South Carolina ETV

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Columbia, SC 29201-4761
Phone: 803-737-3545

“The Tell-Tale Heart”—It’s a Matter of Point of View or
“I Feel Your Pain” (Grade 8)

Master Teacher

Myra Elvington

Time Allotment

One 60-minute class period

Overview

This lesson focuses on the effectiveness of point of view in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The students will begin the lesson by researching a site that gives a concise summary of the life of Edgar Allan Poe. The students will respond to a series of questions from the site. Next the students will participate in the hands-on portion of the lesson by responding to questions that examine the items or events that cause them fear. The purpose of the discussion is to reveal that, while our fears may be shared by others, our reactions to and perception of those fears are unique and shaped by our point of view. The students will participate in an Internet activity that will help them gain an understanding of Poe and his obsession with the macabre. Later the students will view an adaptation of Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart.” As the students view the video, they will respond to focus questions that guide them to consider the effectiveness of Poe’s use of point of view and the limitations of the first-person point of view. In the Culminating Activity, the students will rewrite the story from the third person point of view.

Subject Matter

English/Language Arts

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

Identify significant events in the life of Edgar Allan Poe.
List items or events that cause them fear.
Discuss what causes them fear, paying close attention to the point of view of others in the class and how their point of view affects the discussion.
Write about a frightening experience and describe how they felt during the experience.
Identify point of view in a literary work.
Identify the effectiveness and limitations of point of view.
Rewrite the story as a newspaper article using the third person point of view.
Discuss the differences between the dramatization and their newspaper articles.

South Carolina Standards

(These Standards are found online at http://www.myscschools.com/offices/cso)

8-C3.1 Demonstrate the ability to make predictions about the content of what he or she views.
8-C3.5 Demonstrate the ability to compare and contrast different viewpoints that he or she encounters in non-print sources.
8-C3.11 Demonstrate the ability to make connections between non-print sources and his or her prior knowledge, other sources, and the world.
8.RS2.1 Demonstrate the ability to use a variety of resources, including technology to access information.
8.RS2.3 Demonstrate the ability to conduct independent research using available resources, including technology.
8-R2.1 Demonstrate the ability to analyze an author’s use . . . of the structural elements of . . . point of view .
8-R2.3 Demonstrate the ability to identify the speaker in a literary work and recognize the difference between first- and third-person narration and between the omniscient and the limited omniscient point of view . . . .

Media Components

Video

Great Books: Tales of Edgar Allan Poe—“The Tell-Tale Heart” illustrates one of Poe’s most famous stories of psychological terror. To access this video, log on to your account at ETV’s StreamlineSC Web page (http://etv.streamlinesc.org). In the search by keyword box, type Great Books: Tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Click on the program title and then download “The Tell-Tale Heart,” which runs six minutes and 50 seconds, to your computer desktop and preview it.

(Note to Teacher: If you don’t have an account with ETV’s StreamlineSC, check with your media specialist or Instructional Technologist about signing up for your own account.)

Web Site

Edgar Allan Poe

http://www.biography.com/search/article.jsp?aid=9443160&search=poe

This site presents an overview of the author’s life.

Materials

Copy of Internet focus questions (Activity Sheet 1)
Copy of Introductory Activity for each student (Activity Sheet 2)
Copy of Culminating Activity assignment for each student (Activity Sheet 3)

Equipment

PC or laptop computer with power brick for the teacher
Computer access for each student
External speakers
LCD projector
Screen

Prep for Teachers

Download “The Tell-Tale Heart” segment to your desktop and preview it.
Duplicate a copy of each activity sheet for each student.
Reserve the computer lab.
Reserve PC or laptop computer with power brick for your use.
Reserve external speakers.
Reserve LCD projector.
Obtain a screen.

On day of assignment complete the following:

Connect LCD projector to PC/laptop.
Connect external speakers.
When using media, provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites, or other multimedia elements.

Introductory Activities

Step 1: Distribute a copy of Activity Sheet 1 to each student and then direct students to log on to computers using their specific login names.

Step 2: Say: “Today we will begin our unit on Edgar Allan Poe, one of the great American Gothic writers of our time. I have given you a list of questions that you will answer from a Web site that I have found. Please go to that Web site now using Internet Explorer.”

Step 3: Students go the Edgar Allan Poe site at http://www.biography.com/search/article.jsp?aid=9443160&search=poe

Step 4: Students answer the questions on Activity Sheet 1 from Edgar Allan Poe Background Information on the Web site.

Step 5: You and the students discuss the questions and the students’ answers from the Internet focus activity.

(Note to Teacher: Direct the discussion so that the students will make the connection between the losses Edgar Allan Poe suffered in his life and his literary fascination with the morbid and the macabre.)

Step 6: Continue the Introductory Activities by saying to students: “Before we watch a dramatization of one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most well-known works, we will set the stage by participating in this next introductory activity.” Distribute Activity Sheet 2. Give students five minutes to answer the first three questions.

Step 7: Lead students in a class discussion of this introductory activity. Encourage the students to discuss the things that cause them fear. The list should include but not be limited to the following: the dark, the unknown, the unknown in the dark, unfamiliar sounds at night, a telephone ringing at 3:00 a.m.

Step 8: Continue to lead the students in a discussion of the specific events that they have experienced and the effect the fear has had on their minds or bodies. Direct the discussion to include the following: rapid heartbeat, heart beating so heavily that the student might be able to hear his own heartbeat, intensified sounds, rapid breathing, the feeling of relief after the fear has passed, and/or the continuing fear or dread that might linger after the experience.

Step 9: At this point, direct the discussion so that the students begin to realize they are using first-person point of view in their discussions and that point of view offers both a closeness and bias to their experiences.

Step 10: Define first-person point of view by saying “First-person point of view is used when the author has one of the characters in the story narrate the events. The use of first-person point of view gives the reader a close connection to the events.” Give students five minutes to answer the last two questions on Activity Sheet 2.

Learning Activities

Step 1: Tell the students that they are now going to watch a dramatization of one of Poe’s stories.

Step 2: BEGIN the video clip at the point where the camera is panning across a wall and you hear the narrator say “One of Poe’s most famous stories, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ reads like his nightmarish hallucinations.”

Step 3: STOP the video when you hear “. . . obsessed with the old man’s eye.” On the screen you will see a close-up view of the dark haired man.

Step 4: Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by saying: “Consider the following questions as we view this video. We will discuss these questions and the importance of their answers.”

“Who is the narrator of the story?”

“What is the viewpoint?”

“Why is this point of view effective?”

“You will hear the narrator say, ‘But why will you say that I am mad?’ What does this comment tell the viewer about the narrator?”

“Why is the use of first-person point of view effective here?”

Step 5: PLAY the video beginning with the close-up view of the dark haired man. The narrator will say “True, nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am.”

Step 6: PAUSE the video when you hear: “But why will you say that I am mad?” On the screen you see the younger man pushing the elderly man in the wheelchair.

Step 7: Discuss the Focus for Media Interaction questions in Step 4 before continuing with the video.

“Who is the narrator of the story?”(Acceptable answers include the man with the dark hair, the man pushing the wheelchair.)

“What is the viewpoint?” (Acceptable answers include 1 st person point of view or the man with the dark hair, or the man pushing the wheelchair.)

“Why is this point of view effective?” (Acceptable answers include the narrator is telling us how he feels.)

“What does this comment ‘But why will you say that I am mad?’ tell the viewer about the narrator?” (Acceptable answers include that the narrator is actually insane, mean, proud of his actions, proud that he has control over a defensive old man, trying to convince himself of his sanity.)

“Why is the use of first-person point of view effective here?” (Acceptable answers include that the narrator is unaware of his mental condition and that the reader is left to identify the bias in the statement.)

Step 8: PLAY the video until the narrator says, “I loved the old man; he had never wronged me.” On the screen you will see the old man in the bed being helped by the younger man who is giving him a glass of water.

Step 9: Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by asking them to look for the effectiveness of the simile: “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture.”

Step 10: PLAY the video and STOP after the narrator says: “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture.” You will see a close-up view of the old man’s eye.

Step 11: Ask what is the effectiveness of this simile? (Acceptable answers include vulture is bird of prey, but the narrator is the one who preys on the old man.)

Step 12: PLAY the video and STOP when you see the professor who says “There is none.” On the screen, you will see the dark haired man.

Step 13: Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by asking them to look for the answers to the following question:

“Why is it impossible to kill the old man at night?”

Step 14: CONTINUE with viewing and STOP after you hear “his evil eye” and on the screen you see the dark haired man hold the candle.

Step 15: Ask “Why is it impossible to kill the old man at night?” (Acceptable answers include: The eye is closed. The man’s perceived threat is absent when the eye is closed.)

Step 16: Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by saying: “Pay attention to the next section we are going to view. An important shift in the narrator occurs. Listen for the shift and be prepared to discuss its importance.”

Step 17: CONTINUE with the video. STOP when the narrator says: “He can hear his terror” The close-up view of the narrator is on the screen.

Step 18: Ask: “What does the narrator hear?” (Acceptable answers include the old man’s heart, his own heart caused by his own fears or his own excitement.)

Step 19: Ask: “What is the shift in the point of view?” (Acceptable answer is the point of view has shifted from the first person point of view to the limited omniscient point of view. This limited omniscient narrator is telling the audience what the narrator feels. The view point is more objective.)

Step 20: Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by asking them to look for the next shift in point of view.

Step 21: CONTINUE with the video and STOP after the narrator says: “Buries the body parts beneath the bedroom floor.” On the screen you will see the camera pan across the old man’s body.

Step 22: Ask: “What is the effectiveness of this shift?” (Acceptable answers include the viewer now sees the narrator outside of himself; the viewer sees the pride and arrogance of his actions.)

Step 23: Provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction by telling them to watch for the effectiveness of the use of first-person narration.

Step 24: PLAY the video to its end.

Step 25: Ask the students to analyze the effectiveness of the use of first-person narration. (Accept all reasonable responses.).

Culminating Activity

Step 1: Have students respond to the viewing exercise by retelling the story from the third person point of view of a newspaper reporter who is covering the story of the murder of an elderly man. The article should be appropriate for publication in the local newspaper.

Step 2: Distribute Activity Sheet 3 and give students 15 minutes to write their articles.

Cross-Curricular Extensions

History: Students should consider the reasons history books are not written in first-person point of view. Ask them: “How would recorded history be different if written in first-person point of view?”

Premise: The year is 1865. The United States of America has endured and survived two catastrophic events—the Civil War and the murder of their beloved leader, President Abraham Lincoln. The country is in a state of turmoil, and John Wilkes Booth is the most hated man in America.

A publisher of a middle school history book plans to insert a section titled “What you really need to know.”

Have the students pretend that they are John Wilkes Booth, President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin. History has maligned you, but no one has heard your side of the story.

Write an article for this history book. In your article, you should tell your point of view. You are to explain why you committed the act of violence on America’s President, what you hoped to gain from the act, and whether you believe history’s record of you is accurate.

After the students have written this article, they should compare their point of view with that of recorded history.

They should realize that first person point of view, while offering a close connection to events, must be examined for bias.

Community Connections

Examine newspaper articles to look for examples of point of view. Most newspaper articles are written in third-person point of view. Editorials may be written in first person point of view. Students will discuss the effect of the point of view on the articles and discuss how the articles would be different if written in a different point of view.