Horror Stories for Halloween (An Edgar Allan Poe Study)

I loved doing this unit with my 8th graders every Halloween season. It's super creepy, full of literary magic, and it's challenging. Believe it or not, this little mini-unit produced many light bulb moments. Many students (notice I did not say all) were surprised how understanding literary devices such as alliteration or allusions helps make a story or poem come alive.

In this study we begin by learning about the author. It's so easy to understand why Poe wrote horror stories when one learns of his life and all his heartbreak. We read The Tell-Tale Heart and end with The Raven. Discussions always take place comparing Lenore to Poe's wife who died of the same disease that took his mother. To me, these little side topics are priceless.

To give you an idea of what the unit contains, check out the first of 19 pages, where you see the standards, objectives, and the lesson design:

Each day revolves around learning literary devices and context clues while reading the work of Edgar Allan Poe. Day 1 is a documentary (the link provided in the unit) of Poe's life and the students are directed to reflect on it in a certain way. Day two begins the process of learning literary devices, starting with foreshadowing and how Poe uses this literary device to tell what's going to happen in The Tell-Tale Heart before he gives the details of his murderous act. After learning the literary devices and who to use context clues, we read the story together and break it apart as we apply this knowledge of literary devices and context clues (a teachers guide is provided). Once the story is read and students complete a task to better understand this particular story, we read The Raven together and they break apart the story using their own guide to each literary device on their own. I've found much success in giving them definitions, showing them how their used, and then letting them break it down on their own.

This 19 page lesson breaks each it all down for you - providing activities and guiding the teacher through it all.

If you're interested in purchasing this 4 day lesson for $8 before Halloween weekend rolls around, check out my TeachersPayTeachers page or TeachersNotebook page.

Visit my TeachersPayTeachers link on October 19 - 21 for a 20% discount!