Two page reflection assignment with instructional guidelines

9th Grade

I asked the class to find biographies and research on the life of Edgar Allan Poe over the weekend. Today, I want four groups of 5 students each to take 5 minutes in groups and list problems that Poe may have had in his life. One student from each group will respond to my excerpts from reading of "The Raven"; look for words that might explain Poe's life and mental condition in 1845, and anything pertaining to America in 1845 that offers clues to his writing.

Teacher reading: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary…"

Group 1: Poe was an orphan after his father ran away and his mother died of TB. He may have been affected his whole life by the sadness

Teacher reading: "Ah distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, and each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor…"

Group 2: After Poe was sort of adopted by John and Frances Allan, he went to the University of Virginia but ran out of money; John Allan wouldn't give him any money to live and he was desperate to survive

Teacher: Why would that situation provide Poe with those images in his head?

Group 2: He felt abandoned, and maybe the ghost of his dead mother was in his head

Teacher: "And the silken and uncertain rustling of each purple curtain, thrilled me -- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before…"

Group 3: Maybe because he drank so much alcohol, he was confused about his emotions

Teacher: But why would the poet write that he was thrilled and had "fantastic terrors?

Group 3: Well he drank too much but he also took opium; our group researched the body's reaction to opium; the user has a rush of pleasure and relief from pain for awhile; maybe he was on an opium high when he wrote the poem…he let his mind wander into weirdness...

Teacher: "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, and dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared dream before…"

Group 4: Remember Poe married his cousin Virginia and like his mom, Virginia came down with TB and died. This could be the reason he saw darkness and had weird dreams

Teacher: "Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling… Ghastly grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore…"

Group 5: All we kept thinking about was Poe's weird life, kicked out of the army, losing good writing jobs because he was drunk, deaths in his family, it was a scary life in 1845, a Raven is black and scary so he used that as a symbol and a metaphor for his crazy and short life.

Teacher: Using critical thinking skills, each group will have 15 minutes to come up problem-solving ideas for a poet like Poe in America in 1945. Imagine you were his therapist, or his friend, or his editor -- use your critical thinking skills to help Poe use his talent more effectively; he shows his greatness in The Raven; critical thinking goes deeper than the artifact.

Refection on this lesson

The critical thinking skills we worked on together involved being able first to fully grasp the problem or the issue to be worked on. From the perspective of "The Raven" we will use the analysis and problem-solving opportunities within the poem itself as the artifact. Instead of just reading the poem and providing student input in the form of 9th grade analysis, we go deeper into the era when it was written, the personal problems the poet went through in his life, the amazing skills juxtaposed with the depression and alcoholism. The teacher will play on the classroom TV screen slow-motion videos of ravens flying, tearing into the flesh of a dead mouse, attacking other birds that are in its way as it forages.

Incorporating history is a tool a teacher can use which makes a poem or a poet come to life in the context of the times. Why, for example, does almost every line in The Raven offer a clue as to why Poe wrote it, or what Poe's mentality was during that era? And what was going on in American when he wrote it?