Fachdidaktik Englisch I, Hansjuerg Perino Karin, Isabelle, Seraina

HS 2007

Plan of attack with a graded reader

Title Seven Stories of Mystery and Horror by Edgar Allan

Poe
(with audio CD)
Level A2 (elementary); 1,100 key words
Publisher Macmillan Readers
Accent American English
Content Seven intriguing stories by one of the most famous and gifted writers
description of nineteenth century American literature.
Number of 11 lessons: 1 introductory lesson, 1 lesson on the author, 7 lessons
lessons covering the 7 stories, 2 follow-up lessons
required
Aims reading experience; vocabulary related to horror/mystery (semantic
field); writing; listening and reading comprehension; reading
competence; literary theory: horror as a genre

Lesson Ideas

Lesson Procedure
1 Setting the scene
Introduce the topic of horror/mystery:
show selected scene from FRIENDS in which Joe reads a horror book
and puts it into the freezer.
ask students What kind of book is it?, What do you do when youre
afraid?
Brainstorm vocabulary related to horror/mystery
2 The author Edgar Allan Poe
Web Quest on his life and work
3-9 1 lesson per story (7 stories in total)
different approaches/activities:
read at home, act out in class
read in class: in pairs aloud
listen to story (CD) followed by comprehension questions in class
group work: each group focuses on one chapter/story, thinks of 3-5
questions for other groups (content or interpretation questions).
questions are passed on to another group. Each group presents its
answers to entire class. The group who came up with the questions
comments (agrees/disagrees/expands). This method allows you to
recap the entire book/collection of stories within a short amount of
time.
alternative ending: let students read up to twist. They write an
appropriate ending (prediction task). They then compare their endings
before reading the original ending. Students then decide which ending
they think works best. This is not necessarily the original ending. That
way you can boost your students confidence in their story-telling skills.
10-11 follow-up activities
additional vocabulary tasks
creative writing: students write their own horror story (either
individually or in groups). Optional: T provides opening sentence.
further exploration of horror fiction as a literary genre