Poe's "Cask of Amontillado," "Fall of the House of Usher," "Ligeia," "The Black Cat," and "Annabel Lee"

Poe's works have been used all around the world to teach a variety of topics to kids, no matter the grade level. His works "Cask of Amontillado," "Fall of the House of Usher," "Ligeia," "The Black Cat," and "Annabel Lee" are no exception. Each short story has a different lesson that students can be taught. 

Poe's "Cask of Amontillado" can be used to teach students about the meaning and morals of a text. One moral question that can be asked of this story is "does vengeance equal justice," or even "is revenge just." This story really plays on the topic of revenge and is a great way to teach students how to analyze the text to find the answer. There are a lot of passages in this story that contain a large amount of information that students should analyze to find the meaning and morals of a text. Poe's "Cask of Amontillado" is a great piece to teach students how to find the meaning and morals of a text. Students could easily take sections of the text and attempt to find a moral or meaning and then share it with the class.

Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" is a great ghost story that could be used to teach mood and setting to students. The entire story takes on a very dreary mood that students should be able to pick up on. Students could easily find sections, words, and phrases that help to create the mood. The setting is also very important to this story and can be used to teach students the importance of setting. I think t would be fun to have students do a parody or an imitation of this story to mimic the mood and structure of the story. This story would also be a great one to use a storyboard with or have students draw comics with them. Comics would allow students to learn and analyze the text in a different way than they normally would.  

Poe's "Ligeia" is an incredibly chilling story, and can be used to teach students about imagery. This story has to be my favorite of Poe's, and I feel like there is so much students can learn from reading and analyzing it. Students could mimic this story, do comics, and analyze the text for literary devices. Students can also use this text to learn about imagery.