For years, we struggled with finding the perfect Halloween activities for our older students. While Halloween lends itself easily to lessons for younger learners, when it came to teenagers or adults, everything felt too childish or cliché. We wanted something different—something more substantial that would engage our students in real conversations, without losing the fun of the spooky season.
As we thought about what Halloween means to us, we kept coming back to the idea of storytelling and literature. After all, some of the best scary stories are found in classic literature, and for advanced learners, literature is an amazing tool for language development. That’s when it clicked: if we were going to bring Halloween into the classroom, we needed an author whose stories were perfect for this time of year. Edgar Allan Poe immediately came to mind.
His tales are unsettling, mysterious, and filled with rich language and dark themes that captivate readers, making them the perfect fit for adult learners. So, we dove into one of his most well-known short stories, «The Black Cat», and crafted a lesson plan around it. Not only does it allow students to practice reading and analysing literature, but it also sparks great conversations about the eerie themes that Poe was a master of.
We designed this resource to bring something fresh and sophisticated into the ESL classroom—giving students the chance to dive into classic literature while still celebrating the spooky side of Halloween.
Why Literature? Why Poe?
For us, literature plays such a crucial role in learning a language because it connects students with deeper themes, emotions, and cultural references. When we thought about authors who could offer this during Halloween, Poe was the clear choice. His short stories are timeless, and «The Black Cat» provides the perfect mix of suspense, rich vocabulary, and psychological intrigue. It challenges students to think critically, discuss themes, and engage with advanced English while still getting into the Halloween spirit. In this other blog post of ours you can download the short story.
Click on the image to see this resource in our TpT store.
And for Speaking Practice? We Created a Halloween Maze!
Of course, literature isn’t the only way we’ve celebrated Halloween with our adult students. We wanted to add something interactive that still felt age-appropriate and challenging. That’s where our Halloween Speaking Maze came in—a kind of «Choose Your Own Adventure» task that encourages students to make choices and discuss outcomes in small groups. The idea behind this was to create a fun, dynamic activity where students could practice conversational English in a real-world context, without it feeling too forced or scripted.
We’ve found that this combination—a rich, literature-based lesson with Poe, paired with a fun, interactive speaking activity—really hits the mark for Halloween with older learners.
Click on the image to check out this resource.
We hope you enjoy these resources and Happy Halloween!