The writings of Edgar Allan Poe are often linked to Halloween, thanks to his exploration of dark topics and love of the macabre. After reading one of Poe’s short stories entitled, "The Oval Portrait," the Grade 6 Humanities class discussed Freytag's Pyramid—a story-crafting framework encompassing the dramatic, five-stage arc of a tale. The students were also asked to respond to several paintings renowned for creating an eerie disquiet not unlike the suspense felt in Poe’s work. Only then were the students asked to take a stab at writing some spine-tingling tales of their own.

Middle School English teacher Ryan Totaro intentionally structured the “Spooktacular Short Story” assignment as a visual literacy exercise to work alongside daily writing instruction addressing content and form. Drawing inspiration from four very different and strangely unsettling pieces of art, the students used the paintings as a springboard for their own stories. “We discussed the paintings as a group,” shared Totaro, “and of each we asked the question: ‘Why does this scare us?’” 

Ultimately, each sixth-grader had to choose one painting from the following list on which to center their creepy narrative: The Scream (Edvard Munch), American Gothic (Grant Wood), Pyramid of Skulls (Paul Cezanne), or Ghost of a Flea (William Blake). Totaro explained that in some instances, as with the Pyramid of Skulls, understanding the fear triggers might be more obvious than in a painting like American Gothic, where the indiscernible facial expressions of the couple and placement of the pitchfork work to create uncertainty and unease within the viewer. 

Once the students had a colorful backdrop inspired by the paintings and a better understanding of how to build suspense in their own writing, they each crafted a delightfully scary story to share aloud with their peers and other faculty members just in time for Halloween.