Fall of the House of Usher Symbolism Project

The Fall of the House of Usher

By Edgar Allan Poe

During reading of the short story, we completed the following charts as a class surrounding characterization and symbolism. 

Characterization and Symbolism Chart

After reading the short story and really discussing the symbolism and literary techniques embedded in the story, we completed a fun culminating project depicting the House of Usher and all its crazy, creepy features. Below is the link for the project. Included with it are two writing prompts. The first writing prompt addresses the lessons objectives. The second writing prompt is modified for students who struggle with symbolism or who are ELL learners. 

House of Usher Symbolism Project, Rubric, and Writing Prompts

Writing Prompt #1:

In a well-constructed paragraph that is at least 5 sentences, detail how The Fall of the House of Usher uses symbolism to turn ordinary objects into metaphors in the story. Make sure to use text evidence as support.

Writing Prompt #2

In a paragraph, describe how the author describes the house in the story. What kind of tone is set? Use text evidence to support your claims.

En un párrafo, describa cómo el autor describe la casa en la historia. ¿Qué tipo de tono se establece? Utilice pruebas texto para apoyar sus afirmaciones.

***Depending on the student, I modified parts of the task further, so that every student was able to participate. A few of my students who would have fixated too much on the drawing or who needed extra time to solely focus on the task were given pre-drawn houses. I just pulled a haunted house image off of Google images and allowed them to label the different features on the house according to the narrator's description.***



Once the students were done with their work, we



laminated all the neat and complete projects and posted them on the wall next
to a wonderful picture of Edgar :)