After attending an 8:30 AM school mass, 8th graders continued their celebration of All Saints' Day through a service project in Mrs. Powell's science class and a nonfiction activity in English class that challenged students to think about Edgar Allan Poe and his nameless narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" through the lens of Saint Camillus de Lellis. 

Mrs. Powell organized a service project in which students colored Thanksgiving Placemats for Meals on Wheels. The placements will be laminated and sent to the organization. They will definitely add a personal touch to the premade holiday dinners!




Since students are reading "The Tell-Tale Heart" for an Edgar Allan Poe author study in English class, students read a short biography on Camillus de Lellis, the Patron Saint of the sick, hospitals, nurses, and physicians. Since students inferred the job of the story's narrator in a previous lesson - a live-in caretaker to the old man with a "vulture eye" - the Patron Saint was able to illuminate the character's role in a new way. 

Earlier in the short story unit, students evaluated the nameless narrator in terms of tone, character motivation, and reliability. But the saint biography provided the foundation for a discussion about character relationships. The 8th grade considered how the story's narrator betrayed the trust granted to nurses and strayed from the caregiver role that Saint Camillus modeled. 

By revisiting a nonfiction article, "Stranger than Fiction: The Life of Edgar Allan Poe," 8th graders then wrote a paragraph to compare the life of Poe to the life of Saint Camillus. Although it's an unusual comparison at first glance - a Saint to an author who wrote tales of mystery and the macabre! - the amount of similarities to be found are intriguing. With shared gambling habits, military service, and parental loss, the literary and religious figures have more in common than one would expect. Therefore, 8th graders arrived at a big takeaway from the two biographies: personal and financial harships are not "tell-tale" signs of future failure. Even with obstacles, you can still become someone great, someone worthy of admiration. 


St. Camillus (left) & the Old Man and Caregiver from "The Tell-Tale Heart" (right)


E.L.A. Learning Standards for St. Camillus & Poe/"The Tell-Tale Heart" Compare/Contrast Lesson:

8R1: "Cite textual evidence to strongly support an analysis of what the text says explicitly/implicitly and make logical inferences. (RI&RL)"

8R9: "Choose and develop criteria in order to evaluate the quality of texts. Make connections to other texts, ideas, cultural perspectives, eras, and personal experiences. (RI&RL)"

8W2: "Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content."