Elements of a Short Story

Use short stories to teach English? Yes! Designed as a professional development opportunity for English language teachers, the ideas in this booklet can easily be adapted to advanced ESL/ELL classes.

After reading two short stories, learners identify vocabulary associated with food and eating. This activity with 5 questions could be used as a reading comprehension and vocabulary practice for younger students or an ESL worksheet for...

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...

Middle schoolers explore the theme of "The Californian's Tale" by Mark Twain. After reading Twain's short story, they identify and study its literary theme. Additionally, they analyze information and relationships in the piece, and write...

Middle schoolers read the short story "The Californian's Tale" by Mark Twain and complete related activities. They discuss vocabulary for the story and complete a vocabulary matching definition activity. They complete  writing activities...

High schoolers respond to 15 questions about short stories by Edgar Allan Poe and his works. Using the Cliffs Notes website they may also link to an online interactive quiz on the stories at the bottom of the page.

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 Edgar Allan Poe with a series of mostly self-guided tasks and assignments. Class members follow the list of tasks, starting by watching a video with background information and ending with a compare-and-contrast...

Introduce your class to Glogster with this literary analysis instructional activity. 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...

Students read short story selections, and work with classmates to produce commercials using digital video equipment.