Short Story Lesson Plans
Set Up and Introduction

Short Story Lesson Plans are best used when created as a group based around one story. If your goal is to teach the elements of a short story, descriptive techniques in a short story, and contrasts in a short story, you should choose a story that you enjoy and that is grade/skill level appropriate for your classroom to base all of the short story lessons around.

When to Teach Short Story Lesson Plans
For the middle school language arts classroom, it's best to start your year off with the short story. Many of the concepts you are going to need later on as you get into more specific types of texts (i.e., poetry, drama, folktale, myth, novel studies) are best taught using short story themes. The short story lesson plans give you a chance to introduce topics quickly and efficiently while also continuing the ongoing process of enhancing reading skills.

My Short Story Lesson Plans Set Up
Each short story lesson is written in the same format to keep it simple. Each includes:

Length
Set in minutes so that you can apply it to whatever type of block schedule your school follows.

Objective
Quick explanation of my goals for the students by end of lesson.

Materials
List of materials needed to implement lesson.

Lesson
The structured lesson given by the teacher before the students begin to explore the work on their own. At KMS my mentor called them "mini-lessons" because the point is to make it short and sweet so as not to lose your students.

Work Period
What the students will do as they begin to explore the topic on their own. This is where extension of the lesson activities, the "put into practice" happens.

Homework
Homework related to the lesson. I try to give something every day however, there may be days where homework is to finish work not completed during work period.

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