Teacher Tip for character analysis

Level: Advanced

Purpose: This activity will help students analyze the main character of the short story in a fun and
different way. It can be used as a Reading, Writing and/or Speaking activity, based on your needs and
the variations you want to add.

Preparation and Materials: The teacher will provide 5”x7” cards to be used as markers of the different
areas of the “crime scene” and CSI caps and t-shirts to use as customs. The students will use their
notebooks and pens to write the information.

Procedure: After reading The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (as homework) the students will be
divided in groups of 3 and they will have to recreate the crime scene from the story using the cards to
mark the areas and furniture (10 minutes). Then they will analyze the character traits and create a
profile of the character (20 minutes). At the end each group will present their profile in a speech, like
they do in the criminal investigation TV shows (20 minutes, 5 per group).

(image from the TV show Criminal Minds)

Variations: This activity can also be used for debate, adding a trial for the main character. The group can
be divided so we can have a judge, attorney, prosecutor, witnesses, jury, etc. The students will need to
prepare and play their parts in the mock trial. If you add the trial, this could be done in the next class, as
it would take the whole period.

Adapted from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Holt McDougal Collections 8 book.

The Tell-Tale Heart Lesson Performance Task
https://my.hrw.com/
(The original activity was to write a criminal profile.)