Virginia Woolf’s “A Haunted House” fits easily into part of a class period, but the shifting pronouns and two couples can make the first read confusing. I revised this activity after using the story with my own AP Lit students and seeing where they lost the thread. The first five questions help students get the basic situation straight before they move into the more interesting questions about the ghosts’ search, the “treasure,” and the ending.

Students read the complete public-domain story, answer five quick orientation questions, identify where their understanding of the search changes, interpret the final “light in the heart,” and write one claim about the story. The teacher guide includes a 30-minute plan, a 25-minute version, suggested responses, discussion questions, follow-up questions, and a short explanation you can use if students are still confused about who is who.

WHAT’S INCLUDED
• 3-page student handout with the complete text of “A Haunted House”
• 5 quick orientation questions to help students keep the two couples and the ghosts’ movement straight
• 4 follow-up questions on the changing search, the “treasure,” and the ending
• 3-page teacher guide
• 30-minute lesson plan
• 25-minute shortened option
• Suggested responses to all student questions
• Discussion questions and follow-up questions
• Short clarification for students who are still confused by the basic situation
• Optional Foster / How to Read Literature Like a Professor callback
• Printable PDF files
• Editable Word files

WHY THE ORIENTATION QUESTIONS ARE THERE
When I first used “A Haunted House” with my AP Lit students, several of them got tangled in the pronouns and lost track of the two couples. The story is so short that it is easy to assume students will follow the situation on their own. The revised opening questions deal with that problem directly: students identify who is in the house, what the ghosts are doing, what the house keeps repeating, and what the ghosts notice in the sleeping couple.

Those questions stop short of explaining the “treasure.” Students still have to decide where their reading changes, what “the light in the heart” might mean, and what the haunting suggests about love, memory, death, and the past.

WHEN I’D USE IT
• Early in an AP Lit short-fiction unit
• On a Friday or shortened period
• After a quiz, when there is not enough time to start something longer
• Before a longer unit begins
• When you want a ghost story that is more reflective than frightening
• With strong upper-level ELA students who can handle a short, ambiguous text

If you want another short, atmospheric AP Lit lesson, see For Use with Strawberry Spring by Stephen King | AP Lit Halloween Case File, which is designed for two class periods.

TEXT / COPYRIGHT NOTE
The complete story is included. Virginia Woolf’s “A Haunted House,” from Monday or Tuesday (1921), is in the public domain in the United States. The instructional materials, questions, teacher guidance, layout, and seller materials are original Plotting Something content.