A confession: I don’t like Halloween! *gasp* THE HORROR!!!
BUT I know that my students LOVE it!
So to infuse a bit of the spooky season in high school English I incorporate some specific lessons to meet curriculum requirements while still having a bit of fun!
Explore and Write Gothic Poetry
Grade 11 students focus on Frankenstein at this time of year so to kick-off the unit students explore Gothic poetry.
The driving question is what makes something Gothic. To do this, students explore images and art as well as texts to figure out the stylistic elements. I love to use classic and contemporary works in class.
Combining classic and contemporary poems can provide students with great variation to explore stylistic elements. For classic examples the tried-and-true works by Edgar Allan Poe and Christina Rossetti would work really well. For contemporary works, look to poems by Tracy K. Smith or Emily Berry. And for a change of pace, why not incorporate a short film that’s really a poem: Tim Burton’s Vincent is 6 minutes of delight!
Here are some FREE teacher notes to help you with including two contemporary Gothic poems in your classroom.
Looking for a lesson to have your students explore and write Gothic poetry? Check it out here.
Practice Inference Skills with Spooky Stories
Is it even spooky season without the ever-popular Edgar Allan Poe?
My students always need practice with inference skills so I like to incorporate stories to fit a season combined with skills practice.
There’s so much to read between the lines in a work by Poe. I like to use “The Black Cat” since it is a bit shorter than some of his other works and can be covered in a single class.
I have a series of inference short story lessons available, including Poe’ “The Black Cat”, which you can check out here or a ghost story here.
These offer students a consistent format to then be able to focus on the story and skill practice. These are a reliable option for sub-plans! I like to have a story ready to go as part of my emergency sub plans!
Check out this bundle of four spooky short stories to help students hone their inference skills.
Start with introductory activities about the skill. Then use the stories – one or all as lit circles with different groups reading different stories. This is great for differentiation for all learners!
The bundle also includes opportunities for paragraph writing based on literary elements such as tone, character, theme, and more!
Write 6-word Stories
I love a good 6-word story and I use the method in many classes to get students thinking and writing creatively. Creative writing in high school often gets put on the back-burner but I think these short short stories are a great way to include creative writing in any class.
Check out other sample stories here – you can look into specific categories such as Death, Scary, Morbid to find some good exemplars.
These make for a great display in class or a hallway class show-off bulletin board. Use black construction paper and have students write their stories using chalk to increase the spooky season vibes!
For more ways to use 6-word stories and flash fiction in your ELA classroom check out this post at ELA Matters.
For more suggestions to incorporate poetry into everyday ELA lessons check out this post.
And for read this post with tips and tricks to honing inference skills.
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