Poe in the Classroom

“The Masque of the Red Death” is a magnificent short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. Using Poe in the classroom is a great way to get more resistant students involved in literature. Often students who have struggled to connect to literature in the classroom are able to easily connect with Poe because of his dark, dramatic, unique writing. Poe catches the attention of the most hesitant readers. “The Masque of the Red Death” would be a great addition to any classroom curriculum. It provides teachers with many different ways of teaching any number of literary elements. This is my first time reading the story and there are so many ideas I have already had about using it in the classroom. It would be really fun to create a Poe unit and incorporate this text in it. “The Raven” would fit well in this type of unit too. Students could create their own “mask” that portrays the Red Death. They could look at diction, intent, symbolism, etc. They could split up into groups and create a poster that portrays each room individually. There are many fun, hands-on activities that students can do with this story. I think that this story can reach a broad range of age groups and abilities. With 9^th grade, students would need more direction and assistance understanding the story, but they could still get through it. 9^th grade could look at the story on a surface level by learning about and being able to identify symbolism or diction. Seniors could use this story to look at more complex ideas of the text or do a more involved, in depth type of activity to make them think more critically about the text. There are little to no obstacles with this text. While it is quite the horror story, it is nothing that the students couldn’t handle. I think that using Poe in the classroom is a great idea. I wish I had been introduced to him sometime throughout my elementary, middle or high school years. I don’t think my school experience ever touched on Poe until college.