Sound/Story

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...

What makes a person resilient? Explore one story of a person overcoming adversity by inviting your pupils to read "The Last Leaf" by O. Henry. Pupils then respond to five discussion-style questions.

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

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce’s short story, is used to model how structural moves, the decisions an author makes about setting, point of view, time order, etc., can be examined to reveal an author’s purpose. Groups...

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...

One of the most famous short stories, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," is the focus of this resource. Learners read the story, respond to several text-based questions, and brainstorm ideas about a question relating to the text as...

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a great story to share with your class, and this lesson focuses on just that story! The eighth in a fourteen-lesson series on short stories, the plan has learners study some vocabulary, read the story,...

Use O. Henry's short story "A Retrieved Reformation" as a way to discuss identity and if a person can change his or her identity. Learners read the story and respond to text-based questions as well as questions that are referred to as...

The second lesson in a series of fourteen, this plan takes the short story basics a step further. Learners complete a quiz about the story from the previous day, discuss the text, learn about Anton Chekhov, and work in groups to begin...

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...