Lesson: Directed Listening and Thinking of “The Tell-Tale Heart”
Time: 1 hour
Date Taught:
NCSCofS Objectives
Competency Goal 1: The learner will use language to express individual perspectives drawn from personal or related experience.
1.02 Explore expressive materials that are read, heard, and/or viewed by:
- Monitoring comprehension for understanding of what is read, heard and/or viewed.
- Determining the main idea and/or significance of events.
- Generating a learning log or journal.
- Creating an artistic interpretation that connects self to the work.
Key questions:
- Improve their listening comprehension and prediction skills by participating in a Listening–Thinking Activity
- Students will learn new words and understand them through the use of context clues.
Materials
° Copies of Student Prediction Sheet
° Vocabulary sheet
° Pencil
° Paper
°
Copy of The
Tell-Tale Heart
° PowerPoint
° Edgar Allan Poe Books
Procedures:
Introduction: (10 minutes)
- Introduce students to Poe through poetry
-
Show PowerPoint about Poe’s life and how it related to his poetry. Talk through the PowerPoint with the students
emphasizing major points in the presentation.
-
Draw students’ attention to the pictures that you put into the
presentation.
-
Make the connection between his tough life and his style of writing
through the PowerPoint. Explain that his writing may stem from his life
experiences, just as we usually write about what we know. (Students may or may
not be able to connect the loss of Poe's wife and mother to Lenore in "The
Raven." Students may also be unaware that in “The Tell-Tale Heart” Poe
focus on guilt possibly due to the death of his wife)
Activity (1 hour)
- Begin reading “The Tell-Tale Heart.” As students come to words that they ask about and words that have been pre-selected, (see attached), students will be asked to use context clues to figure the word out.
- Explain to students that you are going to read a story by Poe called “The Tell-Tale Heart.” As students read the story aloud, you will be stopping them periodically and asking them to write down their predictions in response to certain questions. Tell students that this writing process will help them better comprehend the story while they are listening.
- Have students record their predictions on provided worksheet.
- Place the prediction questions on an overhead, covering up all questions at first.
- Remind students that there is no talking during the prediction-making no matter how badly they would like to discuss what is happening. There will be time later to talk about the story.
- Reveal the first question and have students write their predictions on their sheets of paper.
- Begin reading the story, stopping at the designated points to allow students to respond to the questions as you uncover them. Do not reveal questions until you have gotten to the designated place in the reading.
Closure
- At the conclusion of the story, have students discuss the story and also their responses to the prediction questions. Allow them time to reach their own conclusions and process the story with one another.
- Collect the students' prediction response papers, and assess their participation in the lesson and their comprehension of the story.
Differentiation
- Verbal, auditory
Assessment
- Anecdotal records of student participation
- Students will write a brief summary of “The Tell-Tale Heart” and whether or not their predictions were accurate or not.
Follow-Up
-
Students will create a comic strip demonstrating their
comprehension on “The Tell-Tale Heart” using the comic strip creator at http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/comic/
Source
Adapted from the following:
http://www.readwritethink.org