The king of American Gothic literature can be celebrated any time of the year, but we tend to teach our Edgar Allan Poe unit around the fall months. We bring in the spooky backdrop of Halloween. Are you looking for new and exciting ways to celebrate one of the darkest writers of all time? Introducing Edgar Allan Poe activities into your classroom will make for a fun Fall with spooky stories. While Edgar Allan Poe’s work is very dark in nature, students love how they welcome Fall (and a little “darkness”) into their ELA classroom.
I know what you might be thinking, “Edgar Allan Poe’s work can be difficult to comprehend and work through.” While his writing style can be hard to grasp, students will delve into stories like The Tell-Tale Heart, and poems like, The Raven.
Flip Book Activities
One way to bring Poe’s work into your classroom is with some fun interactive notebook style flip book activities. These flip book activities are a great way to review different literary elements you have learned while reading the various Edgar Allan Poe texts as well as the content of the story itself.
The Raven Literature Guide Flip Book
This flip book is a great interactive Edgar Allan Poe activity. We all know flip books can be hard to create, but this product has each “flap” lined up and ready to start; all students needs to do is follow the directions on assembly. In addition to the ready-to-go flaps, this flip book includes writing prompts, comprehension questions, and literary devices for poetry. All of these features come with answer keys to take yet another piece off your plate.
Not only will you have less to do with this activity, but your students will also get practice reading, citing evidence from the text, recalling events and details from the text, writing, and practicing inference skills without the “run-of-the-mill study guide.
Edgar Allan Poe Short Stories Flip Book
Edgar Allan Poe has great poems, but his short stories have great style and the perfect level of creepiness for the Fall atmosphere.
This flip book activity has the flaps ready for your students to put together and includes questions about Edgar Allan Poe’s biography, his short stories The Tell-Tale-Heart, Black Cat, ad Cask of Amontillado, as well as his poem The Raven. In addition to these questions, students will also be able to review literary devices, vocabulary, and the background of American Gothic Literature.
Using the Edgar Allan Poe Short Stories Flip Book, your students will practice reading, summarizing, recall details, writing, and making inferences. With all these great skills being practiced, this Edgar Allan Poe activity will have your students understanding the texts listed above in a whole new way.
Collaborative Writing
Whenever we can give students a chance to collaborate, great things can happen. By allowing our students to collaborate, more ideas flow and students lean valuable interpersonal skills that will always be useful. These Edgar Allan Poe activities are a great way to get your students working together all while reviewing your content!
Collaborative Poster and Writing Activity
How well do your students know Edgar Allan Poe? You will find out with this collaborative poster that will give your students a chance to color and use their creativity all while working together. Along with the artwork your students can work on, this collaborative poster has writing prompt as well as “brain-friendly” fun work.
The Edgar Allan Poe collaborative poster includes assembly instructions with tips to make your lesson run smoother than ever! Help your students become stronger writers while strengthening their interpersonal skills with this great activity.
Edgar Allan Poe Author Study Body Biography Project
Edgar Allan Poe is arguably one of the strangest men of all time (right up there with Stephen King)! When students get a chance to know what he was like, some of them may “buy into” his work more and want to learn about this crazy character. This biography project is a collaborative poster that asks students to analyze Edgar Allan Poe as an author as well as your “average Joe.”
This collaborative poster includes clear instructions for assembly and reflection questions with an answer key.
Digital Escape Room for The Tell-Tale Heart
Finally, the grand finale, the Digital Escape Room! Another great way to get students to work together is to “trap them” until they can work together to escape. Escape rooms are becoming more and more popular in our world today, so why not bring them into the classroom?
This digital escape room takes the story The Tell-Tale Heart and puts it into an innovative breakout game. The digital escape room features a 360 view, VR options, and incredible heartbeat sound effects. In addition, this activity helps your students work together as a team and use deductive reasoning.
Edgar Allan Poe is the master of mystery which is great for the Fall and Halloween season. Check out these great activities to enhance your students understanding of this amazing author and his works!
