How to Make Edgar Allan Poe Relevant: Scaffolded Creative Writing for Secondary ELA

I love Gothic literature. Something about it.

The monsters as metaphor. The rich, dense language that forces me to slow down. The layers of figurative language that overlap imagery, weaving it into extended metaphor, accentuating with sound devices, and all of it coming together to suggest theme.

What ELA teacher wouldn't love it?

When What We Love Doesn’t Land With Students

Every time I re-read Frankenstein, I'm surprised how much I still love it. Whenever I re-read Poe, I enjoy the anxious tension in some of the narration.

But I'll never forget one time when I was interviewing for an ELA position, and I was asked what I would love to teach – and I answered "some Poe!" And the teacher that had asked me the question, his face completely fell. Not the answer he was looking for.

Poe.

Dense. Dry. Dare I say flowery?

Just... lots of big words.

Slow.

Old.

That interview question was intending to ask me what I would love to teach if I could teach anything – how might I teach a contemporary text? Or something new or high engagement for students? (I came back for my demo lesson and babbled about Murakami and sci-fi, some personal loves).

But it drove the point home for me that sometimes what I really love and enjoy is just not going to translate over to students.

Do I love reading Shakespeare? Yes. Beowulf? Yes. The Odyssey? Yes.

Do students?

[Hell] no.

Well, for the majority, it's usually hell no. *Insert student groans here.*

Poe's language is confusing. If I can barely understand the words on the page, how am I supposed to grasp what's going on with plot? Characters?

I remember how I felt reading The Odyssey when I was in high school... and even in college. I really had to sit with the text, take my time, and look up words.

Some students just don't have the time to do that for every page. Some students straight up don't care. Some students don't see the point when they can just ask ChatGPT.

Why Poe Still Matters

So how do we make Poe relevant beyond pulling up The Simpson's Raven or showing clips of Mike Flanagan's The Fall of the House of Usher (which is a wonderful adaptation, but it's pretty dense to teach the connections between the series and Poe's works when Poe's stories can already be difficult for students to access themselves)?

For me, I think it's still important that students read some Edgar Allan Poe. We need the cultural and content knowledge to carry forward into future generations. But after they've read a few Poe stories (maybe "The Tell Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat" are shorter and more accessible, maybe "The Masque of the Red Death" feels more timely and relatable since COVID) – perhaps we can just look at Poe for what he is:

a master of atmosphere building, unreliable narrators, and haunting tales

Teaching Students to Read Like Writers

This means teaching students to read like writers. Which... who has the time for that focus all of the time?

When I'm teaching full time - not me. But at the moment, as I'm transitioning back to the classroom with some subbing – I do have that time. So I made a workbook that pairs Poe passages with creative writing prompts that help students develop their own scary stories.

A Scaffolded Way In: The Poe Creative Writing Workbook

I pulled the opening from The Fall of the House of Usher, since it's an example of using imagery, figurative language, sound, and mood to create a haunted house (that's personified - a Gothic convention), and a creepy atmosphere or setting (another Gothic convention). And I also pulled nearly half of the story "The Masque of the Red Death" to offer students another example of creating atmosphere and place with Prince Prospero's chambers. The mood of Masque is also quite different from Usher, where one features a haunted house and family, while another features a highly symbolic place and builds suspense and anticipation.

Ideas for Differentiation

Now, you could assign the entire workbook to each student (which – maybe do this if you teach Gifted and Talented or Honors students), but you can also differentiate instruction by starting with the Usher passage one day, and then assigning each small group of students to revisit the passage with a focus on a particular literary device (imagery, personification, repetition, diction & symbolism).

Groups can choose, or you can assign based on ability level:

• imagery might be the easiest to notice and most scaffolded, whereas
• repetition can be a bit more fluid and abstract to work with, and
• diction and symbolism might simultaneously be easy and also so broad that it's a bit challenging – depends on your students.

Then, you can jigsaw so students can share what they discovered about their language device focus, or you can have students share out so you facilitate class discussion and shared knowledge.

From there - you can encourage all students to do the creative writing practice, which is designed to have students take inspiration from the opening of Usher --> Choose one device (imagery, diction, repetition, or personification) and describe your own haunted place.

There – that's day one.

For day two, you could do the same with the first excerpt of "The Masque of the Red Death"

The next three passages from Masque have parallel comprehension and language analysis questions that ensure students understand what's going on in those passages, and are continuing to notice Poe's use of language - his style - his craft - to create space, atmosphere, and mood.

Once again, you could assign all of it to students. Or you could have all students read the rest of the passages, but assign each group a different passage to really read closely and focus on, and then share out. It's up to you how much time you have and what works best for your students. But after each passage is a paired creative writing practice that helps students develop their place, characters, conflict, and extended metaphors.

It's integrated close reading and annotation practice alongside writing practice. The foundation of ELA skills.

After that, you can decide if you want students to take their creative writing practices and pull them together into a complete story. I have an assignment sheet and rubric ready to go if that's what you prefer.

But you can also just let them reflect on the process and enjoy it for what it was (...the workbook does have a creative reflection page, as well as story synthesis prompts that asks students to reflect on Gothic conventions).

Do you teach Poe? Or are you looking to spruce up some of your Poe lessons?

The free pages will take care of one day of lessons for you. Or if you'd like to purchase the full workbook - Planning Room members already have access to the workbook here, or you can find it on Teachers Pay Teachers, too!