Presented by: Sandra Kyle Edu 505 – Winter 2008 Professor: Dr. H. Yang Poe WebQuest Presented by: Sandra Kyle Edu 505 – Winter 2008 Professor: Dr. H. Yang

Introduction As we have been learning, Edgar Allen Poe is one of America’s best known masters of horror, macabre, and mystery. Poe’s troubling life is as full of mystery and haunting as his tales of horror. Be a mystery detective, find out as much about Poe as you can and share the mystery with your family and friends in two weeks at our annual Halloween Weekend Open House.

Task For our class Poe Reader’s Theater Presentations your group will become authors, experts, and publishers to create a playbill to share with your parents and friends on the evening of our performances.

Process To complete your task you will: 1. Create a short biography of Poe, including events that may have effected his life and works. 2. Create a brief summary breakdown of your story’s plot, organized by scene/act. 3. List your group’s cast of characters 4. Explore Tone and Mood to help you select interesting graphics, fonts, paper, and ink colors that illustrate the theme and set the mood and tone of your Reader’s Theater. 5. Create the playbill for your Reader’s Theater.

Poe Biography Websites Process: Biography To accomplish the Poe biography task your group must become a group of Poe experts. Visit the websites provided to learn more about Poe’s life and events that affected his work. You may use timelines and any of your note taking organizers to help you take notes. Once you have finished your research, come back together as a team to discuss your research, make decisions about what to include, and create a brief biography of Poe and events that may have affected his works. Word process your biography to include in your final playbill. Poe Biography Websites Knowing Poe Poe Museum Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore Academy of American Poets

Process: Summary of Plot Having read and worked with your Poe tale, poem, or story to create your Poe’s Reader’s Theater you are already on the way to becoming an expert of the work. Find out what other’s have to say about your work, using the websites provided. (Pay attention to how a summary is written. What details are included and what is left out?) Poe Summary Websites Exploration of Stories by Poe The Poe Decoder

Summary of Plot After perusing the sites, come back together as a group, decide what to include and what to leave out of your summary, and create a summary your own Poe Reader’s Theater. Word process your summary to use in the final playbill. TIP: Organize your summary by act and scene. This will help your family and friends to understand your presentation better.

Process: Cast of Characters You have been working together as a group, using our group rules and sharing responsibility for all tasks. Keep up the good work! For this part of your task, ask your group recorder to word process your list of characters and who will be playing each character in Poe Reader’s Theater. Include this list in your final playbill. TIP: Be recognized for your hard work! Create a list for the roles you’ve taken in your group work (both WebQuest and Playbill publishing). Include this list on the playbill! Do you like Poe’s stories and want to hear more? Listen to a dramatic reading of Poe’s poem “The Raven”.

Process: Graphics, Mood and Tone Identifying the mood and tone of a work is often an important clue to help the reader or audience determine the overall feeling or emotions of the characters, setting, or subject. Mood and tone can help us to make connections and find meaning in a story. Use the websites provided to learn more about literary tone and mood. Tone and Mood Websites The Writer’s Studio Setting Tone

Tone and Mood: “Brake-Time” for Learning Journals Write in your learning journal what you’ve learned about tone and mood. Ideas for Writing: What are tone and mood? Can you define or describe? Writer’s don’t write “this is a sad story, or a happy story, or this is dark and terrifying”, so how do we, the audience, understand the tone and mood? How does an author create tone and mood? How did Poe create tone and mood in the story, poem, or tale you are working with? Provide some examples. What are some ways that you might develop tone or mood for your Reader’s Theater and for your playbill?

Process: Tone and Mood After researching tone and mood online: Hold a group meeting to discuss, brainstorm, and record ideas about the tone and mood of your chosen literary work and Reader’s Theater. Use your journal and ideas on the next slide to focus your group talk. (You may add to your learning journal after the group talk).

Process: Graphics, Mood and Tone Group Meeting What is the tone and mood of your work? How did Poe create this tone and mood, share examples from your journal. What colors might you choose to convey that mood and tone? Use your ideas to make decisions about paper and ink choices for your playbill. Determine important elements and characters of your literary work. What graphics or symbols might you choose to convey these elements and/or characters? Use Microsoft clipart to search for pictures and/or graphics that match the ideas your group has chosen. Select graphics to use in your playbill. Microsoft Clipart

Don’t stop now, your quest is almost done! Process: Playbill Don’t stop now, your quest is almost done! Your group must make final decisions about the set-up and creation of your playbill. Use Microsoft Publisher to create your playbill; be sure to insert the work you have already completed (biography, summary, and character list) as well as the graphics you’ve selected. TIP: All group members should edit the playbill before it is published. Be sure to print enough copies for everyone!

Resources http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/default_flash.asp http://www.poemuseum.org/ http://www.eapoe.org/ http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/130 http://www.poestories.com/ http://www.poedecoder.com http://www.ojai.net/swanson/theraven.htm http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/default.aspx http://www.writerstudio.com/sampleclass/elements.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setting_tone

Evaluation

Conclusion Wow, that was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work! The playbills will be a great addition to our Poe’s Reader’s Theater Presentations. Your parents and friends will learn so much from your thoughtful biographies, your Reader’s Theater summaries, and from the tone and mood that you have created in both your playbills and your Reader’s Theaters.