High School Short Story Units Bundle: Murder, Family Love, Dystopias, & Dreams

Want to empower your students to take charge of their own educations?

So many short story resources involve nothing more than checking boxes or filling out pages of meaningless worksheets. This kind of busywork might seem convenient, but it doesn’t teach students any skills that they need. In fact, when students are lead to believe that reading literature means answering pages of meaningless questions, they are taught to see English class as a boring chore and to hate reading of any kind.

Even worse, when your classes get the message that learning about short stories means sitting passively while teachers lecture to them, they come to believe that their ideas don’t matter.

If you want your classes to be excited about learning, to engage with texts because they enjoy analysis, to question their assumptions and explore alternate viewpoints in an effort to find the best ideas, you need quality resources that are designed to empower students to find their own answers. The short story units in this bundle are all based on what I have learned in my twenty five years of teaching, working hard to create independent learners who think for themselves and also see English class as lots of fun.

The variety of materials, real-life connections, and innovative approaches to the information will keep students engaged and excited about learning. Additionally, the concrete text-based questions and unique sources discourage cheating and encourage students to answer for themselves.

When you teach with the rigorous and engaging short story units in this bundle, you will:

• Establish calming routines when you engage your students with the daily bellringer freewrite prompts on relevant and timely topics that matter to them.

• Give even your most reluctant learners the scaffolding and support they need to engage with challenging texts when you utilize the no-prep handouts and extensive answer keys.

• Engage your classes with stories that deal with wide-ranging themes from parents and children, love and death, murder and guilt, to how we decide to do the right thing.

• Get your classes connecting classic literature with contemporary ideas and issues such as modern slavery, scapegoating, alcoholism, and the social media echo chamber, when you teach with the engaging TED Talks and contemporary news articles included in these units.

• Introduce your students to some classic, well-loved short stories as well as to some less canonical, more marginalized voices, when you teach with this diverse bundle.

• Engage multiple learning styles with the extension activities involving everything from a dynamic jigsaw to researching biblical allusions to drawing comics to reading articles from the Onion.

• Inspire your students to write creative short stories of their own when you slowly build towards a final writing project by utilizing the time-tested creative writing activities and exercises focusing on literary devices such as setting, characterization, and point of view.

• Empower your students to complete a close reading of a challenging text when they practice with structured handouts and focused passages and then slowly build towards independent analysis.

• Have the option to structure your units around literary devices, close reading instruction, themes, or an independent project when you utilize any of the suggested schedules.

• Give assessments that you will actually enjoy reading when students complete one or more of the many options for a final project including an ironic how-to, an original short story, a literary analysis paper, and/or a graded discussion.

Short Stories Covered in this Bundle:

"The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe

"The Cask of Amontillado" Edgar Allan Poe

"The Masque of Red Death" Edgar Allan Poe

"The Tell-Tale Heart" Edgar Allan Poe

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin

“Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston

“John Redding Goes to Sea” by Zora Neale Hurston

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson

“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K Le Guin

"Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut

“The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick

“Two Kinds” by Amy Tan

"The Man to Send Rainclouds" by Leslie Marmon Silko

"Geraldo No Last Name" by Sandra Cisneros

"Apollo" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

"Raphael" by Stephen Graham Jones

Get the following resources, all deeply discounted when you buy them together:

Close Reading Strategies, Techniques, & Tips: A Practical Guide for High School (normally priced at $3.97). The full-priced version is here.

Differentiated Reading Response Journal Prompts (normally priced at $5.97). The full-priced version is here.

Zora Neale Hurston "Sweat" | Harlem Renaissance Short Story Unit Plan (normally priced at $4.97) The full-priced version is here.

Dystopian Short Story Unit Plan: Ursula Le Guin & Social Justice (normally priced at $2.97) The full-priced version is here.

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut: Dystopian Short Story Unit (normally priced at $2.97). The full-priced version is here.

Zora Neale Hurston, Harlem Renaissance Short Story Unit Plan (normally priced at $7.97). The full-priced version is here.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson: Dystopian Short Story Unit Plan (normally priced at $3.97). The full-priced version is here.

Short Story Unit Plan: "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin | Literary Analysis (normally priced at $2.97) The full-priced version is here.

"The Masque of Red Death" Edgar Allan Poe | Allusion | Short Story Unit Plan (normally priced at $3.97) The full-priced version is here.

"The Cask of Amontillado" Edgar Allan Poe Point of View Activities, Homework (normally priced at $3.97) The full-priced version is here.

“Edgar Allan Poe Point of View | Edgar Allan Poe Activities | "The Black Cat” normally priced at $4.97). The full-priced version is here.

"The Shawl" by Cynthia Ozark | Holocaust Activities | Holocaust Reading Passage (normally priced at $2.97). The full-priced version is here.

Historical Fiction Writing Project | Creative Research Project | Fun Assessment (normally priced at $1.97). The full-priced version is here.

Two Kinds by Amy Tan | Short Story Unit Plan | Close Reading & Creative Writing (normally priced at $2.97). The full-priced version is here.

Literary Horror Story | Stephen Graham Jones | Native American Literature (normally priced at $3.97). The full-priced version is here.

Short Story Writing Workshop Guide: Activities, Prompts, Process, & Resources (normally priced at $7.97). The full-priced version is here.

There are no lectures or power points here—students will do the work themselves, with guidance from you. Rather than telling them what the stories mean, you will be empowering them with the confidence and skills to tackle a short story on their own.

Cover Credit: http://see2believe.co.uk