“The Tell-Tale Heart” Rewrite

Effectively use narrative techniques to rewrite “The Tell-Tale Heart” from a new perspective, incorporating relevant details and dialogue from the original text.

Action Steps

• Select a new narrator: __________________________(e.g., one of the police officers, one of the old man’s relatives, the neighbor…)

• Establish a different point of view (1st, 3rd…) and purpose in telling the story.

How does the character (your narrator) feel about situation? _____________________________________ (What’s your narrator’s “truth”? “reality”?)

Why does your narrator feel this way? ____________________________________________

• Determine a new tone and vary the word choice to reflect the narrator’s “real” motives and personality.

What will your character focus on in telling his or her version of the story? __________________________

Why? ______________________________________________________________________

• Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue (but don’t simply record a conversation!), pacing, and description, including sensory language, to develop events and characters according to the changed point of view and purpose.

What might your character say or think? ______________________________________________________

Why would your character say/think that? ___________________________________________________

*Short sentences, alliteration, and repetition speed up the reading pace; longer, more complex sentences slow down the pace and make the reader think more carefully about what is being said

What does your character see? __________________________________________________________Describe it in detail (think adjectives- color, size…) _________________________________________

What does your character hear, smell, feel, or taste? __________________________________________Describe it in detail (include adjectives) ____________________________________________________

*SHOW your reader what your character sees, hears, smells, feels, or tastes; don’t just tell your version.

Why does your character notice these things? ________________________________________________

• You will use these action steps to type a full narrative (review narrative examples viewed in class, if needed). Be sure to use proper grammar, conventions, spelling, and grade-appropriate words and phrases.

Oh, don’t forget- you need an original title for YOUR short story (in quotation marks!) and your name on your rewrite

DUE Wednesday, 12/18