Poe and "The Tell-Tale Heart"

You will explore who Edgar Allan Poe is. How did his bizarre life affect his literary work? We'll focus on "The Tell-Tale Heart," and explore Poe's marriage to his own 13-year-old cousin, his alcoholism, his loss of both parents and other aspects of his sad life.

Goals: To understand the relationships between life and art, to understand the importance of historical context, and to understand the literary devices and vocabulary choices that contribute to a successful author's ability to manipulate their readers.

INTRODUCTION:

You're going to discover how a college dropout with two dead parents married his own 13-year-old cousin, made a million dollars and ended up on "The Simpsons."

Students will investigate the murder that takes place in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart." Students will use different literary devices found in the story as "clues" in an attempt to understand the murderer.   "The Tell-Tale Heart" is Poe's story of guilt, insanity and chopping up bodies. But the real pwoer of this tale is the psychological chill that the narrator suffers through. You'll read the story multiple times, research Poe and his teenage bride, and find lots of sad misadventures from Poe's life.

 

TASK:

Your investigation is the key to uncovering the mystery behind the old man's murder. We're all counting on you! Your task as chief investigative team is to compile a complete case summary that details the specific events of the murder.

Your investigation MUST include the following pieces of critical information:

                                                                                            

- A police report that carefully explains exactly what happened on the night of the murder, including a timeline that charts the days leading up to the crime, as well as the murder, itself. Include what it means to be guilty of murder.

- A complete profile of the murderer, including historical context, and pictures of the murderer. Include what it means to be criminally insane.  

- A detailed collection of clues from the murderer's confession using specific evidence from the text.

- A newspaper article that tells exactly what happened on the night of the murder, including interviews from the murderer's friends and neighbors. Also, include a short biography of Edgar Allan Poe.

Once you have created a complete case summary, you will need to compile your information into an informative presentation so that you will be ready to present it to the public at an upcoming press conference. Remember, your community is counting on you to bring them to justice! 

                                                                                             

PROCESS:

You will be assigned an investigative group consisting of members with a variety of specialties, and it will be up to all of you to combine your knowledge to solve this crime. 

FIRST: Reread The Tell-Tale Heart. Read this story aloud with your group. Remember, this is valuable evidence! This is the murderer's confession! Make sure you pay close attention to details, as they will come in useful later!

SECOND: Familiarize yourselves with your individual roles. Each member will be responsible for a specific portion (see below) of your final police report. At this point, you will separate from your goup to work on your individual projects. It is your responsibility to decide who does each part.

THIRD: Get back together with your original group and compile all of the information that you have individually gathered. As a group, you will be presenting your final conclusions to the class at an upcoming press conference, which means that you will need to present your individual findings to your group members so that they can be as well informed as possible.

                                                                                                         JOBS:

 

                                                                                           

                                                                                    CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATOR

 

Your job is to search for literary devices within the story that could be used as "clues" to help you get inside the murderer's mind.

1. Read the story a second time.

2. Use the internet to search for any unfamiliar literary devices (see below).

3. Once you are familiar with the function of each literary device, use your knowledge of the story to answer the following questions about each "clue" that you find.

The literary devices that you will be using as "clues," as well as the questions that need to be answered, are listed below:

                - Tone: What does the narrator's writing style in the first paragrah suggest about his nervousness (pay careful attention to his PUCTUATION)? What does the author's word choice suggest about his tone? What emotions do you feel when you read this story?

                - Dialogue: What kind of dialogue do you see in this story? Which words are thoughts, and which words are spoken? How do you know? How do the narrator's thoughts compare with what's ACTUALLY happening in the story? The narrator is talking to someone in the story: who might "you" be?

                - Foreshadowing: Where do you see foreshadowing in this story? What words and phrases can you find in the middle of the story that suggest to you that something terrible is about to happen? How does the narrator hint at the old man's fate?

                - Mood: How do the details about time and place in the story contribute to the mood? What other details contribute to the mood? What does the mood suggest about the murderer's guilt?

                -Figurative Language: What types of figurative language do you see? Are there any similes? Metaphors? Make a list of as many specific examples of figurative language that you can find in the story.

4. Once you have answered all the questions, write a one-page evaluation of your findings. Which literary devices were the best "clues" in helping you get inside the murderer's mind? Why? What made them useful? Would the story have been different if these literary devices were NOT included? Remember to include specific examples!

                                                                                         

                                                                                          THE PROFILER

 

Your job is to gather as much information about the murderer as possible.

First, learn about Edgar Allan Poe's life by doing research using the follwing resources.

        - The Life of Edgar Allan Poe                   

        - The Poe Museum

        - Poe's Family Tree

        - Timeline of Poe's Life, Including Historical Context

        - Poe's History

        - Hear Edgar Allan Poe Speak!

Once you have done your research and have become a Poe expert, use your knowledge to write a profile of the murderer that includes the following information:

        - Biographical facts: (one page) including dates, information about Poe's family, Poe's occupations, his interests, and any other facts that you think are relevant to this investigation.

        - Speculations: (one page) including your insight as to what specific events/occurrences in Poe's life would have caused him to murder the old man.

        - An original drawing of Poe. 

                                                                                                      

                                                                                                            POLICE

YOU are the policeman or policewoman who was called to the scene when Poe's neighbors reported a shriek coming from the house next door. Your job is to write a police report from YOUR point of view, detailing exactly what happened on the night of the murder.

Read the story again, this time from the point of view of the policemen who were called to the scene. Make sure you pay specific attention to the policemen: What did they see? What did they do? How do you think their perspective is different from the murderer's? As you are reading, make a list of details that stand out to you now that you are reading from a different point of view.

Using your list, as well as specific details from the story, create a timeline (BE CREATIVE) that depicts exactly what happened in the seven days leading up to the murder, and on the night of the murder, itself.

Then, using your timeline, as well as all of the differences that you noticed during your second read-through, re-write the story of the murder from YOUR perspective as a police officer. Remember, it's your Job to pay attention to specific details; make sure your police report reflects a thorough investigation

                                                                                                

                                                                                                      JOURNALIST

Your job is to write a newspaper article about the murder. The public is eager to hear the details; it's up to you to inform the community about what has happened!

Read the story again, this time looking specifically for information that would be useful to you in your newpaper article. Such details might include:

    - elements of TIME,

    - direct QUOTATIONS

    - FACTS

Make a list of these elements as you run across them in the story.

Every great newspaper article has an interview. Prepare a list of 10 questions that you would ask Edgar Allan Poe if you had the chance; attach this list to the final draft of your article.

Additionally, prepare a list of five questions that you would ask the neighbor who reported hearing shrieks from Poe's house on the night of the murder. Then, working with one of the other journalists in the class, take turns interviewing each other, pretending to be the neighbor who heard the screams. You will be graded on your questions, as well as your answers.

You also need to include one original sketch of the murderer in your newspaper article.

Now you're ready to write your article! Using your list of elements, your interview, your drawing, and your knowledge of the murder, write a newspaper article that describes the murder. Remember, specific details make a good article FANTASTIC!

 

Remember, once every member of the group has finished his or her portion of the project, you need to come back together as a group and present your findings to each other so that you can create an informative, creative, and complete case summary, which you will then present to the class at a press conference. Good Luck!

                                                                                                  Poe WebQuest

	Proficient 13 Points	Emerging 10 Points	Beginning 6 Points
Background knowledge on Poe	Full knowledge of Poe and the Gothic Romanticism era. Is able to demonstrate why he wrote in this style.	Partial knowledge of Poe and the Gothic Romanticism era. Is able to demonstrate several reasons why he wrote in this style.	Limited knowledge of Poe and the Gothic Romanticism era. Is able to demonstrate some reasons why he wrote in this style.
CSI	Addresses all parts of the prompt, demonstrates understanding of information synthesis and analysis, has strong evaluation, has answered all the questions.	Addresses only parts of the prompt, demonstrates limited understanding of information synthesis and analysis, has an evaluation, has answered some the questions.	Minimally addresses the prompt, shows little or no understanding of information synthesis and analysis, has no evaluation, has not answered all the questions.
Profiler	Addresses all parts of the prompt, demonstrates understanding of information synthesis and analysis. Detailed drawing, biographical facts and speculations are included.	Addresses only parts of the prompt, demonstrates limited understanding of information synthesis and analysis. Detailed drawing, biographical facts and speculations are mostly included.	Minimally addresses the prompt, shows little or no understanding of information synthesis and analysis. One or more of the following are missing: detailed drawing, biographical facts and speculations are included.
Police	Produced a detailed timeline and rewritten the story from the viewpoint of the police.	Produced a timeline and rewritten the story from the viewpoint of the police.	Produced a minimal timeline and an incomplete story from the viewpoint of the police.
Journalist	Newspaper article shows understanding, organization, and creativity, develops interpretation of the text using textual examples. Includes several pictures.	Newspaper article shows limited understanding, organization, and creativity, develops limited interpretation of the text, and uses few textual examples. Includes few pictures.	Newspaper article shows little or no understanding, organization, or creativity, lacks interpretation of the text and textual examples. Doesn't include pictures.
Overall Aesthetics and Organization	Project is organized, is creatively compiled, is visually stimulating, and demonstrates understanding and cohesiveness.	Project is minimally organized, is not creatively compiled, is slightly visually stimulating, and lacks understanding and cohesiveness.	Project is not organized, is not creatively compiled, is not visually stimulating, and lacks understanding and cohesiveness.
Group Presentation	Demonstrates superior organization and preparation, makes excellent use of visual aids, clearly reflects the task, and addresses the audience in a highly creative way.	Demonstrates little organization and preparation, makes slight use of visual aids, minimally reflects the task, and addresses the audience in a slightly creative way.	Demonstrates no organization or preparation, makes no use of visual aids, and fails to reflect the task or address the audience in a creative way.
Conventions	Uses highly complex sentence structure, contains no spelling and grammatical errors, and demonstrates complete mastery of language conventions.	Shows limited use of varied sentence structure, contains several spelling and grammatical errors, and demonstrates little mastery of language conventions.	Uses incorrect sentence structure, contains numerous spelling and grammatical errors, and demonstrates no mastery of language conventions.

 

Conclusion:

Throughout this process, you've learned several things, including how to use literary devices to analyze a story, how to compile useful information from several sources to create a biography, and how to synthesize facts and data to create an informative timeline.

You've learned how to look at a story from several different points of view, and how to "notice" different aspects of story when you see them from a different perspective.

You've also learned how to write a newspaper article, how to conduct an interview, how to follow directions and work in groups, and how to develop speculations and predictions based on given information.

But, most importantly, you've learned how to navigate the internet and how to use its wonderful resources in an appropriate and educational way!

 

Thank you to Kristy Gillingham for sharing her webquest and allowing me to modify it for my students. 

Google for all of my photographs.

Permissions

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is granted for others to use and modify this WebQuest for educational, non-commercial purposes as long as the original authorship is credited. The modified WebQuest may be shared only under the same conditions. See the Creative Commons Attribution • Non-Commercial • Share-Alike license for details.

Students will investigate the murder that takes place in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart." Students will use different literary devices found in the story as "clues" in an attempt to understand the murderer. Additionally, students will read other works by Poe in an effort to develop a complete understanding of the murderer. They will also investigate the time period during which the murder took place. Once they have collected a significant amount of information, students will write a police report that re-tells the story from the policemen's point of view. They will then present their case to the class at a press conference.

Teacher Introduction

This particluar lesson focuses on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart." In teams, students will investigate the murder of the old man in the story, and then will present their findings to the class at a "press conference." Each team will cosist of four members with very different specialties: a crime scene investigator, a police officer, a profiler, and a journalist. Additionally, each memeber will have a very different job assignment to complete. Students will read the story once with their groups, and will then work individually on thier own projects, following very specific directions. Once completed, the teams will come back together, present their information to each other, and then to the class.