Many teachers introduce characteristics of literary genres through definitions, which students memorize and often forget shortly after the unit test. To increase student understanding and retention of elements of the Gothic genre, Rebecca Templeton from Kettering Fairmont High School utilized tableau, learned through the 2022 Summer Institute Mythology and Metamorphosis: Enduring Transformational Journeys. Tableau is defined as a striking or artistic grouping, so Rebecca asked students to create tableaus or “frozen picture” for each characteristic of Gothic literature. By incorporating movement and images, student groups created a visual memory, one image that defined the essence of the term. And because they were so dramatically entertaining, students will remember them for a very long time.

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