Berkmar High School places each of its students on a career path that allows them to study each subject with a skills lens of their choosing. The teachers are put in teams whose instruction is guided by one of the following lenses: STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), MAC (media arts and communications), Architecture and Construction, Entrepreneurship and Leadership, and Health and Human Sciences.

My Mentor Teacher at Berkmar was the MAC academy lead, and so his instruction was heavily student centered. All major summative grades had a creative approach side where students could focus or present the project in a way that allowed them to experiment with media, arts, and/or communication.

I read Edgar Allen Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death” with my CP students, and read “The Fall of the House of Usher” with my Honors/Gifted classes.

In an activity to test students’ reading comprehension of Masque of the Red Death and to evaluate their ability to understand mood, I first split them up into the same 7 colored categories (violet, purple, orange, blue, green, white, black) as the rooms in the story. Students picked a color and were required to design a room based on that color and in a way that implies a certain mood. Students were also encouraged to use textual evidence to support why they may have chosen a theme. There could not be much textual evidence provided for any of the rooms except for the black one because that’s the only one that doesn’t get much descriptive detail or has any symbolic meaning in the story. So, the students in the black group were guided just a little more than the other groups. The other groups will were required to focus more on the mood of the actual story and were given a little more room to experiment with creating mood in their own way. That allowed students to experiment with narrative writing in a very natural, unforced way. However, they were required to share their work with the class, so the incentive to produce solid work was certainly there.

I received some of my best writing samples from that lesson. Students that had not spoken at all that semester were active participants in the class discussion, and many of the kids who never take anything seriously were engaged in designing these imaginary rooms. Students who were heavily involved in theater or the arts were specifically interested in this lesson.

A way that I could have stretched this lesson segment is by developing a summative assignment for it that required students to create a mood based on a color. They can create the mood using any type of creative approach they choose, but their attempt needs to be justified and relevant to the story.

For my Honors/Gifted students, I requested they assign each group member a role (set designer, casting director, costume designer, stage manager) and they had to design a play for “The Fall of the House of Usher.” This allowed them to basically design a play based on a story they read and discussed as a class. This allowed them to make decisions based on their knowledge of the text.

The results for this one were just plain fun. The students got into their roles and just kind of went all out with it.

A discussion I had with my class learning styles and student choice (in reference to Shaver’s Differentiated Instruction) inspired to reflect upon these lessons.