The New York Times
The Horror! The Horror!
Gear up for Halloween by studying the horror genre with your class and analyzing films and texts to uncover the genre's traditional conventions.
Curated OER
Editing and Publishing: Horror and Suspense
This sequence of slides leads pupils through an editing process designed for horror or suspenseful stories. The prompts tell your class to look at their writing style; including hints such as varying sentence length, using premier...
Curated OER
Horror Tales: What Makes Them Spooky?
Before you jump into this lesson, be aware there is little to work with. That being said, the ideas are solid and will be brought to life with a little Halloween spirit. Learners examine horror as a sub-genre, and contemplate what makes...
K20 LEARN
The Monkey's Paw - Be Careful What You Wish For: Foreshadowing
W. W. Jacobs' horror story, "The Monkey's Paw," is used to introduce foreshadowing. As they advance through the story, young readers make predictions about what might happen next and how the story might end. Pairs work through the story...
Washoe County School District
Three Skeleton Key
Conduct a close reading of George G. Toudouze's well-known horror story "Three Skeleton Key." This plan breaks up the reading into several steps and provides text-dependent questions to ask along the way. Learners will have the chance to...
Curated OER
Planning a Story
Have your class write stories. Learners discuss how to create a great beginning, develop a list of characters, and provide a resoulution of a story. There are some aspects of this presentation that could be altered to provide clearer and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Tales of the Supernatural
Scary stuff! Whether approached as the first horror story or a "serious imaginative exploration of the human condition," Frankenstein continues to engage readers. Here's a packet of activities that uses Mary Shelley's gothic novel to...
Curated OER
The Tales and Poems of Poe
Four short stories, two poems, and biographical information about Edgar Allan Poe make up this quiz. Questions about The Cask of Amontillado, The Masque of the Red Death, The Raven, The Black Cat, Annabel Lee, and The Tell-Tale Heart...
PBS
Frankenstein: The Consequence of Creation
Famous as a horror story, as the first science fiction novel, Frankenstein is also a tale of ambition, a warning about unbridled science, and responsibility for actions. Readers consider what the tale says of the consequences of creation...
Curated OER
Creature From The Deep
Students become familiar with oceanography terms by writing an oceanography horror story.
Curated OER
Story Telling: Chill Out
Students explore story telling. In this story telling lesson, students listen to classic campfire horror stories and prepare a storyboard organizer for an original scary story. Students share their story with the class.
Curated OER
Edgar Allen Poe: More Than the Master of Horror
Celebrate Poe's birthday with works that don't feature incorporeal hearts or evil houses.
Curated OER
"The Lottery"
Designed to open a unit on the suspense/horror genre, this plan hooks readers with an activity that mirrors the action of Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" (without the grisly ending). Use either the twenty-minute 1969 film or...
Curated OER
Daniel's Story Study Guide
Students explore the plight of Jews during the Holocaust. In this World War II lesson, students read Daniel's Story by Carol Matas and complete the provided comprehension, characterization, and vocabulary activities.
Curated OER
Three Skeleton Key: Elements of Literature
Rats! How are they described in "Three Skeleton Key," and what happens to the characters in the story? Study the vocabulary and the story with these worksheets. Learners complete pre-reading activities, study vocabulary, complete...
Indiana University
Literature of Asia and the Middle East: "A Sound of Hammering" by Dazai Osamu
Dazai Osamu’s short story, “A Sound of Hammering” is the focus of a three-day investigation of modern Japanese literature and life in post-World War II Japan. The events in Osamu’s story mirror those in his own life, and give a...
Curated OER
Think of an Ending
Good endings are hard to find. And write. This, the final lesson in a six-part series devoted to study of the ingredients of a good story, focuses on crafting endings. Class members draft ideas about what should happen to each of their...
Curated OER
Horror Story
Students explore the conditions of life in Zimbabwe. In this global studies lesson, students research selected websites to discover information about the people, culture, and statistical information of Zimbabwe.
K20 LEARN
Active Or Passive?—"The Monkey's Paw": Grammar/Language Usage
Don't you wish you could use passive voice? Be careful what you wish for! "The Monkey's Paw" is the focus of a grammar and language usage activity about active and passive voice. Readers identify examples of active and passive voice in...
Livaudais-Baker English Classroom
Heart of Darkness Active Reading Journal Assignment
Avoid the horror of readers straining to recall details of Joseph Conrad's complex Heart of Darkness. Instead provide scholars with a frame for their note taking. As they read, class members record evidence to support their responses to...
Curated OER
Movies and Entertainment
Test your students' knowledge of literary and cinematic genres with this matching instructional activity. Twenty-one terms, such as "thriller," "western," "novel," and "horror," can be matched with their definition. Use this activity as...
Curated OER
Frankenstein
Share a classic novel with your class using this resource. After reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, learners answer questions involving the narrator's point of view, make and confirm predictions, and sequence events in the story.
Amnesty International
Hotel Rwanda Teacher's Guide
Here is the comprehensive, official educator's guide for presenting Hotel Rwanda and the story of the Rwandan genocide in 1994 to a classroom environment. It includes a range of exceptional hands-on or discussion activities, as well as a...
Curated OER
The Dead Zone: A Marine Horror Story
Students graph dissolved oxygen versus depth using data taken from NECOP Program. In this marine science instructional activity, students explain the causes of hypoxia. They recommend possible solutions to this problem.