Good questions can help focus readers' attention on the elements writers use to add depth to their stories. The questions on this worksheet do just that and encourage readers to think critically about a story and author's purpose.

Introduce "The Inn of Lost Time" by Lensey Namioka to your middle schoolers with a reader's resource page. It includes links to different activities, including a creative writing prompt about losing fifty years of your life, and a...

Teach your young readers how to summarize a text using a strategy called Somebody Wanted But So. Kids identify the character (Somebody), the motivation (Wanted), the conflict (But), and the resolution (So). The resource comes with...

Brief summary and commentary of the short story "The Enemy," by Pearl S. Buck.

New York University offers a summary of and commentary on the short story by R.K. Narayan, "The Doctor's Word."

This site, part of one on medicine and the humanities from New York University, provides links to discussions of four of O'Connor's stories. The discussions included summaries of and commentaries on the stories.

This New York University offers a summary of and commentary on "An Astrologer's Day" by R.K. Narayan.

This webpage from New York University contains a summary of and commentary on Bernard Malamud's short story "Idiots First." A list of keywords with links to other works with similar subjects is also provided.

A short summary of the life of the famous Mexican outlaw, Pancho Villa.

A short summary of Leif Erikson's story. Archived.