Rejected Lesson Plan: Poe
Today's Topic: "The Cask of Amontillado" and Revenge
Warm-Up Question: Who has WRONGED you recently?
Give students 5 minutes to reflect on those who have done them harm, and how that insult or injury now festers inside them like a gangrenous wound.
Discuss with peers! (May become uncomfortable if two classmates feel wronged by one another, but is also way more interesting that way.)
Tie Back to Topic: Discuss the only logical solution in these situations: taking vengeance on those who have done you wrong. Discuss Montressor's conditions of successful revenge: the victim must know it was you and you must escape punishment for your vengeance.
I Do- We Do- You Do
I Do: I take revenge on the teacher who always distracts my students in the library by showing off on roller blades by "accidentally" setting up a trip wire using my laptop charger. Students can observe the pain on my colleague’s face, my feigned innocence, and the deep satisfaction that payback brings.
(Added bonus: Appeals to visual learners!)
We Do:
Together we take vengeance on the school board for starting school so early by preparing emails to schoolboard members emails marked High Importance with subjects like "PR Disaster" and "Impending Lawsuit." We schedule these emails for 3AM. Students can put their own creative spin on the emails to show how revenge can be both imaginative and fun.
(Added Bonus: Includes Real-World experience AND 21st century skills!)
You Do:
Students outline a plan of vengeance of their own related back to the warm-up reflection, explaining their method, how they achieved Montressor's two rules, and showing the results.
(Potential challenges: Students may be very bad at revenge and it's boring to read about. Alternatively, students may be prodigiously talented at revenge and I could end up scared.)
Homework:
Enact plan of vengeance and reflect on whether or not it was all worth it. Discuss in class tomorrow whether or not Montressor was really the villain of the story.
LESSON PLAN REJECTED BY ADMINISTRATION
But they'll get what's coming to them...