short stories to write essays about 8th grade

Many of my favorite short stories have twist endings. These are great for teaching careful reading. However, the author usually gives enough hints along the way to give the reader the chance to figure out what is going to happen. This makes for a great discussion about foreshadowing. Short Stories for Middle School: Create your own Anthology It is hard to beat a good twist ending when it comes to engagement. Too often I find that teachers limit the stories they use in their classrooms to those they can find in their classroom literature anthology. There are so many amazing stories out there, just waiting to be taught! As a true lover of the short story, I have tried to dedicate my teaching career to collecting some of the very best. I like to create my own personal classroom anthology. As many full text versions of short stories can be found for free online in public domain, I simply google the title of each of the short stories I want. Then, I make copies, and put them all together in a duotang. I now have a classroom set of my favorites that I can use when the mood strikes. Also, it is easy to add (and subtract) new short stories as I discover them.

In this engaging short story, a woman borrows an expensive necklace from a wealthy friend, only to lose it.

She then spends the rest of the story trying to repay her debt. With a surprising twist ending, this short work of classic literature is sure to engage your students.

The characters in this story are very well developed. Because of this, they make for great lessons on characterization. Also, the main character comes off quite spoiled and unlikable. It makes for an excellent class debate or writing assignment on whether or not she deserved her fate.įull text of the story can be found here. Roald Dahl is easily one of my favorite writers of all time. While his novels are amazing, his lesser known shown stories are equally as great. “Lamb to the Slaughter” focuses on a scorn woman, who has murdered her husband with a frozen leg of lamb.

Short stories to write essays about 8th grade