Comparing Characters Across Two Short Stories

How can reading short stories benefit people? To conclude a unit study of this genre, class members script and film a public service announcement addressing this essential question.

Roald Dahl’s classic World War II short story, “Beware of the Dog” is the focus of a close reading exercise that asks learners to respond to text-dependent questions with evidence drawn from the story. Participants record responses on...

A short story is only as strong as its characters, development, and conflicts. Encourage the young authors in your class to plan their stories based on the elements of narrative writing, all provided in brainstorming graphic organizers.

How should pupils read short stories? Set them up for this unit with an introductory instructional activity that goes over the main characteristics of a short story and starts learners off reading their first short story of the unit. In...

Get your writers composing their own short stories by following some or all of the ideas included here. You'll find short lessons and activities, handouts and assignment pages, sample paragraphs and sentences, and all sorts of great...

Grow an understanding of short story with a well-sequenced plan built around an Academy Award-winning short film. Class members explore the elements of an effective short story, and practice writing their own. They also watch the short...

This final resource in a series of fourteen lists all of the assessments for a short story unit. While designed to go specifically with the unit, these assessment ideas could be used to inspire projects for other units as well. Included...

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...

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...

Stephen Vincent Benet’s, “By the Waters of Babylon,” offers learners a chance to examine the difference between mood and tone. After a close reading of an excerpt from the short story, the class lists the diction and imagery that builds...