Maine Content Literacy Project
Introduction to the Short Story
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...
PB Works
The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
There is more going on under the surface of Ernest Hemingway's work than one can glean in an initial reading. A literature resource compares the themes and structures of several of Hemingway's works before prompting class members to use...
Longman
Stories for reading comprehension
A packet full of old-fashioned short stories could be a review activity for a reading comprehension lesson. Learners read 14 stories before answering multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank sentences, and vocabulary exercises.
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 worksheet, your early readers test their comprehension with...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 2, Lesson 3
Readers of "The Palace Thief" continue examining Ethan Canin’s short story and consider how the narrator's actions develop the central idea of how one's expectations and the expectations of others influence behavior.
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 2, Lesson 10
Is man's character his fate? Can actions change character? To track the development of the central ideas in Ethan Canin’s short story “The Palace Thief,” groups compare Hundert's actions in the original "Mr. Julius Caesar" competition...
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...
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
"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.
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 2, Lesson 11
Is identity unchanging? Do events in our childhood forever influence our character? Groups ponder these questions as they examine Ethan Canin’s short story “The Palace Thief.”
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...
K20 LEARN
OPTIC - A Reading Strategy Recipe: Visual Literacy
A visual literary lesson 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 with a...
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 lesson in a series of fourteen, pupils take some time to explore iMovie before conducting an...
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...
Novelinks
Walk Two Moons: Story Impressions
Story chains connect literary concepts, reinforce context clues, and even help learners predict what's coming next! Using words from the next chapter of Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons, middle schoolers craft story chains to...
EngageNY
Developing Reading Fluency: Selecting a Text and Practicing Reading Aloud
Young readers continue to strengthen their fluency skills with a text of their choosing. The teacher first engages the class with an audio recording or read-aloud of a short poem, modeling for children how to read fluently. Next it's...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 1
Word choice can drastically alter the tone of a piece of writing. Ninth graders read Karen Russell's short story "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" and use textual evidence to help them analyze how word choice affects their...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 2, Lesson 6
Is history "little more than a relic," as one of the characters in "The Palace Thief" contends? Has Hundert's love of antiquity kept him from changing with the times? Readers consider how the author uses these conflicting views to...
College Board
Reading—Synthesis and Paired Passages
Good readers make connections between texts. The SAT regularly assesses the ability to make those connections using paired reading passages, a topic discussed in an official SAT practice lesson plan on synthesis. During the instructional...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 2, Lesson 8
Now what? Class members continue their close reading of Ethan Canin’s short story “The Palace Thief,” focusing on Hundert's feelings about his retirement, and consider what these feelings reveal about his character.
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 3
Just like in real life, characters in short stories show their true personalities through their words and deeds. Decipher the character development in Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" with a set of activities...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 2, Lesson 1
The complex relationship between a teacher and his student takes center stage in an instructional activity that asks readers to pay close attention to how author Ethan Canin introduces his characters and how he develops the character of...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 2, Lesson 9
Do our childhood circumstances significantly shape us? As the close reading of “The Palace Thief” continues, groups examine how the results of the first "Mr. Julius Caesar" competition influenced the development of the characters in...