1. The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe

2. Edgar Allen Poe
Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809.  Edgar was the second of three children. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families.
In 1826 Poe left Richmond to attend the University of Virginia, but by the end of his first term Poe was so desperately poor that he burned his furniture to keep warm.

3. Edgar Allen Poe
 At the age of twenty-seven married his cousin Virginia, who was not yet fourteen. Tragedy struck in 1842 when Poe’s wife contracted tuberculosis, the disease that had already claimed Poe’s mother, brother, and foster mother. 
The January 1845 publication of “The Raven” made Poe a household name. However, his wife’s deteriorating health, and rumors spreading about Poe’s relationship with a married woman, drove him out of the city in 1846. Virginia died at the age of twenty-four. 
Poe died on October 7, 1849 at the age of forty. The exact cause of Poe’s death remains a mystery.

4. Gothic Literature
Setting: The setting of gothic literature is usually dark, scary,lonely, and old. It could be an old mansion, a forest, or a cave.
Grotesque: something that simultaneously invokes in an audience a feeling of uncomfortable bizarreness as well as sympathetic pity.
Supernatural: gothic literature often includes elements of the supernatural, such as ghosts and specter or unexpected noises.
Unreliable Narrator: the reader gets the sense that the narrator is either confused, lying, or actually insane.
Claustrophobia: gothic literate often contains elements that make the narrator feel closed in, or like he/she can’t escape.

5. The Tell-Tale Heart Vocabulary
Foresight: the ability to predict or the action of predicting what will happen or be needed in the future.
Dissimulation: concealment of one's thoughts, feelings, or character; pretense.
Vexed: annoyed, frustrated, or worried.
Sagacity: acuteness of mental discernment and soundness of judgment.
Hearkening: to give heed or attention to what is said; listen.
Awe: a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder.
Distinctness: the quality of being not alike; being distinct or different from that otherwise experienced or known.
Over-acuteness:  Reacting readily to stimuli or impressions; sensitive.

6. The Tell-Tale Heart Vocabulary Cont.
Concealment: the action of hiding something or preventing it from being known.
Waned: decrease in vigor, power, or extent; become weaker.
Scantlings: a piece of lumber of small cross section.
Suavity: the art of making people like and want to be around you.
Bade: to command; order; direct.
Audacity: the willingness to take bold risks.
Reposed: be lying, situated, or kept in a particular place.
Derision: contemptuous ridicule or mockery.

7. Title:
Based on the title, predict what you think this story will be about.

8. First Paragraph:
Who do you think the narrator is speaking to?

9. Third Paragraph:
Write down what you think the author means by “the work”.
Why does the narrator treat the old man so well in the mornings?

10. Fourth Paragraph:
Why doesn’t the narrator leave when he realizes the old man is awake?

11. Fifth Paragraph:
Would you like to change your original prediction of what this story is about?

12. Sixth and Seventh Paragraphs:
Whose heart do you think the narrator is hearing?

13. Seventh Paragraphs:
In one sentence, predict the ending of the story.

14. Eighth Paragraphs:
Who is at the door?

15. Ninth Paragraphs:
What is the noise?

16. Tenth Paragraphs:
What is the narrator feeling right now?

17. End of Story:
Were any of your original predictions about the story correct?

18. The Tell Tale Heart
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