Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, a famous story about the origin of language and death, provides some great workbook materials for kids to use in their classroom. You may be wondering how to answer all the questions on his worksheet correctly. I’ve been asked that by parents and teachers alike, so I thought I’d write up a worksheet to help. I’ll provide a short outline of how I’ve used the information I’ve found, as well as some tips for you to try out at home to see if it’s right for your students.
Read the complete story to your kids first. Then ask them what they think, and add some more detail to the story. Try to change and expand upon what they’ve read to create your own version of the story. Don’t feel like you have to completely alter the story, just make some adjustments. My class has learned the meaning of “R”Book of Life”, and what they’re meant to symbolize, so there are many things that can be added that you can easily change around to make it your own.
When you’re done, put everything together in your own words. Add a little bit of your own insight into the story, and incorporate as much into the story as you can. Once you’re finished, you should have a concise worksheet that you can send out to your students. They can use this to help them learn what’s going on in the story, and why it’s important to pay attention to detail and understand what’s happening.
Let’s look at one of the more controversial issues in Edgar Allan Poe’s story, Death’s “R”Book of Life”. His version says that “R” is a mispronunciation of “RA-uh”. In his version, R is pronounced RA, but in the “Book of Life “he says “RAY-uh”. Which is correct?
Both of these options are correct in his story, though the pronunciation is slightly different. It’s up to you to make your own choice. I prefer the “ray” pronunciation.
Just so you know, he used both pronunciations because he had no clue which way it was supposed to be said. He was trying to find out what the kids were supposed to be saying, and he ended up taking the pronunciation he thought sounded best. The real story was that he was actually trying to figure out if they could hear a difference between the two pronunciations. I prefer the pronunciation with the “ray” part, which sounds kind of annoying to me.
When teaching children about Death’s “R”Book of Life”, it’s important to keep them from going off track or repeating something that wasn’t written down. When he wrote it down, he was simply trying to find out what they were saying. If they repeat the word wrong, you can consider it to be incorrect and explain to them why it is wrong.
Remember that children learn by example. A teacher can guide your children by pointing out examples and letting them see how to speak it out loud. This is also great for helping them with writing, as you have an example they can use. Keeping a worksheet like Edgar Allan Poe’s “Raven” worksheet can help a lot with this.
