K5 Learning
The Story of a Wise Woman
The Story of a Wise Woman tells the tale of South Carolina's, Eliza Lucas Pinckney and how she persevered to plant and harvest indigo. With this short story and questions learning exercise, your early readers test their comprehension...
EngageNY
Developing Reading Fluency: Criteria for Reading Aloud
Third graders develop their reading superpowers in a lesson plan on fluency. After first listening to an audio recording or teacher read aloud, the class works together identifying criteria for fluent reading, focusing on phrasing, rate,...
Curated OER
Instill a Passion for Writing Short Stories
Quick writing tips and tricks to guide and polish learners' narrative writing.
Film English
My Shoes
Engage your pupils in short story and short film. Using a still from the film as inspiration, pairs compose short stories, which they later share and compare with other members of the class. They then watch the film and respond to a...
K20 LEARN
Considering "Charles": Pictograms, Annotations, Reading Strategies, And Multimodal Responses
Shirley Jackson's short story, "Charles," provides middle schoolers with an opportunity to practice their close reading skills. Using the provided list of prompts, scholars read and reread the story, then create a multimodal response to...
Curated OER
Who Am I?
Your budding journalists need to understand the five W's for writing a news story. They read a story, complete several graphic organizers to help them organize and write their article, and then use a self-assessment worksheet to edit and...
Library of Congress
A Selection of Stories from The Æsop for Children
Read and incorporate a variety of Aesop's Fables into a fable genre study with an eBook produced by the Library of Congress. The interactive eBook contains 146 fables written by Aesop and includes colorful interactive illustrations by...
EngageNY
Developing Reading Fluency: Beginning the End of Unit 2 Assessment
Third graders continue to develop their reading fluency in preparation for their assessment in the tenth lesson plan of this unit. Young readers are provided with a short passage on Helen Keller, which they use while working in pairs...
Curated OER
Elements of a Short Story (SMART Board)
Seventh graders view a PowerPoint presentation about short story elements. They complete a plot diagram using a previously read short story. Students brainstorm events in the story. They discuss the difference between major and less...
Curated OER
Stories
Read, discuss, and write short stories with your primary class. They read a short story and complete worksheets for the story. They also brainstorm ideas for a class story and choose an idea to write 3 ideas and then write the story as a...
Curated OER
"The Story of an Hour" Lesson 2: Teacher's Guide and Notes
After reading background information about Kate Chopin, pupils complete their shared reading of her short story, "The Story of an Hour." Participants then consider the irony of the ending.
Curated OER
"The Story of an Hour" Lesson 1: Teacher's Guide and Notes
Attitudes toward women have changed radically in the last hundred years. The first lesson in a six-part unit that uses Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour" as an anchor text begins with a shared reading of "The Role of Women...
Curated OER
Creating a Story Map Using Kidspiration
Fourth graders use computer software, Kidspiration, to create a graphic organizer detailing main characters, setting, problem, solution, and theme of their favorite short story. Students also discover how graphic organizers can help them...
Curated OER
The Short Story: A Slice of Life
Students are introduced to the characteristics of the short story. Individually, they use their own personal experiences to write a poem about their families to get them used to writing. Next, they practice reading various short...
Curated OER
Piano Lessons
Playing the piano takes a lot of work, even before you touch the keys! Use a reading passage about learning to play the piano before answering five comprehension questions.
IPDAE
Themes in Short Stories
"What is the theme of this story?" The very question can spark fear in the minds of readers and incinerate confidence. Here you will discover an exercise that shows how writers use the tools of setting, plot, conflict, and...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
How Would You Feel? The Bravery of Civil Disobedience
As part of their study of the US Civil Rights Movement and the Montgomery bus boycott, class members read Dr. Martin Luther King's "Integrated Bus Suggestions." They then craft a short story about the first week of Montgomery bus...
Bully Free Systems
Bully Free Lesson Plans—Fifth Grade
Two lessons take a look at bullying. Lesson one focuses on physical bullying. Scholars identify the bullying type's qualities, read short stories and answer comprehension questions. Lesson two offers advise on what to do as a bystander...
K20 LEARN
OPTIC - A Reading Strategy Recipe: Visual Literacy
A visual literary lesson plan provides learners with OPTIC (Observations, Predictions, Themes, Inferences, Conclusions), a reading strategy to help them understand and interpret visual and written texts. Scholars practice the strategy...
Maine Content Literacy Project
Exploring Text with the iMovie Application
Get your class going on one of the final assessments for a unit on short stories by introducing iMovie and its main features. In this tenth instructional activity in a series of fourteen, pupils take some time to explore iMovie before...
Curated OER
Children Using Antonyms to Write Short Stories
Second graders discuss what antonyms are and read the book, Quick as a Cricket. In this antonym lesson, 2nd graders write a short story by describing themselves.
Maine Content Literacy Project
The Process of Reading vocabulary, literary elements
Cover Freytag's Triangle and examine Anton Chekhov's "The Bet" in this third lesson plan in a series of fourteen based around short stories. Learners take a quiz and discuss Freytag's triangle. They apply the triangle to "The Bet" and...
Curated OER
Scary Short Story Writing Lesson
There's nothing like the prospect of writing a scary story to get your middle schoolers' writing juices flowing! In the lesson plan presented here, pupils listen to scary short stories read to them by the teacher. Then, a discussion...
Curated OER
The Final Copy
Write short stories in which events are presented in logical order, point of view is clear, theme and characters are developed. Middle schoolers also work on sensory language, concrete language and/or dialogue. They establish their...