FRANKENSTEIN Project Ideas for High School ELA

These Frankenstein project ideas are designed for grades 9–12 ELA. They go beyond the standard essay and give students a range of ways to demonstrate their understanding of the novel. The ten projects below cover creative writing, argument, performance, exhibition, and research.

1. Dr. Frankenstein on Trial

Type: Debate and argument Standards: W1A Writing Argument, SL3 Comprehension and Collaboration

The class debates how responsible Dr. Frankenstein is for the events of the novel. The resolution is simple: “Dr. Frankenstein deserves the blame for the tragic events in Frankenstein.” Students argue for or against.

This is one of the most energizing activities in the unit because students have strong opinions and the text supports both sides. Victor presents himself as a victim of fate and circumstance. The evidence of his negligence, cowardice, and self-deception tells a different story. Students who argue the side they disagree with tend to learn the most.

Individual stage: Students brainstorm reasons for guilt and innocence, write a detailed argument paragraph with textual evidence, anticipate a counterargument, and prepare a response.

Group stage: Groups collaborate to plan a complete argument, alternate in presenting their case, and deliver rebuttals. The debate ends with a written reflection in which students assess which side argued more effectively.

2. A Monster Monologue

Type: Performance and creative writing Standards: RL3 Key Ideas and Details, W3A-D Writing Narrative

Students write and perform a theatrical monologue for one of the characters in Frankenstein. The most natural choices are the creature (after the De Lacey family rejects him, after the second creature is destroyed) and the doctor (after Elizabeth’s murder, at the moment of his death). Both characters have rich interior lives and plenty to say.

The challenge is staying true to the original characterization. The creature is eloquent, emotionally sophisticated, and philosophically serious. The doctor is self-justifying, inconstant, and capable of genuine insight when he is honest with himself. A monologue that flattens either character misses the point.

Students identify the character, the context, the emotional state, and the key message before writing. They then select which elements of word choice to emphasize: figurative language, imagery, connotation, allusion, tone, and mood. Performance before the class or a small group works best.

3. Gothic Tales of Horror

Type: Creative writing Standards: W3B Narrative Writing, W3D Writing Narrative

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein because Lord Byron proposed a scary story contest on a rainy night in 1816. Students accept the same challenge.

Students write their own gothic short story. Gothic literature sits within Romanticism and focuses on the thrill of terror: dark and mysterious settings, supernatural phenomena, family secrets, curses, revenge, flawed heroes, and symbolism. The best gothic stories create terror not through shock but through structural effects: pacing, tension, suspense, mystery, foreshadowing, and dramatic irony.

Word choice is central to the assignment. Students should aim for the figurative language, connotative precision, and sensory imagery that Shelley demonstrates throughout Frankenstein. Before writing, students plan the mood, setting, conflict, characters, and at least one symbolic element. After writing, they identify which structural effects and word choice techniques they used and explain how.

4. Frankenstein Fine Art

Type: Exhibition Standards: RL7 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, W2D Informative Writing

Students create an original work of art inspired by Frankenstein and write a formal explanation of their creative choices. The medium is open: sketch, painting, collage, digital graphic design, or sculpture.

The subject of the artwork should connect to one or more elements of the novel: a theme, an image, a symbol, an allusion, a character, a mood, or a specific event. The assignment is not about artistic skill. It is about ideas and the ability to explain them precisely.

The written explanation asks students to identify the element of Frankenstein they explored, explain why that element interested them, analyze how their artistic treatment compares to the novel’s original treatment, and use both literary and artistic terminology. Students who pair a Romantic painting with their own interpretation of the same theme tend to produce the most interesting work.

This project works especially well after the Getting Romantic with Art pre-reading lesson, when students have already practiced analyzing fine art in terms of subject, emphasis, tone, mood, and style.

5. Science Fiction Short Story

Type: Creative writing Standards: W3A Writing Narrative, W3E Writing Narrative

Frankenstein is widely considered the first modern science fiction novel. Students demonstrate their understanding of the genre by writing their own original science fiction short story.

The premise must engage with a real current or near-future scientific development and imagine the possible consequences. Artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, surveillance technology, and social media algorithms are all productive starting points. The theme must develop through the science fiction premise: a story that could happen without the sci-fi element is not science fiction.

Students plan the premise, mood, point of view, conflict, plot, main characters, and theme before drafting. The story must include a conclusion in which some source offers a reflection or moral. Before writing, students should be able to answer the question: what could go wrong, and what does that reveal about human nature?

6. Frankenstein Adaptation for Stage or Screen

Type: Performance Standards: SL1B Comprehension and Collaboration, RL2-3 Key Ideas and Details

Student groups adapt one scene or event from Frankenstein for performance. The challenge is not simply to re-enact the scene. The challenge is to write and direct a version that emphasizes the key literary elements: characterization, symbolism, imagery, point of view, word choice, structural effects.

Groups set their own rules for discussion and decision making, choose a scene, analyze the literary elements worth emphasizing, compose a script, and rehearse before performing. Changes to the details of the original scene are acceptable as long as students can explain their choices.

Strong scene choices include the creature’s first meeting with the De Lacey family, the destruction of the second creature, the wedding night, and the final confrontation in the Arctic. Each of these moments concentrates multiple themes and allows for interesting staging decisions.

7. Theories of Personality Research Report

Type: Research and informative writing Standards: W7 Research, W2A Informative Writing, W8 Research and Citation

Shelley’s views on personality development were shaped by the philosophies of John Locke and Jean Jacques Rousseau. Locke argued that humans are born as blank slates shaped entirely by experience. Rousseau believed that humans are naturally good but corrupted by society. The creature’s arc is Shelley’s thought experiment on both theories simultaneously.

Students research current psychological theories of personality development and write a formal research report explaining what psychologists now believe. The report should address both past theories (Locke, Rousseau, Freud, Piaget, Erikson, Kohlberg) and current models (the Five Factor Model, Eysenck’s PEN Model). The conclusion connects the research to Shelley’s treatment of the creature.

This project works particularly well for students who are interested in psychology, social science, or medicine, and it gives the nature vs. nurture discussion a formal research dimension that the in-class lesson does not provide.

8. Frankenstein in Context Research Project

Type: Research and presentation Standards: W7 Research, W8 Research and Citation, SL4-5 Presentation

To fully understand Frankenstein, a reader needs to understand the ideological and historical moment that produced it. Students conduct a research project on one contextual topic and present their findings to the class. The presentation should make explicit connections to the novel.

Strong topic choices include:

Mary Shelley’s life and the 1816 ghost story contest
The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason
The Industrial Revolution
Romanticism as a literary and philosophical movement
The legacy of Frankenstein in popular culture
Galvanism and the science of Shelley’s era
Gender in 1818 and the role of women in Romantic literature

Each presentation should include an introduction, body sections organized by subtopic, a conclusion, and a works cited slide with MLA citations. Students use in-text citations throughout. The goal is for each presenter to give the rest of the class something they did not know before.

9. Comparing Frankensteins: 1818 vs. 1931

Type: Informative essay Standards: RL7 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, W2 Informative Writing

There have been many adaptations of Frankenstein. Some have stayed true to the original. Others have taken the material in genuinely interesting new directions. The classic 1931 Universal film directed by James Whale is both.

Students watch the film and write an informative essay comparing it to the novel. The essay analyzes characterization, plot events, structure and structural effects, tone and mood, symbolism, and themes. The comparison reveals how much the popular conception of Frankenstein and his monster diverges from Shelley’s original, and why.

Students maintain a formal style and objective tone throughout. They use third-person point of view, academic vocabulary, and literary terminology. The essay does not argue that one version is better than the other. It explains how each version works and what each chooses to emphasize or abandon.

10. Romantic Poetry Open-Mic

Type: Performance and creative writing Standards: W10 Range of Writing, RL6 Craft and Structure

Students write an original Romantic poem and perform it for the class. Romanticism is not just supernatural horror and emotionally tortured heroes. It is also poetry, and the sensibilities that run through Shelley’s prose run through the poetry of the movement as well.

The poem should imitate the subjects, moods, and style of Romantic poetry: sublime experiences, overwhelming emotion, imagination, the rejection of dehumanizing industry, nature, individuality, melancholy, and ornate language. Before writing, students study at least two Romantic poems and identify the techniques they plan to use: structure, imagery, figurative language, connotations, sound devices, tone, and mood.

Percy Shelley’s “Ozymandias” is particularly worth studying before this assignment. It is fourteen lines, immediately accessible, and directly relevant to Frankenstein‘s themes of ambition, hubris, and the inevitable triumph of time over human achievement. Students who read it carefully tend to write better poems.

The open-mic format raises the stakes in a productive way. Even reluctant writers tend to take the assignment seriously when they know they will be performing their work.