“The Outsider” by H.P. Lovecraft Quiz and Close Reading Bundle

Item description

Evaluate general reading comprehension and support the development of close reading analysis skills with this bundle of formative assessments covering H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “The Outsider.” Included are the following: a plot-based quiz, a worksheet composed of rigorous close reading questions, a craft analysis activity, a vocabulary application worksheet, a word search, a crossword puzzle, the public domain narrative, and answer keys. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats. 

By completing the quiz, students will demonstrate knowledge of the following:

• The narrator’s previous experiences
• Conditions of the setting
• The narrator’s acquisition of his education
• The narrator’s desire for light
• A discovery beyond a trap door
• A violation of the narrator’s expectations
• The cause of mass panic
• The effect of the mirror in terms of plot development
• The resolution

By completing the close reading analysis worksheet, students will:

• Respond clearly, concisely, and accurately to concrete and analytical questioning
• Locate textual evidence in support of claims
• Analyze the symbolic meaning of an object
• Apply knowledge of literary devices including situational irony and foreshadowing, articulating how they are applied while citing evidence in support of claims
• Explore character motivations
• Analyze the author’s craft with emphasis on unique phrasing, sentence structures, and sensory language

By completing the craft analysis activity, students will perform the following task(s):

• Develop a greater understanding of how H.P. Lovecraft used descriptive language, characterization, setting, connotation, and various literary devices to establish an eerie mood consistent with the Gothic genre

By engaging with the vocabulary activities, students will:

• Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
• Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
• Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences

Materials are available for teaching a variety of texts such as:

• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
• Feed by M.T. Anderson
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
• The Adventures of Ulysses by Bernard Evslin
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare