My first experience with Edgar Allen Poe was in the seventh grade with "The Tell-Tale Heart." It instantly became one of my favorite stories, mainly because of the creep factor, but also because it tells and shows a really good story of a monomania episode. It would be a great story to intertwine a psychology lesson into, if you're into that kind of thing.
One of the things that I think draws young adults to Poe is his dark attitude; the man writes about death or dying in most of his stories and poems. "The Tell-Tale Heart" is dark because the narrator murders a man with seemingly no motive except for the narrator's mania. I think this is a great story to venture into Poe's work: you see Poe's style of writing from the very beginning. His style isn't unique to just Poe, but I feel he does it best: the macabre, dark thematic elements to his stories and poems seem natural and unforced. Poe's narrator carries the crazy throughout the story very well.
I believe that Poe is also a great start for students to be introduced to his poetry. "Annabel Lee" is my personal favorite poem of his: the building up of this love poem about this beautiful woman in a kingdom by the sea and then boom, turns out she's actually embalmed and entombed by her former lover in his kingdom by the sea... It's always been one of my favorite poems, regardless of the content. But I think that "The Raven" is also a good route for students to experience Poe's poetry, for much of the same reasons as they should experience his stories. "The Raven" ties in Greek/Roman mythology with Poe's usual thematic elements, making the poem very universal for multiple uses.
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