THE GOLD BUG
Luis Fernández Manzano
Level: first cycle of ESO.
Objectives:
● Introduce the literature of Edgar Allan Poe.
● Develop the capability to write out of a given story and to continue a story.
● Imagination, creativity and teamwork.
Development:
The students have already read the story, some activities have been carried out in order to introduce the author, Edgar Allan Poe and his literature, his time, and more practical aspects regarding the story, like the plot, the characters, etc.
http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=PoeGold.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1
(link to the story)
So now it´s time to practice some writing. Next I propose some activities, we can choose the ones we find more interesting or combine some of them.
1. Description of the island.
This island is a very singular one. It consists of little else than the sea sand, and is about three miles long. Its breadth at no point exceeds a quarter of a mile. It is separated from the mainland by a scarcely perceptible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of reeds and slime, a favorite resort of the marsh-hen. The vegetation, as might be supposed, is scant, or at least dwarfish. No trees of any magnitude are to be seen. Near the western extremity, where Fort Moultrie stands, and where are some miserable frame buildings, tenanted, during summer, by the fugitives from Charleston dust and fever, may be found, indeed, the bristly palmetto; but the whole island, with the exception of this western point, and a line of hard, white beach on the sea-coast, is covered with a dense undergrowth of the sweet myrtle so much prized by the horticulturists of England. The shrub here often attains the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and forms an almost impenetrable coppice, burthening the air with its fragrance.
The students can, in groups, write their own descriptions of a small and typical desert island. Using dictionaries, we can later put in common the descriptions and prepare a list of the vocabulary regarding nature and geographical features.
2. The treasure map.
The groups will hide a treasure in the school and write/draw a map for the rest of the groups so there will be a competition among the different groups, the more treasures and the quicker, the better. The maps will include both written passages and drawings.
The maps will show the high school and the different steps that the groups must follow in order to find the hidden treasures. The more imaginative and symbolic the clues, the better, for the students have to use their deductive skills to solve the mysteries hidden in the clues.
3. The cryptogram.
53‡‡†305))6*;4826)4‡.)4‡);806*;48†8
¶60))85;1‡(;:‡*8†83(88)5*†;46(;88*96
*?;8)*‡(;485);5*†2:*‡(;4956*2(5*—4)8
¶8*;4069285);)6†8)4‡‡;1(‡9;48081;8:8‡
1;48†85;4)485†528806*81(‡9;48;(88;4
(‡?34;48)4‡;161;:188;‡?;
This is the cryptogram that appears in the story and whose decoded message is:
A good glass in the bishop´s hostel in the devil´s seat
forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes northeast and by north
main branch seventh limb east side shoot from the left eye of the death´s-head
a bee line from tree through the shot fifty feet out.
The last proposed exercise is to write a cryptogram, as the one that appears in The Gold Bug, a task to be carried out again in groups. Every group has to create a cryptogram and the solution for it and the rest of the groups will try to solve them.
Evaluation:
All kind of written and oral production will be evaluated, apart from attitude and participation. Besides, we can use these rubrics to evaluate some specific aspects.
Writing rubric:
Teamwork rubric:http://www.challenge.nm.org/archive/08-09/kickoff/classes/TeamworkRubric.pdf