Subject : English (as a Foreign Language) Language Level : Upper Intermediate (B2)

Area: Literature Sub-Area: American Romanticism

Grade: High School (Levels 10-12) OBJECTIVES At the end of this sessions students will be able to:

Analyze the importance of point of view in a text.

Identify the topics and stylistic elements of the American Romantic Period (also known as Dark Romanticism), as found in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”.

Abilities: Language and communication

Reading Comprehension: to increase the level of inference and deduction to read texts and to critically examine the words of the Narrator.

Modality: Virtual Lesson1 (1-week work)

Synchronous tools: Live Videoconferencing Chat

Asynchronous tools: Wiki Discussion Forums

OVERVIEW: Students will be briefly introduced to the life and writing of Edgar Allan Poe. They will become familiar with one of Poe’s famous works, “The Tell-Tale heart”. The teacher will present the short story in a variety of forms (with online material, and synchronous and asynchronous activities) and from this students will gather a deeper understanding of the author’s style and rhetoric.

Previous knowledge: Students in their Literature Class will have already:

o Studied the general characteristics of the Romantic period (in Europe and America), o The characteristics of the detective novel and the fantastic genera and terror, o Been introduced to the tension between Romanticism and Realism in Twain’s work, o Read short stories from Horacio Quiroga (“Cuentos de Amor, de Locura y de Muerte”) and

Edgar Allan Poe (“The Gold Bug”, “The Raven”, “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Cask of Amontillado” – all translated to Spanish).

1 This is part of an actual online language course that I’m currently developing for a high-school in Mexico (there are geographical restrictions for teachers and students to be able to meet in a physical classroom, and also this English course is a supplementary one, so it won’t be part of the School’s curriculum but will be available for those students who would like to improve their English above school requirements, making use of a content-based approach that will connect to knowledge they’ve had acquired from their high-school courses, such as Literature, Social Studies, Nature Science, etc.). Besides, the material, resources and activities can be worked from afar using new technologies such as Adobe Connect, instant messaging and asynchronous tools.

RESOURCES AND MATERIALS

Websites

www.poemuseum.org http://www.webenglishteacher.com/msb/eapoe/heart.html http://www.americanliterature.com/author/mark-twain/book/the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn/chapter-17

Videos

(Vincent Price -the first 15 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzyYzK94UU4 (modern take) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i6LVcwVXnA (animated) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8So5ZyFtWU

Document Questionnaire (Link available in the LMS)

VIRTUAL COMPONENTS AND LESSON ACTIVITIES2:

Students, previous to the online session will have: A) Taken a virtual tour through Poe’s Museum. B) Read the short story. C) Watched the videos (Vincent Price monologue, animated version and modern-take).

Online Session

Students will perform a role-play of either an interrogation scene or a courtroom scene (in the style of Law & Order) consistent with what Poe crafted in the story. Through a live synchronous session (of 60-75 minutes) monitored by the teacher, students will perform the role-play, where the suspect will be the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, who has confessed3. After the interrogation, the teacher will ask the students to become the jury and have to decide if they will believe the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart" when he says he is not mad, or will they accept his attorney's insanity defense? Justifying their decisions with valid arguments (the teacher acts as the “judge”).

As homework, students will have to read Mark Twain’s parody of Romantic poetry in chapter 17 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Wiki

The teacher will divide the class in groups of three and students will have to work collaboratively in a WIKI to write an essay where they will evaluate Romantic poetry and decide if Twain’s parody is justified, and also include their own short serious Romantic poem or a parody of one.

2 Some of the activities have been inspired by these lesson plans: http://www.webenglishteacher.com/msb/eapoe/poe.html and http://www.uni.illinois.edu/~slinder/A%20Lesson%20in%20Evaluating%20Poetry.htm 3 Students will take turns interrogating the suspect, who can be played by the teacher or students take turns playing him too.

Discussion Forum

The teacher will post 2 questions in the DISCUSSION FORUM, one about the wording, style and rhetoric used by Poe, and the second comparing Poe’s and Quiroga’s work. Students should post their opinion first and then at least answer to two of their classmates whether they agree or disagree with them. The idea is to engage in discussion using valid arguments for their opinions.

Questionnaire Students will answer individually and e-mail to the teacher the given questionnaire on the lesson, available in the LMS.

METHOD OF EVALUATION4:

The teacher will evaluate Students through a rubric for the online session,

The WIKI is useful to review the individual and collaborative work for the essay, and the final version will be evaluated using a rubric as well.

The teacher will evaluate Students posts in the Discussion Forum and post his/her conclusions about the discussion (topic) and participating level and quality.

The teacher will evaluate the Students’ answers of their questionnaire and provide feedback via e-mail.

4 The links in here aren’t for the actual rubrics, just ideas for elaborating my own for the real lesson.