Comparing Characters Across Two Short Stories

Here’s the meatball in the bowl of spaghetti. Readers build a Lunatic Mystery Case Book, collecting evidence to support their prediction about the identity of the lunatic in Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech’s Newbery Medal winning novel....

This activity, which could be used in the lower grades for reading comprehension practice or with older learners as part of an ESL lesson, has learners read a short story and answer six comprehension and vocabulary questions. As part of...

Class members assume the role of one of the characters in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Writing as that character, they defend a decision he/she made. Groups then are presented with problematic situations that  parallel those of...

Four questions about conclusion, climax, tone, and theme make up this worksheet about literary elements. The questions are specific to certain short stories ("The Landlady," "The Tell Tale Heart," "There Will Come Soft Rains," and "The...

Planning a short story unit? Consider including this learning exercise early in your plan. "Remains of a Marriage" provides the text that could be used as the basis of a lesson on close reading, on comprehension strategies, and/or group...

Before you begin a unit on short stories, give your class some background information about the development of the short story. The presentation includes the history of the short story, starting with the first authors to explore and...

Do your young authors suffer from writer's block when they try to write short stories? Access their natural creativity with C-Gor, the writing monster! The instructional activity takes aspiring authors through a new writing process...

Introduce your class to Glogster with this literary analysis lesson. At the end of your short story unit, they choose one literary element to apply to three short stories and make an online poster using Glogster. Samples are included. If...

What elements make the short story a distinct genre? After generating a list of common elements and a working definition, class members identify the characters, setting, plot, rising action, crisis, climax, and conclusion in “The Three...

Help your class to learn to identify the key elements of a short story using previously read works. They work in small groups to answer questions about point-of-view, conflict, characters, and setting. Then, they use a graphic organizer...