"Masque of the Red Death" assignments

Here's the plan, folks:

9/23 - After reading the first four paragraphs, draw a blueprint (bird's-eye view) of what Prospero's party rooms would look like.  This is an all-or-nothing three-point Classwork assignment.  If your plan incorporates the details we know about the rooms, you get credit.  If you don't include the elements Poe describes, you will have to redo it.  I'm looking for:
Layout
Colors
Lighting (the braziers in the hallway)

Because we need to talk about the setting Tuesday, you will lose 1 point of credit if it's late.

ALTERNATE:
If you would rather write than draw, describe how you would build the sets for each room if you were putting on a play or shooting a video. Write enough so that you include Poe's details, but understandable to the average sixth-grader.

9/24 - I'm home sick.  Well, that's just great  >:P
1.  Share out floor plans with people at your table.  Then do a brief 2-minute gallery walk to check out how other people designed the rooms.

2. Read the story aloud as a class.  I don't care if the sub reads it, or if the shortest person who wants to read aloud does it.  Either way this is some pretty chewy prose, so give everybody a break, OK?

3. As a class, discuss what might be the THEME (lessonaboutlife) of the story.  Come up with three possible ideas for a theme, then think about evidence for each.  As a class, someone needs to post your three ideas for the theme and the evidence of the best theme on the blog.  Just add a comment to this post!  You will probably have to sign in under a non-.net account.  Sign it "Group 1" if you normally start the day withe me, or "Group 2" if you normally start with Oberheu.