Serafina and the Black Cloak

Use these activities to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity. 

ACTIVITY 1: “Dangerous Territory”

With a novel like Serafina and the Black Cloak, the text more enjoyable to read and better understood when you apply good visualization skills. As Serafina goes from floor to floor, room to room, or inside to outside, you probably use your imagination to “watch” the action and movement within a changing setting.

In this activity, use your visualization skills to mark Serafina’s movements on a map of the estate.

Part A: First create your maps. The map of a house is a special drawing called a floorplan. Floorplans show each floor of house as if viewed from above.

1. Sketch rough floorplans of three levels of Biltmore on poster or large printer paper: the basement, the first floor, and the second floor.

Include and label rooms and spaces you read about in the novel:

• Basement: kitchens, workroom, stairs to subbasement, laundry, pantries, etc.
• First floor: Winter Garden, Entrance Hall, Tapestry Gallery, etc.
• Second floor: Braeden’s bedroom, the named guest bedrooms (Raphael Room, Morland Room, etc.), second floor living hall

You can use a ruler for straight lines, but do not worry about room measurements, relative size, or drawing to scale. Details like adding furniture or use of color are up to your teacher. Use both your imagination and text details to decide on the layout of each floor.

2. On a separate piece of poster or printer paper, sketch a simple exterior map to represent outside scenes. Draw a rectangular labeled “Biltmore” to represent the house, then add and label exterior features mentioned in the story: the Rambles, the grounds and gardens, the surrounding woods, the carriage road, the porte cochere, the abandoned cemetery, the clearing, the French Broad River, etc.

Part B: Using pointer sticky-tabs, a color-coded key, or some other visual system of showing information, show the location of at least 20 key moments in the plot (at least 5 per map).

These are examples of key moments you might choose:

• “The Man in the Black Cloak attacks Serafina and Braeden.”
• “Serafina catches two rats.”
• “Mr. Thorne tells a story.”

Share your marked maps and key moments as time allows.

Teaching Suggestions and Helpful Links

The floorplans intended in the above activity should be very simple; no need to worry about room dimensions or scale calculations. The focus is on the way in which the plot points “move” around Serafina’s territory in her Biltmore microcosm. However, if students need a quick visual to grasp the idea of a floorplan, here are two for modern day mansions: Example 1, Example 2.

Be sure to have students list and include on maps additional important plot locations; Leandra’s den, the dynamo room, and the library, for example, are more ideas for students to generate.

• An added challenge: Number the chosen key plot points in story sequence.
• Another potential challenge: Label each chosen key plot point with a suitable theme topic: identity, self-discovery, parent-child relationships, secrets, courage, skills, power

Paired Text Extension

For a look at another setting that exudes atmosphere and is crucial to plot, read aloud the first seven paragraphs of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Students can then employ comprehension of text details and visualization skills to sketch or draw the exterior of the Usher house and tarn. Students who showed special interest in creating floorplans might research examples of architectural elevations and draw one or more of these instead.

ACTIVITY 2: “A Knock at the Door”

Before movies, TV, streaming, and digital devices, the radio served as an important form of communication and entertainment. Listeners would gather around the radio to hear news, music, and shows. One popular show was the radio drama, a story usually filled with suspense, mood music, sound effects, dialogue, and narration.

Suspense is an important element in Serafina and the Black Cloak. Choose a scene from the book to represent in radio drama format.

1. Choose one scene of approximately 2-4 pages that is suspenseful, has dialogue, and includes action or activity that can be represented with sounds (footsteps, doors creaking, horses whinnying, etc.).

2. Take a look at this 1940s radio drama transcript from a show called Five Minute Mysteries. Look at the format of the transcript, especially the lines denoting “Music” and “SFX” (sound effects). You’ll be rewriting your chosen scene in this format. Note too that although there is a narrator, that role is minimal.

3. Brainstorm a list of sound effects for your chosen scene. Think of or find instrumental music that can be added for effect (to set the mood, call attention to a line of dialogue, or increase the suspense).

4. Write a draft of your scene as a radio drama. Use the dialogue verbatim (this means “word for word”) from the book but cut narration to a minimum. Incorporate your music cues and sound effects where they will be effective.

You can lead up to the most suspenseful moment in the scene and cut off, or you can continue for a few lines after the most suspenseful moment to provide some resolution of the scene.

5. Return to your lines of dialogue and add directions for vocalizations that emphasize or enhance the character’s meaning (for example: “laughs nervously,” “grunts angrily,” “yells in fear”).

Performing your radio drama will depend on time involved and other factors; your teacher will supply guidance.

Teaching Suggestions and Helpful Links

The most suspenseful scenes in the book are also the ones in which Serafina uses her skills, power, and courage, so connecting to the novel’s themes might be a way to incorporate discussion before or after the writing activity. If you plan to allow performances of the radio dramas, decide if students should stick with live, “homemade” sound effects or if they will be permitted to use recorded ones.

Another route your discussion might take: What, if anything, has replaced the old-time radio drama? Are audiobooks and podcasts fulfilling the same needs? How are they similar and different from a radio broadcast? Here’s a brief article to further that discussion: “Theatres Return to an Old Art Form—the Radio Drama—with a Twist.”

Paired Text Extension

Students can compare “The Monkey’ Paw” by W.W. Jacobs to Serafina and the Black Cloak in terms of suspense, plotting, climax, and the themes of courage and parent-child relationships. This short story is also an excellent choice for the radio drama format; students might be given a choice between the two titles for their project.