The Old Willis Place: A Ghost Story

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Would you guess that ghost stories are told in all human cultures, or that they are specific to just a few cultures or a few time periods? Why do people enjoy ghost stories? Do people have to believe in ghosts to enjoy ghost stories?

Teaching Suggestion: The Old Willis Place focuses on the experiences of Diana and Georgie, two children who are gradually revealed to be ghosts, and Lissa, a living child who moves onto a property rumored to be haunted. This prompt stresses to students how ubiquitous the ghost story is and, whether they personally enjoy ghost stories or not, asks them to consider what the near-universal appeal of ghost stories might be. After students respond to the prompt, they might review the resources below and discuss ghost stories they have already encountered.

• This article explores the differences between Western and non-Western conceptions of ghosts and the reasons for the enduring popularity of ghost stories.
• This 12-minute video of a TED talk by researcher Coya Paz discusses the cultural and psychological meaning of ghost stories. (Content Warning: Paz mentions lynching as an opening example in this talk; content and examples include colloquial references to imprisonment, socioeconomic conditions, and mental health facilities.)

2. What comparisons can be made between ghosts that appear in literature and ghosts that appear in folk stories? What are some messages about life that might be communicated in a ghost story? What are some literary techniques often found in ghost stories?

Teaching Suggestion: Students will already be aware of the entertainment value of ghost stories, and they may also have some understanding of the psychological benefits of ghost stories. They may not, however, have considered the literary aspects of these stories. Students might work with a partner to brainstorm a list of known literary elements and techniques (e.g., mood, tone, atmosphere, suspense) before addressing the prompt. The resources below offer ideas about how literary ghost stories relate to culture, history, and marginalization and spotlight some of the techniques that writers use to make these stories so effective.

• This article from Bookriot and this article from Time Magazine share insights into what ghosts represent in American fiction. (Teacher-appropriate; not student-facing due to length and complexity)
• This article offers concrete strategies for writing effective ghost stories.

Short Activity

With a small group, brainstorm the elements you think are necessary in the opening of a strong haunted house story. Then, each group member will write a 2-paragraph opening for a haunted house story. Your story opening should:

• Introduce the setting of the haunted house itself, creating a spooky atmosphere for your reader through diction, imagery, and figurative language
• Introduce the protagonist of the story, establishing why the protagonist has come to the haunted house
• Contain details that foreshadow the presence of a ghost or ghosts and contribute to the atmosphere
• Be about 250 words long

If time allows, share your story intro with group members and compare the ways in which you included these elements.

Teaching Suggestion: This activity is intended to encourage students’ engagement with the haunted house subgenre while giving them practice with tools they can later use to discuss and analyze the novel. If time permits, students might illustrate their story opening with a proposed book cover.

• Students might read this article on the history of the haunted house story and discuss the examples the author gives to illustrate the atmosphere of the haunted house story.  
• This article describes the elements of a haunted house story. (Teacher-appropriate; not student-facing due to maturity and complexity)

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who benefit from accommodations for written expression might list the details that they would include in their story openings or respond to each bullet point with a few separate sentences. Concrete thinkers may benefit from a brief review of techniques such as foreshadowing and figurative language; a review of illustrative examples before they begin working on the activity may also be helpful.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

Do you, personally, believe in ghosts? Why or why not? What might cause someone else to hold the opposite belief?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt invites students to connect personally with the abstract ideas that have so far been under discussion. As they consider why other people might choose to believe in ghosts or not, students may tend to focus on scientific reasoning rather than on emotional or experiential reasoning—or vice versa. Readers might benefit from encouragement to think about empirical evidence for and against ghosts and the psychological desire to either believe or not believe.