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Worksheet
Curated OER

“Everyday Use,” Alice Walker: Questions for Discussion

For Students 8th - 9th
Should treasured family heirlooms be used or preserved? This resource provides readers with an opportunity to examine the actions of characters in Alice Walker’s short story, as well as their own sense of heritage. The questions could be...
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Lesson Plan
Denver Art Museum

Putting Images into Words

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Engage your class in art analysis of Indian Look-Alike by Melanie Yazzie. Using this work of art as inspiration, writers compose a poem or short story. After a peer review session, the teacher conveys information about the work of art as...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Good Man is Hard to Find

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Young scholars, in groups, read and analyze the short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor. They present their findings tot he rest of the class and then connect the various themes discussed to outside material, events...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Character Sketches

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Students are introduced to the types of characters found in short stories. They read a short story in class and produce sketches of the protagonist and antagonist. Finally, they create their own characters and write about them in their...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

"A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury: Questions

For Students 7th - 9th Standards
These questions are designed to accompany Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder," and could be used to guide and focus readers or as an assessment of reading skill and knowledge of the elements of a story. Page one focuses on questions of...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

"Sunday in the Park" Reader's Response

For Students 7th - 9th
After reading Bel Kaufman's "Sunday in the Park," give your class the opportunity to react to the short story through writing. First they write a brief summary paragraph, and then they react to any events or characters' actions in a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creepy Read Week

For Teachers 8th
Here's a clever technology twist to writing in the round. Participants rotate through a series of computers adding to stories and editing by keystroke and mouse click. "Locked" forms prevent the loss of stories filled with suspense and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Short Story Elements

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students engage in a instructional activity that investigates the elements that are necessary in a short story. Each element is covered separately while they take notes for each part. Then the teacher points out each element while...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Writing a Short Story with

For Teachers 10th - 12th
In a previous lesson not included here, class members read Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and then wrote a persuasive letter inviting someone to an island. Young sleuths use these letters as basis for a suspenseful short...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Story Development through Japanese art

For Teachers 7th
A classic Japanese print is attached to this lesson and its up to your class to write a story about it. Pretending the image is an illustration, they use what they know about Japanese mythology to compose a short story describing the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating a Story Map Using Kidspiration

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders use computer software, Kidspiration, to create a graphic organizer detailing main characters, setting, problem, solution, and theme of their favorite short story. Students also discover how graphic organizers can help them...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Parts of the Plot: Constructing a Plot Diagram

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders conduct a plot diagram for a short story. They identify the problem, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution. Students are able to sequence events in a story, and identify the parts of the plot...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Gift of the Magi

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Test the true meaning of giving - and irony - with this lesson about "The Gift of the Magi." Using textual analysis, details, and text organization, middle schoolers make predictions about future events in the story and determine the...
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PPT
Curated OER

Haunted House

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Read alouds are great ways to build fluency, accuracy, and intonation. Each slide contains part of a story about a haunted house and audio of the story being read aloud by several different children. Whether you use it as a reading...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Gift of the Magi

For Teachers 9th - 10th
While reading O Henry's "The Gift of the Magi," your class will define and identify situational irony and allusion. Use a study guide (not included, but easy to produce) to record and discuss examples of allusion as you read. Map the...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

New York State Language Arts Test Grade 4

For Students 4th
Quiz your class with this New York state language arts test. The test is composed of several informational and fictional passages and 28 multiple choice questions. The questions are based mostly on reading comprehension.
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Sentence Types: "The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen"

For Students 8th - 11th
Readers identify sentence types with 25 examples based on Bruno Lessing's short story "The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen." For each, they choose from simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Write It, Read It, Solve It

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Writers create an original mystery and have a chance to put it into movie format. The classic elements of a mystery must be present: the crime, the suspects, the motive, the solution and clues. Use iPhoto and Quicktime Movie to integrate...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Elements of a Short Story (SMARTboard)

For Teachers 7th - 8th
TV for homework? Your pupils' dreams have come true! After reading Sandra Cisneros's "Eleven," they analyze the elements of the story, particularly the plot and and climax. The lesson plan could work with any short story that you are...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

The Tales and Poems of Poe

For Students 10th - 12th
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...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

The Diamond as Big as the Ritz Quiz

For Students 11th - 12th
Can you imagine an entire mountain consisting of a solid diamond? It is possible, though a bit farfetched in The Diamond as Big as the Ritz by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The story is meant to be a satire about wealth and greed; the quiz asks...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Edgar Allan Poe Realty: Fun Trivia Quiz

For Students 8th - 10th
Often these Fun Trivia quizzes are low-quality and have questionable educational merit. However, this interactive online instructional activity provides a clever way to test understanding of setting in various Edgar Allan Poe stories.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Snapshots of a Short Story

For Teachers 1st
First graders will be creating and filling in a graphic organizer using Kidspiration, as a pre-writing activity for their short story piece. They then use their graphic organizers to write their entire short story. Once written, the...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

The Fall of the House of Usher

For Students 11th - 12th
These frightening questions cover The Fall of the House of Usher, one of Edgar Allan Poe's most infamous works. The scary details are rehashed in these ten multiple-choice questions. Take the quiz if you dare!