keep a log of any conflicting information that they may find. Students will then organize and synthesize the information to plan a creative oral presentation."
Overview: "A look at the vocabulary and literary devices in Edgar Allen Poe's famous poem, The Raven. This unit lets users view each stanza of the poem, pointing out Poe's use of some common literary devices. By moving the mouse over the highlighted words, users can learn more about Poe's use of these devices."
Performing "The Black Cat," grades 6-12
Overview: Students perform Poe's "The Black Cat" after reading an annotated version of the story.
Overview: "In this activity, students will conduct research using the Knowing Poe Interactive Timeline to learn about the author's life. Students will collect facts, and make connections between the facts and how they impacted Poe's life and ultimately his writing. Students will write an obituary or a newspaper article on the life and death of Poe, and as an extension activity, students will work in small groups to create a Poe radio broadcast."
Overview: "In this activity, students will visit The Bells Web page to learn that listening to the melodic sounds and rhythm of the words of a poem often tells you a great deal about a poem that you might not have learned by simply reading it."
Mad About Poe 1: Literal Meaning of "The Tell-Tale Heart"
Overview: "This activity is designed to be used in conjunction with a second activity, Mad About Poe 2. In Mad About Poe 1, students will read the story to gain a literal understanding of `The Tell-Tale Heart.' After finishing this activity, students will complete the Mad About Poe 2 activity to learn about the interpretive meaning of `The Tell-Tale Heart.'"
Mad About Poe 2: Interpretive Meaning of "The Tell-Tale Heart"
Overview: "This activity is designed to be used after completing the activity, Mad About Poe 1: Literal Meaning of `The Tell-Tale Heart.' Students need an understanding of the terms: irony, symbolism, figurative and literal before they begin this activity."
Overview: "Have students spend a few minutes writing a brief description of how they define the art of poetry." After writing this down, they will watch a video clip of John Astin as Poe speaking of his poetic principle.
The Death of Me: What Happened to Poe?
Overview: "In this activity students will learn about different theories regarding Poe's death. They will work in small groups to conduct research on this topic using the Knowing Poe Web site. This activity is designed for students who have read some of Edgar Allan Poe's work."
Overview: "In this activity students will learn new vocabulary as they explore word relationships. Students will read `The Raven,' and collect and illustrate selected vocabulary. They will work individually or in small groups to write and present a review of `The Raven' that includes the new words they have learned."
Overview: "In this activity students will learn about varied elements of plot and characterization. They will define the terms protagonist, antagonist and narrator and apply them to characters in `The Cask of Amontillado.'"
Overview: "In this activity students will learn about life in Baltimore during Poe's lifetime. They will summarize what they have learned in `A Day in the Life of Poe' journal entry."
Overview: "Students will use the Picture This Interactive in reading `The Black Cat' to gain a better understanding of this chilling short story. Students have the option of reading along as they listen to the narration of this story. This activity allows students to choose a picture that most closely captures what they are imagining as they read and use these pictures as a summary for what is read."
Literary Devices in "The Cask of Amontillado," grades 11-12
Overview: "To understand and write an essay on Poe's short story. The student will write an essay focusing on Poe's use of irony, sounds and foreshadowing in `The Cask of Amontillado.'"
Edgar Allan Poe Webquest, grades 8-12
Overview: "In this lesson, students will research information concerning Poe’s life, and some of his works before reading `The Raven'."
Overview: "The students will read `Annabel Lee' and `The Raven' by Edgar Allan Poe and compare the two poems."
Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" Worksheet
Overview: List of 33 detailed questions for students to answer after having read "The Fall of the House of Usher."
Teacher's Guide to Internet Resources: Edgar Allan Poe
Overview: "This teacher's guide to Internet resources was developed by Sarasota County Public School teachers to enrich the language arts curriculum and encourage the use of interdisciplinary activities. This guide is designed to supplement the Holt, Rinehart, and Winston textbook, Elements of Literature, Fifth Course, for eleventh grade students."
Technology Assisting Literacy Knowledge: Edgar Allan Poe
Overview: "In this lesson students will develop background knowledge of Edgar Allen Poe. As a whole group the class will read silently as well as orally to create a discussion of the important milestone's in Poe's life. Students should be encouraged to take notes and time given to discuss students' notes. As an extension of the class discussion students may be assigned the task of using Inspiration or Power Point to create a timeline of important events in Poe's life."
Universal Class website's online course on the Romantic Period writers, including Edgar Allan Poe
Intro: "A course which covers The Romantic Period 1800-1855."
Intro: "This lesson was created in conjunction with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's NCWISE OWL WebQuest training. It includes activities designed to allow students to investigate the life of Edgar Allan Poe and apply their research to his works and to the works of Stephen King."
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe by Barbara Roach
11-12th grade. Intro: "This lesson plan is an easy way for students to become familiar with several Poe stories in a limited amount of time." Involves a group presentation of research findings about "The Raven" or one of Poe's short stories.
Poe, Hawthorne, Brown: American Gothic
Syllabus for an interesting class at the University of Oregon. Class Intro: "In the early years of Anglo-American prose narrative, from the 1790s through the 1840s, these three writers loomed large, and their favorite mood and genre was Gothic. Beginning with Charles Brockden Brown's Edgar Huntly, we will read novels and tales which engage the gothic dialectic between fear and reason, superstition and science. Brown and Hawthorne drew upon American history and landscape to create an indigenous version of a popular European style, and Poe's tales became even more popular in Europe than they were in the U.S. Our readings will include many of Hawthorne's most popular short stories, and provide a comprehensive survey of the work of Edgar Allen Poe."
A detailed teaching curriculum from the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Written by teacher Rosemary Hamilton for the junior high student. Intro: "To introduce my students to the elements of short story fiction I will select readings from Edgar Allan Poe. The Junior High School students of the inner city I teach are poor readers with limited attention spans. For many this will be their first exposure to the short story form and I want it to be positive. We will concentrate mostly on the horror stories of Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Pit and the Pendulum."
Suggested approach to teaching Poe in the college classroom, written by William Goldhurst of Georgetown University. Particularly good advice on the misinformation students normally believe about Poe and how to overcome it.
Edgar Allan Poe Poetry Readers Theater
A lesson plan for teaching Poe's poetry to 8th-9th graders. Intro: "Students will understand the content and themes discussed in four poems by Edgar Allan Poe: "The Raven", "The Bells", "Eldorado", and "Annabel Lee." They will also understand the process or readers theater and group dramatic presentations."
Teacher CyberGuide by Paul Combs/ Edgar Allan Poe: An Author Unit
A teaching plan for high school students. Intro: "High school students studying American Literature sometimes are curious about the puzzles and mysteries of the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe. Some questions to be explored include: What was life like in the United States during Poe's lifetime? What contact did Poe have with Charles Dickens and other prominent writers of his day? Why are Edgar Allan Poe's life and work associated with mystery? How are contemporary writers influenced by Poe's style? How does Poe create mood and tone in his work?"
Appreciation of Edgar Allen Poe's Poetry by B. Wu, for 9-12 grades
Overview: "The first lesson is designed to help students understand how allusions contribute to the meaning of the poem as well as appreciate Poe as a great poet in the history of American Literature. The second lesson is designed to help students understand how devices of sound, such as repetition, alliteration, consonance, internal rhyme, refrain and onomatopoeia, govern the mood within a poem. In this lesson, students will also be introduced to the Romantic ideas: self-absorbed, tormented speaker reflects the Romantic focus on the self; the exotic past. They will demonstrate their understanding of the devices of sound in the poem by listing three examples of each device and describe how each device is used to create the mood."
Edgar Allan Poe Unit Plan: Two Lessons. Grades 9-12.
First lesson on The Raven; second on Poe's life. Heavy on games and quizzes.
Meet Mr. Poe by Betty Driver, 9-11 grades.
Overview: "Students will be introduced to the author Edgar Allen Poe. The following lesson will be followed with the reading of The Cask of Amontillado and The Raven."
Atmosphere and Symbolism in "The Raven" by Margaret Rhyne, grades 6-12
Overview: "Write the following words on the board and ask the students to describe the feelings that come to mind after reading them. Dreary; Bleak; Ghost; Lost; Sorrow; Terrors; Darkness; Melancholy; Stern; Dirges; Grave; Stillness. Tell them that these words are from a very famous poem."
Tell-Tale Heart Lesson Plan by Valerie R. Bos
Overview: "Students will read and analyze Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” as a soft introduction to descriptive language and as an engaging Halloween activity."
Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce and the Unreliable Narrator
Overview: Examines "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "An Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge." "In the stories under consideration in this lesson, how did Ambrose Bierce and Edgar Allan Poe use narration to create their intended effect in the reader?"
Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce and the Unreliable Biographers
Overview: Sequel to above class. "Can we equate the narrators of literary compositions with their authors? What distinction can we make between biographical and other material interesting for its own sake and information that might provide insight into the work of Poe and Bierce?"
Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, grades 9-12
Overview: "Read one work by Edgar Allan Poe ("The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Raven," or "The Tell-Tale Heart"); summarize basic elements (plot, characters, setting, perspective); identify the emotions revealed in the work; and create an original piece portraying these emotions."
The Tell-Tale Hearts of Writers: Exploring the Lives of Authors Through Their Literature
Overview: "In this lesson, students use a piece of literature by and an article about Edgar Allan Poe to investigate the relationship between word choice and the reader’s mood and interpretation of a piece of writing. Each student then creates a visual display that examines a favorite writer through biographical information, analysis of quotations about the author and his or her works, and interpretation of a piece of the author’s writing."