Poor Poe-try.

Edgar Allan Poe

Can it be fun?

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet in the late 18th, early 19th century. He wrote wonderful works, such as Annabel Lee, The Raven, and The Tell-tale Heart. For many years, students have dreaded getting to this part in their high school English classes. Poetry usually not seen as fun, but Poe Poetry is definitely not "fun," until now. 

Thanks to the invention of the wonderful World Wide Web, teachers get the opportunity to share their great ideas about everything from lesson planning to classroom management. The plethora of great ideas even includes some for the "scary" Edgar Allan Poe. Here are a few ideas I was able to come up with.

• ·      The student could create a timeline of Poe’s life. They could use paper or an electronic one. We could follow the outline of this lesson plan.  EdgarAllanPoeLesson1
• ·      The students could create Venn diagrams comparing and contrasting Annabel Lee to The Raven (both by Poe).
• ·      The students could create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting Annabel Lee by Poe and Fire and Ice by Frost.
• ·      Students could make a pictorial representation of the poem. They would not be allowed to use words, and they must draw what the poem means to them or what they believe the poem is about.
• ·      Students could compare and contrast the Annabel Lee by Poe and “Hope” is a Thing with Feathers by Dickinson
• ·      This could be an introduction to a unit on early American poetry such as: EarlyAmericanPoetyLesson
• Students could create a rap about Edgar Allan Poe OR one of his poems.
• They could write their own Poe-esque story or poem.
• The class could make a stop-motion video that tells the story of one of Poe's works.
• I found these other lesson plans too: EdgarAllanPoe2, EdgarAllanPoe3, and EdgarAllanPoe4.

Poe can be fun! Do not be afraid. Dive right in, and see what you find!