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Teaching “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” by Rod Serling

If you’re looking for Halloween teaching ideas for middle school ELA, you can’t go wrong with a spooky short story or drama! I love to incorporate seasonal elements into my lesson designs whenever I can, and Halloween is no exception! In my experience, middle schoolers love holidays just as much as their younger counterparts in elementary school. Leaning into the spooky season with some well-chosen texts can be a great way to celebrate the holidays, and keep learning on track, too. While it’s not exactly a short story, I love teaching “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” by Rod Serling in October!

Originally composed for an episode of The Twilight Zone in 1960, this suspenseful teleplay centers on the residents of a tree-lined suburban street, who become increasingly suspicious – to the point of paranoia – after an unexpected power outage. Students especially love the surprising twist at the end!  Best of all, this is a text that works well at other times of the year, too. It’s a great introduction to the science fiction genre, or to tie into other learning about “mob mentality” or the dangers of misinformation.

Here’s my process for teaching “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” in middle school ELA!

Pre-Reading Activity

To hook students into this unique and compelling story, I love to surprise them with a game! ​​Begin by stressing the importance of secrecy, then giving each student a piece of paper that says they are either a human or an alien. For the humans, the goal is to create the largest possible group of humans, without letting any aliens in. For the aliens, the goal is to infiltrate a group of humans without being detected!

From here, students have 10 to 15 minutes to form groups. I let them know that all group members must agree together if a new member can join them, and to (of course!) be on the lookout for any suspicious activity! As you can imagine, they soon learn this task is harder than it first appears!

Once the time is up, I like to follow up with a class discussion about what just took place. Students may notice that some of their classmates’ behavior changed during the activity, or that they didn’t like being accused of being an alien if they were actually a human. Aliens might be able to share some of the tactics they used to convince others that they were a “human” player! 

A game can be a fun way to introduce "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" to middle school ELA students.

Pre-Reading Questions

The Aliens vs. Humans game sets students up nicely to explore some guiding questions. This will help set the stage for the reading to follow. There are many different approaches that can effectively introduce pre-reading questions. You may want to be flexible and choose a style that works for your particular group of students. 

A whole-class discussion is one approach, but you can also set up questions as stations to incorporate a bit of movement. Alternatively, you can display each question, ask students to jot down a few thoughts independently, and then pair up with a partner to discuss their answers before sharing back to the wider class. 

However you chose to set up your pre-reading questions, when teaching “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” I always ask some variation of questions like these: 

  • What are some seemingly small things that could turn a peaceful crowd into a mob?
  • Can suspicions turn people (including friends!) against each other?
  • How do you react when you feel afraid or threatened?

Building Background Knowledge

From here, it’s time to help students build their background knowledge before they begin reading. I like to begin by giving a brief overview of the genre of teleplay, as well as establishing a bit about the historical context of the setting of “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” which takes place in the 1960s. I also like to remind students that at this time, people would not have had immediate access to a mobile phone and that the internet hadn’t been invented yet!

During the pre-reading of this script, I also like to share a bit about The Twilight Zone and Rod Serling, who was a prolific radio and TV writer. Serling often used the genre of science fiction to make statements and observations about wider societal issues – including racism, politics, and humanity – that were heavily censored in mainstream media at the time.

Reading the Teleplay

Now it’s time for students to read the teleplay for themselves! You can approach this in several ways. If you have quite an independent class, or a group that has already studied a script of some kind, students may feel comfortable reading on their own. Alternatively, you might read aloud, drawing attention to notes such as stage directions for the actors, as well as camera movements, that indicate the tone and atmosphere of each scene.

A third option when teaching “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” to adventurous classes is to assign roles to students, resulting in a readers’ theatre style read-aloud, with the rest of the class following along with the script.

Once your class has read the script, you may wish to show them the original TV version of “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” (or you might like to save this if you are going to compare the classic teleplay with an updated version of the story – see below!).

Post-Reading Discussion

Once students have read the script, I bring the class back together for a post-reading discussion. Again, this can be done as a whole-class conversation, or set up in stations. When teaching “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” I find it useful to ask questions like:

  1. How would you have reacted in this situation if you were living on Maple Street?
  2. Do you think the reactions of the people on Maple Street were believable? (Why or why not?)
  3. Which character did you feel was the easiest to relate to?

Sometimes, I like to encourage students to go “deeper” into the concept of herd mentality by viewing a video on this topic and then completing a personal journal entry. This can also be a useful springboard for a discussion on cause and effect. You may even like to have students go back and re-read the script as they complete a graphic organizer that outlines the various examples of cause and effect in the teleplay.

Engaging, hands-on learning activities can help students explore the concept of cause and effect.

Analyzing the Story

Next, students can work independently to complete a series of analysis questions that prompt them to think critically about the plot and characters of “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.” As they answer the questions, they will evaluate how the characters of Steve Brand and Charlie Farnsworth symbolize reason and fear, respectively, as well as the overall mood and tone of the teleplay. 

Analysis questions can help you check students' understanding when teaching "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."

At this time, you might want to incorporate some nonfiction reading, encouraging students to make connections between McCarthyism and the Red Scare era that was pervasive in 1950s America. You may also like to have students explore changes in the way that other residents treat the teenage character, Tommy over the course of the script.

Nonfiction reading passages can help students understand the themes of the teleplay in their historical context.

Movie Maker Task

As a culminating task, encourage students to visualize how a film version of “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” would look. Who would play the main characters? How would the movie be marketed to audiences? Students can use a graphic organizer to make sense of their initial ideas, and then create a comprehensive movie poster that captures the mood and tone of the script. 

A movie poster task is an engaging way for students to show their understanding of the themes and tone of "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."

Television Version

If your class hasn’t yet viewed the classic version of “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” as it appeared on The Twilight Zone, now is an excellent time to view the episode. This can really help bring the drama to life for middle school students and give them a solid understanding of the themes that Serling was trying to convey.

To extend this task further, you may also wish to show your students an updated re-imagining of this tale, titled “The Monsters Are on Maple Street,” set in post-9/11 America. Released in 2003, this version differs from the original script in many ways. Students can track the differences using a provided graphic organizer.

Have students compare the original teleplay with the 2003 re-make "The Monsters Are on Maple Street."

There you go! Whether you’re teaching “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” for the first time, or simply looking for fresh learning activities to go with this classic teleplay, I hope these ideas help you make the most out of this sci-fi text!



Looking for more spooky short stories to teach ahead of Halloween? Check my post on 4 Scary Short Stories to Teach Around Halloween in ELA!

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