Introduction
Edgar Allan Poe has been said to be a man of extreme uniqueness and a man of extreme mystery- be it in his works or in his personal life. People claimed that Poe came before his time and was never truly understood. His works were morbid, his life...mysterious.
Today we still celebrate him for his morbid, unique, and strange works and still search for answers to the life he lived and the way it ended. Is it safe to say, however, that Edgar Allan Poe was and still is undeniably unique? Is it possible that Edgar Allan Poe lived a life and wrote his works while following another author's footsteps or did he pave the way for other great and mysteriously intriguing authors?
Your mission is to research the life and works Poe created and compare and contrast them to a pre-Poe author and a post-Poe author's life and works. Through this research you will decide what Poe should be called: a true and unique genius or a follower of the pack.
Task
Each group will consist of four students:
Student 1 (Poe Researcher)will gain and share knowledge with group members on Edgar Allan Poe's life and how events in his life shaped his writing style.
Student 2 (Poe Researcher) will read The Fall of the House of Usher (pages 293-310 of your textbook) and provide a summary of Poe’s writing style in this story .
Student 3 (Pre-Poe Researcher)will gain and share knowledge with group members on the other chosen author's life and an example of his/her writing.
Student 4 (Post-Poe Researcher)will gain and share knowledge with group members on the other chosen author's life and an example of his writing.
Process
What to do...Where to begin...
1) It is first necessary to decide which student will be taking on which role.
2) Choose one author from Pre-Poe and one author from Post-Poe to carry out the assignment:
*Pre-Poe authors are William Shakespeare, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Horace Walpole.
*Post-Poe authors are Mark Twain, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, and William Faulkner.
3) Gather information from multiple sources (For example: internet, biographies, journals, actual works, etc.)
4) Discuss gained knowledge in your group so each member gains the other's knowledge and decide where your group stands on the issue of Poe.
5) Organize presentation together with visual aids. Please make sure to practice the presentation before your day. Note that, along with sharing information, you want to also persuade your classmates of whether Poe was unique in his ways or just a follower.
6) Give presentation. Good Luck!
Evaluation
Each student, within their group, will grade their group members and explain to me in a paragraph why that grade was given.
As a group:
Groups will be awarded points daily on how well they work together in class
The presentation itself will also be graded by me (information given, organization, and use of visual aids).
****Don't forget to make a conclusion on Edgar Allan Poe's writing. Make sure you have a strong comparison and strong reasoning for believing as you do. Remember no answer is a wrong answer.