Edgar Allan Poe Unit

My lesson plan is for 12th grade English Students. So my students can get a greater understanding of more of Poe's writing in a short period of time, my plan is to split up the class in four groups and have each group focus on a particular poem or short story written by Poe. On the final day of the unit, each group will present to the rest of the class their poem. The presentations will have two separate parts to them: The Delivery and The Analysis.

For the delivery aspect of their presentation, the students are encouraged to create an old style radio show using music and/or sound effects, as well as other props. Being creative and appropriate yet still getting Poe's message across with an accurate reading of the poem or short story is the general goal.

For the analysis portion, students are to create a power point presentation about their chosen Poe work. The analysis will look deeper into the poem and address literary techniques and other central themes. Each power point presentation will be uploaded to my website and be available for all students and parents to view. The information on these slides will of course be fair game for future exams.

The two METS addressed in this unit are:

use 1. Use a variety of applications to plan, create, and edit a multimedia product (e.g., model, webcast, presentation, publication, or other creative work)

ap 2. Apply advanced software features such as an application’s built-in thesaurus, templates, and styles to improve the appearance of word processing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations

The Content Standard Expectations being addressed in this unit are:

DD1. Develop the skills of close and contextual literary reading.

Pro2.Produce a variety of written, spoken, multigenre, and multimedia works, making conscious choices about language, form, style, and/or visual representation for each work.

R 3.Read and respond to classic and contemporary fiction, literary nonfiction, and expository text, from a variety of literary genre representing many time periods and authors.

In order to help my students with their poems and short stories, I found a web site that has most of Poe’s work, as well as additional Poe links. I tagged all of these links with simply the word, Poe. It can be found here:

There are four links in my bookmark account that link to the poems and short stories that the class will be presenting and analyzing the first couple of days of the unit. The Poe Decoder link is to help the students analyze the poems while working on their own or in their groups during and after class. I also tagged a couple of sound effects and old-time radio sites so the students can hear what an old-time radio show sounded like.

And finally, here is my calender that shows what the class will be doing on each day of the unit. The unit starts on September 1st.