"The Premature Burial" Quiz, Close Reading, and Vocabulary Development Bundle

“The Premature Burial” by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story of special appeal to high school students interested in human psychology, horror stories, and Halloween. With this bundle of assessment materials, English teachers will save valuable time without sacrificing rigor in the classroom. Included are the following: a plot-based quiz, a close reading analysis worksheet, a crossword puzzle, a word search activity, a vocabulary application worksheet, the public domain narrative, and answer keys. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.

This resource may facilitate small-group discussions in which students decode language and pose/respond to questions relating to plot, broad topics, and character development. Using this resource for structured guidance, students will improve their ability to present information, conclusions, and supporting textual evidence clearly and convincingly.

By engaging with these materials, students will:

• Identify what the text states explicitly and implicitly
• Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
• Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
• Choose the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
• Consider the greater significance of given details
• Discern the intended effects of the author’s diction, punctuation, and narrative techniques
• Examine how characters think, behave, interact, and develop
• Apply knowledge of various literary devices including eye dialect, onomatopoeia, allusion, pun, dramatic irony, situational irony, and more
• Draw parallels between the narrative and a featured nonfiction passage
• Support claims and inferences with sound reasoning and relevant evidence
• Write about Gothic fiction with clarity, accuracy, and precision