87 Short Stories to Teach in High School ELA

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The best short stories to teach in high school English are the ones that spark interest, connection, and discussion among today’s teens. This post is here to help you choose a story (or set of stories) by giving you a LONG list of classroom-tested short reads that A) students will enjoy, and B) are meaty enough to analyze in an English course.

I’ve sorted my picks into Easy, On-Level, Advanced, and Classics. Each entry includes an approximate length, a very short synopsis, a few key thematic topics, and the literary skills you may want to teach alongside the story. Many of these picks are short enough to read in a single class period, with time left for discussion!

In thirteen years of teaching high school ELA (11th grade English/Lit, Comp/Reading, and AP Literature), short stories were not always high on my list of priorities, mostly because I wasn’t as familiar with them as I was with poems and novels and plays. However, they’ve grown in my estimation as I’ve seen how useful they can be. Often, they stick with students and get them talking in ways poems or longer reads do not.

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE teaching poems, novels, novellas, and plays. But poetry can be intimidating to students in a way that short stories are not, and long reads can leave out students who (for whatever reason) do not do at-home reading. The right short story feels “doable” to students and typically results in higher completion rates.

A great short story can turn my reluctant readers, my troublemakers, my quiet kids, and everyone else along with them into animated, engaged, excited students. I hear my students arguing about the characters, the ending, or how WEIRD that one story was in the halls, at lunch, and as they come into class.

I’ve even had students you would NEVER expect bring up a story we read together in class at a junior retreat… without prompting! These kids took the microphone during lunch to ask everyone whether they thought the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper was dead at the end, and they even called over the dean of students to talk to HIM about the story! (Grab my full lesson for The Yellow Wallpaper here!)

Over time, I’ve built a list of short stories I can rely on to really capture my students’ attention, no matter their ability or interest level. Below, there is a section with teaching suggestions, and after that section you’ll find PLENTY of stories to choose from, all grouped by difficulty and complexity.

I’ve listed a few that may be controversial but could be worth your time if you feel your students are ready and your community would be okay with them as class reads. (Obviously, read and review ANY of the stories before choosing to teach them. But the ones marked out as “controversial” definitely need a close eye before you use them.)

Some of these stories have decades of history and prestige as high school reads. Others are newer or aren’t usually part of the high school canon. I chose all of them based on whether they work well with teen readers. They are ALL interesting, emotionally affecting, and great for class discussions or digging into reading literature standards!

How to Teach Short Stories in High School English

I like to use short stories to introduce themes or literary elements that will be important in a larger unit around a novel, novella, or play. I also try to fit in one or two short story units throughout the year where we can focus closely on story elements and close-reading skills.

Short stories give us the chance to finish a complete narrative arc in a class period or two and still have time to talk about the story in depth. That makes them perfect for practicing skills in a low-stakes way. Students get the full experience of exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution, and then they get to do something with it.

Here’s how I adjust my approach for each group of students.

Teaching Short Stories to Remedial and Struggling Readers

Remedial and struggling readers often need more context building, visual supports, and read-alouds or “I do, we do, you do” teaching. My goal for these classes is to remove the barriers to understanding so my students can spend their energy thinking about the story.

Ways to read the story:

Read aloud first. Reading aloud models fluency and pronunciation, and it keeps everyone moving through the story at the same pace. I like to pause every few paragraphs to check understanding or clarify key bits.
Chunk the text. Break longer stories into sections before you read; plan your quick check-in or questions or clarification statements before you read with the class. Even a 2,000-word story will feel more manageable when chunked rather than read straight through.
Mix up how they read. Try partner reading, audio, or a teacher read-aloud for the first half and then independent reading for the second half of the story, or read it once together and then ask them to read it again on their own (if it’s short).
Build context before you start. A short image slideshow, a two-minute video clip, or a quick viewing of a character web/map can go a long way. Before The Sniper or The Old Man at the Bridge, for example, students should know the basics of the war that frames each story.
Pre-teach tricky vocabulary. Choose five to eight words that may block comprehension at key points in the story and do something with those words before reading. My students enjoy being split into small groups, given a word, and then tasked with creating a drawing/mini-comic to use with the class as they teach everyone else the meaning of their word.

Ways to encourage analysis and close reading:

Use “I do, we do, you do.” You don’t have to annotate the whole story, but choose a few key paragraphs and then model how you annotate one paragraph, annotate the next one together, and then let students try the final paragraph on their own. This can be a good exit ticket to turn in at the end of class.
Give students a small annotation job. Instead of asking them to annotate throughout the whole story, ask them to mark just one thing, such as a moment the character changes or an example of foreshadowing.
Use graphic organizers. Plot diagrams, character charts, and cause-and-effect maps give students a visual structure for their thinking. I use this one and these with my students.
Provide sentence frames. Try frames like “Somebody Wanted But So,” “The author uses ___ to show ___” or “This detail suggests ___ because ___.” Then have students fill in the blanks; this scaffolds analysis and helps them build toward independence.
Pick stories with a strong hook and a clear literary element you’re looking to teach. The Lottery is great for foreshadowing, The Gift of the Magi for situational irony, and The Tell-Tale Heart for unreliable narration. The more obvious the element, the better.

Ways to encourage good discussion:

Let students think before they talk. Give them a minute to jot down some ideas or to turn and talk to a partner before you ask them to share out with the whole class.
Start with concrete questions. Stop and ask after a key moment that may be misunderstood “What just happened?” or “How did the character feel here?” Make sure you have plenty of questions like these before jumping into deeper analysis.
Use low-pressure formats. Doing a think-pair-share, gallery walk, or one-sentence responses on sticky notes BEFORE whole class discussion will help reluctant speakers feel more confident speaking up.
Use agree/disagree statements. If you can come up with some polarizing statements, like “The character deserved what happened to her… agree, disagree?” You’ll be more likely to see students who are eager to share their views.

Teaching Short Stories to On-Level Students

On-level classes will still need help with context building before diving into most short stories. They’ll also still need some assistance with annotation, close reading, and discussion skills, though how much they’ll need differs depending on the group each year. I find that these students can handle reading the text, typically, but they still benefit from any help I can build into the lesson that is designed to teach them how to read more deeply/critically.

Ways to read the story:

Do a short context-builder as a warm-up. Spend five to ten minutes on the author, setting/time period, or important but unfamiliar aspects of the text (whatever seems most salient), but don’t give away too much. Try to allow students to form their own impression of the text when they first read it.
Read the first page together, then release everyone to read the rest. Reading the opening aloud sets the tone, and then students can typically finish independently.
Read it twice. Tell students that the first read is for them to get an idea for the story itself, especially plot and characters, and the second is to take a closer look at the author’s craft. Students may groan at first, but try to get them to buy in by emphasizing how they’ll notice far more on a second pass, especially in twist-ending stories like The Necklace or An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.

Ways to encourage analysis and close reading:

Teach a consistent annotation system. Try color coding or a shared class set of symbols for things like conflict, characterization, imagery, and shifts in tone. Using the same system all year will help students annotate faster AND give them a bit of guidance in terms of WHAT to annotate.
Zoom in on one passage. Choose a single paragraph or a few key lines and have students do a close read: You can ask things like, What words stand out? What’s the tone? What imagery seems singificant? What changes here? Why does this passage matter?
Ask students to trace a symbol or motif. Following a symbol or motif from beginning to end can help show students how meaning builds over the course of the story, especially if they symbol is more unique than something like “dove = peace.”
Connect the literary element(s) you’re focusing on to the bigger picture. Ask something like, “How does this technique help the author develop a larger theme in the story?” A question like this helps move on-level students from simply finding, pointing to, and naming devices to actually analyzing them.
Practice with short writing. A quick exit-ticket written paragraph that makes a claim, uses a quote, and explains it is great practice for longer analytical writing. Ask a simple question and require that students answer the question (their claim), provide a quote to support their claim (their evidence), and write a bit about their thinking (their reasoning). How does the evidence help prove the claim? This should be the focus of their final few sentences (reasoning/analysis).

Ways to encourage good discussion:

Prepare with written responses. Have students write down a question, a quote worth discussing, or a “turning point” before class so everyone comes ready to talk. My students also like TQE: They write down a thought, a question, and an epiphany they had while reading, and then share with a small group before we do whole-class discussion.
Try structured formats. Socratic seminars, fishbowls, and small-group discussion with assigned roles can provide enough guidance to help students discuss the text deeply.
Teach students how to discuss productively. Provide starter stems like, “I’d like to build on what ___ said” or “I see it differently because ___”. These help ensure that students are driving the story talk. This way, it doesn’t turn into a series of teacher-student exchanges.
Require text evidence. Make “Where do you see that in the text?” a common refrain.

Teaching Short Stories to Advanced, Honors, and AP Lit Students

Advanced students often enjoy researching the important context themselves, leading their own class discussions, or working on a culminating essay or group project tied to the stories we’ve read. They are ready for ambiguity, so give them room to wrestle with it when you can!

Ways to read the story:

Assign it as independent reading. Students can read before class and arrive with annotations, questions, and an initial interpretation.
Have students research the context. Before reading a meaty text like The Dead or Recitatif, guide small groups to investigate the historical, cultural, or biographical background that matters to the specific story and teach what they learned to the class. I like to create five or six different angles with three or four research questions and then set them loose to research for a class period. The next day, they share what they learned.
Read with a lens. Assign a critical lens such as gender, class, psychoanalytic, or postcolonial, and have students reread the story through it. The Yellow Wallpaper and Bartleby, the Scrivener are rich for a lens activity!

Ways to encourage analysis and close reading:

Focus on how form creates meaning. Ask how structure, point of view, syntax, and diction shape the story’s effect. The Garden of Forking Paths and Cathedral are great for this.
Pair texts. Reading The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas alongside The Ones Who Stay and Fight gives students two arguments to compare and respond to.
Practice timed, AP-style writing. Short passages from the story can be used to make strong prompts for thesis-driven analysis. Check out AP style Q2 questions and then create your own!
Have students defend an interpretation. With ambiguous endings, ask them to argue for their reading using specific evidence. You can even turn this into a debate!
Look for what’s not said. Stories like A Perfect Day for Bananafish and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber reward students who can read subtext and the “iceberg” beneath the surface.

Ways to encourage good discussion:

Let students lead. Ask for volunteer student discussion leaders to bring questions and guide the conversation while you step back.
Use Harkness-style discussion. Students sit in a circle, talk to one another, and track the conversation, with minimal teacher involvement.
Push beyond the first answer. Ask students to respond to peers’ comments, revise their ideas, or connect the story to other works they’ve read.
Finish with a culminating project. A comparative essay, a group presentation, or a themed project that ties several stories together gives students a chance to synthesize what they’ve learned.

Choosing the Right Short Stories for Your Students

The more stories we read ourselves, as teachers, and become familiar with, the easier it becomes to pick stories that will enthrall, challenge, and stick with the students in front of us at any given time! If you aren’t a big short story reader, maybe you could challenge yourself to read 5-10 that sound interesting to you, and then choose 1-2 to teach this year!

Ready to pick your stories? Browse the full list below, sorted by reading level, with word counts, themes, and the skills each story is best for teaching.

Short Stories for High School English: Easy, On-Level, and Advanced Picks

Choosing the right short stories to teach is important! Below, you’ll find 106 short stories sorted by reading level, each with an approximate length, its major themes, and the literary skills I think it works best to teach. Scroll to the section that fits your students: easy short stories for struggling readers, on-level short stories for grades 9-12, or advanced short stories for honors and AP Literature students…

Want full lessons? I have complete, ready-to-teach lessons for these three stories:

The Yellow Wallpaper (On-Level) – grab my full lesson here.
The Minister’s Black Veil (On-Level) – grab my full lesson here.
The Fall of the House of Usher (Advanced) – grab my full lesson here.

These lessons include the materials, discussion questions, activities, and assessments that have worked in my classroom!

Want ready-to-teach resources that work with any short story? Browse my short story materials here!

Easy Short Stories for High School (Remedial / Struggling Readers)

These stories work for students who struggle with dense prose, have limited reading stamina, or have experienced interrupted schooling. Each one benefits from clear language, short length, and strong hooks teens will connect with. Most can be read in a single class period or two with time left for an activity or discussion. Check with your middle school colleagues to ensure they haven’t already been taught!

1. The Old Man at the Bridge by Ernest Hemingway

During the Spanish Civil War, a soldier encounters an exhausted old man who has left his animals behind and can go no farther as the enemy advances.

Length: about 800-1,000 words (2-3 pages)
Themes: war’s cost on the ordinary, displacement, dignity
Teach: iceberg theory, understatement, sparse dialogue, setting

2. Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield

An elderly woman spends her Sunday in a park, imagining herself part of a grand theatrical performance until a young couple’s cruel remarks shatter her illusion.

Length: about 1,900-2,000 words (5 pages)
Themes: loneliness, self-delusion, the cruelty of indifference
Teach: free indirect discourse, symbolism of her fur, tone shift, epiphany

3. The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

Mathilde borrows a diamond necklace, loses it, and spends a decade in poverty repaying it, only to learn it was fake.

Length: about 3,200 words (8 pages)
Themes: vanity, class, appearance vs. reality
Teach: situational irony, twist ending, foreshadowing, third-person limited

4. Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl

A wife kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb, then feeds the evidence to the detectives.

Length: about 4,400 words (11 pages)
Themes: betrayal, appearances, justice
Teach: dramatic irony, black humor, tonal shifts, the double meaning of the title

5. The Landlady by Roald Dahl

Billy takes a suspiciously cheap room at a B&B where former guests’ names never seem to check out.

Length: about 3,500 words (9 pages)
Themes: naivety, hidden danger
Teach: foreshadowing, ominous detail, suspense, making an inference from an open ending

6. They’re Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson

Two aliens argue in disbelief over meat-based intelligent life.

Length: about 700 words (2 pages)
Themes: prejudice, the limits of imagination
Teach: defamiliarization, perspective reversal, satire, dialogue-only structure

7. All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury

On rainy Venus, children lock away the one classmate who remembers the sun, just before it appears for the first time in seven years.

Length: about 2,100 words (5 pages)
Themes: cruelty, envy, exclusion, guilt
Teach: setting and mood, simile and imagery, symbolism of the sun, group characterization

8. The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury

In a TV-saturated future, a man is arrested for walking at night.

Length: about 1,800 words (4-5 pages)
Themes: conformity, technology, isolation
Teach: imagery, irony (a driverless police car), dystopian setting

9. Seventh Grade by Gary Soto

Victor pretends to speak French to impress a girl on the first day of school.

Length: about 2,300 words (6 pages)
Themes: self-presentation, adolescent insecurity, risk
Teach: humor, internal conflict, dialogue, how a small moment can reveal character

10. The Open Window by Saki

A teenager spins a ghost story that sends a nervous visitor running.

Length: about 1,100 words (3 pages)
Themes: deception, social manners
Teach: dramatic irony, unreliable narration, twist ending, the final line

11. The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry

Two kidnappers discover their hostage is so awful that they end up paying to return him!

Length: about 4,300 words (10-11 pages)
Themes: greed, comeuppance
Teach: verbal and situational irony, hyperbole, diction, comic reversal

12. The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry

A poor couple each sell their most prized possession to buy the other a gift, but in doing so, each one’s gift serves a now-useless purpose.

Length: about 2,100 words (5 pages)
Themes: sacrificial love, material vs. true value
Teach: situational irony, direct address from the narrator, biblical allusion

13. The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty

During the Irish Civil War, a sniper kills an enemy sniper, but then he learns who the other man was.

Length: about 1,900 words (5 pages)
Themes: war’s human cost, brotherhood, conflict
Teach: suspense, tight third person, twist ending, irony

14. There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury

An automated house keeps running alone after a nuclear war.

Length: about 2,000 words (5 pages)
Themes: technology, mortality, human folly
Teach: personification, imagery, irony, allusion (the Teasdale poem), setting as character

15. The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov

Two children in a future with robot teachers find a paper book and imagine old-fashioned school.

Length: about 800 words (2 pages)
Themes: education, nostalgia, technology
Teach: defamiliarization, irony, short science-fiction structure

16. The Interlopers by Saki

Two feuding landowners are pinned under a fallen tree; they reconcile and call for help just as wolves arrive.

Length: about 1,900 words (5 pages)
Themes: feuds, reconciliation, nature’s indifference
Teach: situational irony, conflict, cruel twist ending

17. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

A narrator insists he is not mad while describing how he murdered an old man because of his eye and then heard the heart still beating.

Length: about 2,100 words (5-6 pages)
Themes: guilt, madness, the unreliability of the mind
Teach: first-person unreliable narrator, dramatic irony, sound imagery, pacing

18. Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver

A couple’s breakup turns into a fight over their baby.

Length: about 400 words (1 page)
Themes: conflict, possession, collateral damage
Teach: minimalism, ambiguous ending, title irony, what spare prose can withhold

19. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain

Our narrator is trapped listening to a rambling story about a man who bets on a trained jumping frog.

Length: about 2,500 words (6-7 pages)
Themes: storytelling, regional humor, the tall tale
Teach: frame narrative, dialect, comic timing, unreliable oral narrator

20. The Last Leaf by O. Henry

A young artist in Greenwich Village loses the will to live as she suffers with pneumonia.

Length: about 2,000-2,200 words (5-6 pages)
Themes: sacrifice, hope, friendship
Teach: situational irony, symbolism of the leaf, O. Henry twist

21. The Bet by Anton Chekhov

A banker and a young lawyer bet upon whether solitary confinement for fifteen years is preferable to the death penalty.

Length: about 2,000 words (5 pages)
Themes: freedom vs. isolation, the value of life and knowledge
Teach: philosophical debate as plot, irony of the ending, character change

22. God Sees the Truth, But Waits by Leo Tolstoy

An innocent merchant is wrongly imprisoned for murder and spends decades in Siberia before the truth surfaces.

Length: about 3,000 words (7-8 pages)
Themes: justice, forgiveness, divine timing
Teach: parable structure, moral transformation, restraint in narration

23. The Piece of String by Guy de Maupassant

A frugal Norman peasant is publicly accused of theft after he is seen picking up a piece of string; the accusation ruins him.

Length: about 2,000 words (5 pages)
Themes: reputation, small-town cruelty, appearance vs. reality
Teach: irony, social satire, the power of gossip

24. A Retrieved Reformation by O. Henry

A skilled safe-cracker tries to go straight after falling in love, only to face a crisis that forces him to use his old skills.

Length: about 3,000 words (7-8 pages)
Themes: redemption, identity, second chances
Teach: situational irony, character arc, the classic O. Henry turn

25. Thank You, Ma’am by Langston Hughes

A boy tries to snatch a woman’s purse. She drags him home, feeds him, and sends him off with his dignity intact.

Length: about 1,100 words (3 pages)
Themes: mercy, trust, second chances
Teach: characterization through dialogue, dialect, implied backstory, the unsaid ending

26. Examination Day by Henry Slesar

In a future where a government test sets children’s fate, a family anxiously prepares for their son’s exam.

Length: about 1,700 words (4 pages)
Themes: state control, punished intelligence, parental love
Teach: delayed reveal, dramatic irony, dystopian conventions

27. The Egg by Andy Weir

A man who has just died learns from God that every human who ever lived was him.

Length: about 1,000 words (2-3 pages)
Themes: empathy, purpose of suffering, identity
Teach: dialogue-driven narrative, extended metaphor (the egg), conceit and reveal

28. Button, Button by Richard Matheson

A couple is offered $50,000 to push a button that will kill someone they don’t know.

Length: about 4,000 words (10 pages)
Themes: moral responsibility, greed, consequences
Teach: ethical dilemma as plot engine, irony, the final line’s turn

29. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber

A husband escapes the stress of his life through heroic daydreams during an errand.

Length: about 2,600 words (6-7 pages)
Themes: escapism, masculinity, the gap between ordinary and imagined life
Teach: shifts between fantasy and reality, parody of genres, repeated motifs (“pocketa-pocketa”)

30. The Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank Stockton

A king’s arena forces the accused to choose between two doors (a lady or a tiger), and the princess must guide her lover.

Length: about 1,700 words (4 pages)
Themes: love vs. jealousy, justice, human nature
Teach: deliberate ambiguity, rhetorical questions, creating an evidence-based argument from an open ending

31. Sticks by George Saunders

A father’s increasingly elaborate pole in the yard becomes a record of the family’s experiences over the years.

Length: about 400 words (1-2 pages)
Themes: grief, emotional distance, family
Teach: compression, symbolism, how much a tiny story can imply

32. The Chaser by John Collier

A lovesick young man buys a cheap love potion and learns about a far pricier one he’ll want to use later.

Length: about 1,500 words (4 pages)
Themes: obsession, manipulation, the cost of love
Teach: dialogue-driven plot, dark irony, foreshadowing, economy of language

33. The White Umbrella by Gish Jen

A Chinese-American girl is embarrassed when her mother, who secretly works a new job, is late to pick her up in the rain.

Length: about 2,800 words (7 pages)
Themes: immigrant experience, class, mother-daughter relationship, shame and empathy
Teach: child narrator, symbolism of the umbrella, implied meanings

34. The Eyes Have It by Philip K. Dick

A man reading a sci-fi story finds phrases that suggest aliens occupy human bodies, all based on literal readings of idioms.

Length: about 1,000 words (2-3 pages)
Themes: language, perception, humor
Teach: wordplay, idioms and figurative language, satire, frame narrative

35. Tongtong’s Summer by Xia Jia

A young woman visits her grandfather in Beijing and finds a robot caretaker is at the center of his life.

Length: about 4,000 words (10 pages, approximate)
Themes: aging, memory, technology and care
Teach: science fiction and family, first-person narration, voice, developing character through objects

Controversial but Worth Teaching (Easy Reads)

36. Survivor Type by Stephen King

A shipwrecked surgeon stranded on a tiny island must amputate and eat parts of himself.

Length: about 6,000 words (15 pages)
Themes: survival, sanity, ethics
Teach: diary form, unreliable narrator, tone, escalating dread
Why it’s controversial: graphic body horror and isolation. Students who love dark stories often lock in with this one, and the survival genre is often a hit.

On-Level Short Stories for High School English

These stories allow students to dig into author’s craft but do not require heavy prep or background knowledge to be understood by your average high school reader. They all showcase solid craft, contain accessible themes for teen audiences, and give students plenty to think about and analyze. Most will work well in ninth through twelfth grade.

37. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

A woman confined due to the “rest cure” becomes obsessed with her room’s wallpaper and spirals.

Length: about 6,000 words (15 pages)
Themes: gender, mental health, autonomy
Teach: unreliable narrator, symbolism, diary form, feminist lens

[Grab my complete lesson plans here!]

38. The Minister’s Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne

A minister upsets his congregation when he starts wearing a mysterious black veil. Does his attempt to force them to confront hidden sins work?

Themes: secrecy, guilt, judgment
Teach: symbolism, allegory, ambiguity

[Grab my full story lessons here!]

39. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce

A Confederate sympathizer is about to be hanged from a railroad bridge, but then… does the rope break?

Length: about 3,700-3,800 words (9-10 pages)
Themes: time, perception vs. reality, Civil War experiences
Teach: nonlinear structure, stream-of-consciousness, the unreliability of perception, the final twist

40. Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne

A Puritan man leaves his wife, Faith, and goes on a night walk in the forest; he sees (or dreams) that everyone he knows is working with the devil.

Length: about 5,400 words (13-14 pages)
Themes: loss of innocence, hypocrisy, faith vs. doubt
Teach: allegory, symbolism (names, the staff, the pink ribbon), an ambiguous ending

41. To Build a Fire by Jack London

A newcomer to the Canadian wilderness ignores people’s warnings and then must endure extreme cold with only a dog by his side.

Length: about 7,000 words (17-18 pages)
Themes: man vs. nature, hubris, instinct vs. intellect
Teach: naturalism, setting as antagonist, foreshadowing, the dog’s perspective

42. Araby by James Joyce

A young boy becomes infatuated with his friend’s sister and decides to bring her a gift from the “exotic” bazaar, but his quest ends in disappointment.

Length: about 2,300 words (6 pages)
Themes: disillusionment, romantic idealism vs. reality, coming-of-age, paralysis
Teach: first-person narration, epiphany, symbolism (light/dark, the bazaar), sensory detail and atmosphere

43. The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck

Elisa Allen, a capable farm wife, tends her prized chrysanthemums with skill and passion until a traveling tinker briefly awakens something deeper in her.

Length: about 4,500-5,000 words (11-13 pages)
Themes: gender roles, isolation, unfulfilled desire, the limits of domestic life
Teach: symbolism (the chrysanthemums), third-person limited, setting reflecting character, epiphany

44. The White Quail by John Steinbeck

Mary Teller designs her perfect garden as an extension of herself and chooses a husband who will protect it; when a wild white quail appears, her carefully controlled world is threatened.

Length: about 4,000-5,000 words (10-12 pages)
Themes: control vs. nature, obsession, isolation within marriage
Teach: symbolism (the garden and the quail), characterization through environment, quiet psychological tension

45. The Harness by John Steinbeck

After his controlling wife dies, respected farmer Peter Randall begins shedding the physical and emotional “harness” she imposed, only to discover how thoroughly her influence still shapes him.

Length: about 5,000-6,000 words (12-15 pages)
Themes: freedom vs. constraint, marriage, self-deception
Teach: symbolism of the harness, gradual character revelation, irony

46. A Piece of Steak by Jack London

Aging boxer Tom King, once a champion, is now so poor he cannot afford a proper meal before fighting a younger, stronger opponent; the match becomes a brutal test of experience vs youth.

Length: about 6,500-7,500 words (16-19 pages)
Themes: aging, poverty, the body as capital, survival of the fittest
Teach: naturalism, physical description as character, rising action through the fight

47. The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving

A miserly man meets the devil in a swamp and makes a Faustian bargain, which, of course, costs him more than he expected.

Length: about 4,500-5,000 words (11-13 pages)
Themes: greed, hypocrisy, the Faustian bargain
Teach: satire, folk-tale structure, local color, moral allegory

48. Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving

A colonist falls asleep in the Catskills and wakes twenty years later to a changed world.

Length: about 6,000-7,000 words (15-18 pages)
Themes: change, identity, the passage of time, escape
Teach: frame narrative, satire of history, comic characterization

49. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

A village gathers for a yearly lottery with a horrifying result.

Length: about 3,400 words (8-9 pages)
Themes: tradition, scapegoating, conformity
Teach: foreshadowing, symbolism, irony, names and setting, withholding information

50. Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

In a future where everyone is handicapped in order to create equality, a teenage genius breaks free.

Length: about 2,200 words (5-6 pages)
Themes: equality vs. sameness, government control
Teach: satire, irony, dystopia, tone (flat/deadpan narration)

51. The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell

A big-game hunter becomes the one who’s being hunted on an island overseen by General Zaroff.

Length: about 7,500 words (19 pages)
Themes: morality of hunting, civilization vs. savagery
Teach: conflict types, suspense, foreshadowing, ambiguous ending

52. The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst

A boy’s pride leads him to push his disabled younger brother too far.

Length: about 4,200 words (10-11 pages)
Themes: pride, love and cruelty, guilt
Teach: symbolism, flashback, first-person narration, foreshadowing

53. The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

Mrs. Mallard is told her husband has died and, unexpectedly, feels free; but then…

Length: about 1,000 words (3 pages)
Themes: marriage, freedom, identity
Teach: irony, internal conflict, imagery, feminist lens, powerful and abrupt ending

54. A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

After Miss Emily’s death, the town discovers her weird and terrible secret.

Length: about 4,100 words (11 pages)
Themes: death, isolation, tradition vs. change
Teach: nonlinear chronology, collective narrator, foreshadowing, Southern Gothic

55. The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

A prince hosts a masquerade to hide from plague, but Death arrives as a guest.

Length: about 2,300 words (6 pages)
Themes: mortality, hubris
Teach: symbolism (colors, seven rooms, the clock), gothic setting, allegory

56. The Veldt by Ray Bradbury

A high-tech nursery creating African grasslands becomes dangerous for parents and children.

Length: about 4,600 words (11-12 pages)
Themes: technology, parenting, dependence
Teach: foreshadowing, setting as plot, symbolism, ominous tone

57. A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

A time-traveling hunter steps off the path and changes the future.

Length: about 4,900 words (12 pages)
Themes: cause and effect, responsibility
Teach: foreshadowing, cause-and-effect plot, science fiction, the final line

58. The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

Montresor lures Fortunato into the catacombs. Why? Revenge…

Length: about 2,200 words (6 pages)
Themes: revenge, pride
Teach: unreliable narrator, verbal irony, gothic setting, analyzing a character’s motives

59. The Monkey’s Paw by W. W. Jacobs

A family makes three wishes on a mummified paw, but the wishes bring horrible consequences.

Length: about 4,300 words (10-11 pages)
Themes: fate, greed, be careful what you wish for
Teach: foreshadowing, gothic suspense, symbolism, ambiguous ending

60. A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett

A country girl must decide whether to reveal the nesting place of a rare white heron to a charming hunter.

Length: about 3,000 words (7-8 pages)
Themes: nature vs. society, loyalty, coming-of-age
Teach: regionalism, symbolism of the heron and the pine, epiphany

61. The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Bret Harte

A group of “undesirables” is banished from a mining town and face a blizzard together.

Length: about 4,000 words (10 pages)
Themes: redemption, community, judgment
Teach: local color, irony of character, group dynamics, Western setting

62. The Revolt of “Mother” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

A New England farm wife finally takes decisive action after forty years of her husband’s broken promises about a new house.

Length: about 5,000 words (12-13 pages)
Themes: gender roles, quiet rebellion, domestic power
Teach: regional realism, understated characterization, domestic space as conflict

63. A Pair of Silk Stockings by Kate Chopin

Mrs. Sommers, a typically careful spender of limited means, suddenly has fifteen dollars and plans to spend it on her children. That is, until the feel of silk stockings pulls her into a day of small, private luxuries.

Length: about 1,800 words (4-5 pages)
Themes: class, self-denial vs. self-indulgence, the brief escape of consumer pleasure
Teach: free indirect discourse, sensory detail, subtle irony, characterization

64. The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu

A boy rejects his mother’s origami animals and her Chinese identity; he realizes too late what she was trying to give him.

Length: about 5,300 words (13 pages)
Themes: assimilation, identity, regret
Teach: magical realism, symbolism, structure

65. By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincent Benét

A young man journeys to a destroyed city and discovers the truth about his people.

Length: about 3,600 words (9 pages)
Themes: knowledge, myth, post-apocalypse
Teach: first-person narration, dramatic irony, reveal, allusion

66. The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson

Miss Strangeworth sends anonymous letters to “protect” her town.

Length: about 4,300 words (10-11 pages)
Themes: hypocrisy, hidden malice, self-righteousness
Teach: irony, characterization, symbolism (the rosebushes), twist ending

67. The Third and Final Continent by Jhumpa Lahiri

An immigrant narrator recounts his experiences on three continents and a tender relationship with his elderly landlady.

Length: about 8,000 words (20 pages)
Themes: immigration, belonging, marriage, small acts of kindness
Teach: first-person retrospective, understatement, structure

68. Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

A mother gives a long list of instructions to her daughter.

Length: about 700 words (1-2 pages)
Themes: gender roles, expectations, mother-daughter relationship
Teach: single-sentence form, imperatives, voice, repetition, what the interruptions to the instructions reveal

69. Everyday Use by Alice Walker

Mama and her daughters disagree about the meaning of quilts (and heritage).

Length: about 3,600 words (9 pages)
Themes: heritage, identity, family
Teach: first-person narrator, symbolism (the quilts), characterization, dialect

70. The Flowers by Alice Walker

A young girl picks flowers on a summer day and discovers something terrible.

Length: about 900 words (2 pages)
Themes: loss of innocence, racism
Teach: tone shift, imagery, symbolism, abrupt ending

71. Sweat by Zora Neale Hurston

Delia, a washerwoman, endures her abusive husband until a snake changes everything.

Length: about 7,500 words (19 pages)
Themes: labor, marriage, justice
Teach: dialect, symbolism, foreshadowing, irony

72. A Private Experience by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Two women of different backgrounds shelter together during religious riots in Nigeria.

Length: about 4,500 words (11 pages)
Themes: prejudice, fear, humanity
Teach: juxtaposition, character contrast, setting, implied meaning

73. How Much Land Does a Man Need? by Leo Tolstoy

A peasant obsessed with land makes a deadly bargain.

Length: about 6,500 words (16 pages)
Themes: greed, moral fable
Teach: parable structure, foreshadowing, irony, the ending line

74. The Guest by Albert Camus

An Algerian schoolteacher must deliver a prisoner to the authorities.

Length: about 6,000 words (15 pages)
Themes: moral choice, absurdity, colonialism
Teach: existentialism, setting as symbol, ambiguity, ending

75. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings by Gabriel García Márquez

Villagers treat a winged man as a curiosity, but is he a miracle?

Length: about 3,700 words (9 pages)
Themes: faith, cruelty, commercialization of the divine
Teach: magical realism, deadpan tone, irony, symbolism

76. The Rocking-Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence

A boy rides a rocking horse to predict winners and earn money for his mother.

Length: about 6,500 words (16 pages)
Themes: materialism, love, family
Teach: symbolism, allegory, foreshadowing, tragic irony

77. St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

Girls raised by wolves are taught to “become human” at a convent school.

Length: about 7,000 words (17 pages)
Themes: assimilation, loss of identity
Teach: first-person plural, magical realism, allegory, tone

78. The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick

A man discovers a hanging body in the square; strangely, no one else seems to notice it.

Length: about 6,000 words (15 pages)
Themes: paranoia, conformity, cowardice
Teach: suspense, science-fiction reveal, allegory, tension

79. Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed by Ray Bradbury

Colonists on Mars slowly transform, both physically and culturally.

Length: about 5,000 words (12 pages)
Themes: assimilation, colonialism, change
Teach: imagery, gradual shifts, setting, symbolism

80. EPICAC by Kurt Vonnegut

A mathematician enlists a supercomputer to write love poems, with tragic consequences.

Length: about 3,000 words (7-8 pages)
Themes: love, technology, sacrifice
Teach: humor, first-person voice, irony

81. 2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut

In a world of enforced population control, a father awaits the birth of triplets.

Length: about 3,000 words (7-8 pages)
Themes: mortality, choice, ethics of population
Teach: dystopia, satire, names (the title), irony

82. The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin

A stowaway girl on a rescue ship must be jettisoned, or everyone will die.

Length: about 6,500 words (16 pages)
Themes: physics vs. morality, sacrifice
Teach: dramatic tension, inevitable ending, argument about justice

Controversial but Worth Teaching with On-Level Groups

83. Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates

A teenage girl finds herself being menaced by a predatory stranger.

Length: about 7,500 words (19 pages)
Themes: adolescence, vanity, danger
Teach: symbolism, setting, point of view, the ending, allusion
Why it’s controversial: a predatory adult, sexual tension, and a disturbing ending. It’s excellent for studying voice, setting, and power (if your students are mature enough for the content).

84. A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

A family road trip ends in an encounter with the Misfit.

Length: about 6,500 words (16 pages)
Themes: grace, hypocrisy, violence, morality
Teach: irony, Southern Gothic, foreshadowing, symbolism, religious allusion
Why it’s controversial: violence and religious themes that may be upsetting. With the right group, the grandmother’s voice and the Misfit’s philosophy can generate some excellent class debates and discussion.

85. Bloodchild by Octavia Butler

A boy in an alien-ruled colony must face his fate: carrying the eggs of a host species.

Length: about 9,000 words (22 pages)
Themes: consent, symbiosis, power
Teach: science fiction as metaphor, first-person narration, ambiguity
Why it’s controversial: parasitic pregnancy and body horror. It raises sharp questions about consent and power. Older students may be able to do well with this story with appropriate scaffolding and guidance.

86. The Jaunt by Stephen King

Teleportation technology has a terrifying cost.

Length: about 9,000 words (22 pages, approximate)
Themes: curiosity, time, consequence
Teach: frame narrative, escalation, foreshadowing, the final image
Why it’s controversial: psychological horror and a brutal final image. Students who already like King or who are horror fans will love it, and the science-fiction premise helps you create discussions around time and consequences.

Advanced Short Stories for High School (Honors and AP Lit)

These stories will challenge students with dense language and complex ideas. They may be challenging, but they will reward students who are able to grasp ambiguity and handle denser prose. Most of these are best suited for juniors and seniors or honors sections.

87. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

A man visits his mysterious childhood friend at his home, the decaying Usher mansion, where illness, fear, and strange events blur the line between reality and madness.

Themes: madness, isolation, decay
Teach: Gothic conventions, setting as symbol, foreshadowing

[Grab my full story lessons here!]

88. A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J. D. Salinger

While his wife talks on the phone in a Florida hotel, war veteran Seymour Glass spends time on the beach with a little girl, inventing a story about bananafish before returning to his room and taking a final, irreversible action.

Length: about 4,700 words (12 pages)
Themes: postwar trauma, innocence vs. corruption, isolation, the failure to reconnect with ordinary life
Teach: juxtaposition, symbolism of the bananafish, understated tragedy, hidden/interior crisis

89. Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville

A Wall Street lawyer hires a quiet copyist, but soon the man stops doing his work and answers every request with “I would prefer not to.”

Length: about 14,000 words (30-35 pages; treat as a short novella)
Themes: isolation, passive resistance, unfulfilling work
Teach: first-person limited narrator, repetition, existential refusal, social critique

90. The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne

A scientist becomes obsessed with removing the tiny birthmark from his otherwise perfect wife’s cheek.

Length: about 5,500-6,000 words (14-15 pages)
Themes: perfectionism, science vs. nature, the cost of idealism
Teach: allegory, symbolism of the mark, tragic irony

91. The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway

On an African safari, wealthy American Francis Macomber shows cowardice during a lion hunt, loses his wife’s respect, then briefly finds his courage before a final, ambiguous shot ends his life.

Length: about 8,500-9,500 words (21-24 pages)
Themes: courage and fear, masculinity, power in marriage
Teach: iceberg theory, shifting point of view, ambiguous ending, dialogue and subtext

92. The Dead by James Joyce

At a Christmas party in Dublin, Gabriel Conroy navigates social awkwardness and politics; upon returning home, a revelation about his wife’s past forces him to reexamine love, mortality, and his own life.

Length: about 15,500-16,000 words (38-40 pages; often treated as a long short story or short novella)
Themes: love and loss, the living vs. the dead, Irish identity, epiphany
Teach: free indirect discourse, symbolism (snow, the party), structure leading to revelation, modernist techniques

93. The Open Boat by Stephen Crane

Four men survive the sinking of their steamer and struggle in a small dinghy toward shore; the sea remains indifferent.

Length: about 9,000-10,000 words (22-25 pages)
Themes: brotherhood, nature’s indifference, the illusion of meaning
Teach: naturalism, collective point of view, irony, sensory detail

94. Speech Sounds by Octavia Butler

After a disease destroys language, a woman navigates a world of silence and violence.

Length: about 5,500 words (14 pages)
Themes: communication, loss, hope
Teach: post-apocalypse, nonverbal storytelling, tension

95. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver

Four friends drink and debate what love is.

Length: about 5,500 words (14 pages)
Themes: love, violence, loneliness
Teach: minimalism, dialogue, subtext, ending

96. Cathedral by Raymond Carver

A man’s assumptions about blindness are challenged when he forms an unexpected connection with his wife’s blind friend.

Length: about 4,800 words (12 pages)
Themes: perception, empathy, prejudice
Teach: first-person narrator, symbolism, epiphany

97. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin

A utopia depends on the suffering of one child to exist.

Length: about 2,400 words (6 pages)
Themes: moral complicity, utilitarianism
Teach: narrator address, allegory, ambiguity, ethics

98. The Ones Who Stay and Fight by N. K. Jemisin

A response to Le Guin that imagines a city that refuses to accept suffering as the price of happiness.

Length: about 2,000 words (5 pages, approximate)
Themes: collective action, justice
Teach: text pairing, narrator voice, ethics

99. The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges

A spy fleeing from the police becomes caught in a strange mystery involving a labyrinth, a murdered man, and a novel that contains every possible version of the future.

Length: about 4,500 words (11 pages)
Themes: time, fate, choice
Teach: metafiction, labyrinth as structure, layered narration

100. The House of Asterion by Jorge Luis Borges

The Minotaur narrates his existence in the labyrinth.

Length: about 900 words (2 pages)
Themes: isolation, perspective, myth
Teach: allusion, unreliable narrator, reveal, retold myth

101. Time Capsule Found on a Dead Planet by Margaret Atwood

A voice addresses future finders about a failing society.

Length: about 1,200 words (3 pages)
Themes: environmental collapse, human hubris
Teach: voice, irony, time capsule form, satire

102. The Semplica-Girl Diaries by George Saunders

A father records his family’s pursuit of status in his diary entries.

Length: about 12,000 words (30 pages, approximate)
Themes: class anxiety, consumerism, complicity
Teach: diary form, satire, unreliable narrator

103. Recitatif by Toni Morrison

As two women’s lives repeatedly intersect from childhood to adulthood, the story challenges readers to question what they think they know about race, memory, and identity.

Length: about 6,500 words (16 pages)
Themes: race, memory, class
Teach: deliberate ambiguity, structure, unreliable memory, close reading

104. The Wall by Jean-Paul Sartre

A prisoner awaits execution and discovers the absurdity of fate.

Length: about 7,500 words (19 pages)
Themes: mortality, absurdity, choice
Teach: existentialism, irony, first-person narration

105. An Imperial Message by Franz Kafka

A messenger is bearing a dying emperor’s message, but he cannot get through the crowds.

Length: about 350 words (1 page)
Themes: futility, communication, power
Teach: parable form, repetition, absurdity

106. Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson

A man murders a shopkeeper on Christmas Day; he then confronts a mysterious visitor who seems to know his every thought.

Length: about 5,000 words (12-13 pages)
Themes: conscience, free will
Teach: interior monologue, gothic atmosphere, moral ambiguity

Frequently Asked Questions About Teaching Short Stories in High School

What are the best short stories to teach in high school English?
Commonly taught and often loved stories from this list include “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, and “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes. All of these are accessible for struggling readers, emotionally engaging, and rich enough for discussion and analysis. Just make sure they weren’t already taught in previous grades!

Which short stories on this list are ideal for a single class period with time left for discussion or an activity?

Thank You, Ma’am – Langston Hughes (~1,100)
The Egg – Andy Weir (~1,000)
They’re Made Out of Meat – Terry Bisson (~700)
All Summer in a Day – Ray Bradbury (~2,100)
The Pedestrian – Ray Bradbury (~1,800)
Seventh Grade – Gary Soto (~2,300)
The Open Window – Saki (~1,100)
The Gift of the Magi – O. Henry (~2,100)
The Lady, or the Tiger? – Frank Stockton (~1,700)
Sticks – George Saunders (~400)
The Sniper – Liam O’Flaherty (~1,900)
There Will Come Soft Rains – Ray Bradbury (~2,000)
The Fun They Had – Isaac Asimov (~800)
The Interlopers – Saki (~1,900)
Popular Mechanics – Raymond Carver (~400)
The Chaser – John Collier (~1,500)
The Eyes Have It – Philip K. Dick (~1,000)
Harrison Bergeron – Kurt Vonnegut (~2,200)
The Story of an Hour – Kate Chopin (~1,000)
The Masque of the Red Death – Edgar Allan Poe (~2,300)
The Cask of Amontillado – Edgar Allan Poe (~2,200)
Girl – Jamaica Kincaid (~700)
The Flowers – Alice Walker (~900)
The House of Asterion – Jorge Luis Borges (~900)
Time Capsule Found on a Dead Planet – Margaret Atwood (~1,200)
An Imperial Message – Franz Kafka (~350)

These leave room in a single class period for annotation, discussion, a quick activity, or an exit-ticket (I suggest short written responses!).

Which themes or teaching angles appear in four or more stories on this list?
Several themes and literary skills recur across four or more stories, making them useful for mini-units or paired/grouped readings:

Irony (situational, dramatic, verbal, or title irony) – The Necklace, Lamb to the Slaughter, The Ransom of Red Chief, The Gift of the Magi, The Interlopers, Popular Mechanics, The Lottery, Harrison Bergeron, The Story of an Hour, The Possibility of Evil, The Cask of Amontillado, & A Good Man Is Hard to Find.
Foreshadowing / suspense / twist or open endings – The Landlady, Button, Button, The Open Window, The Sniper, The Interlopers, The Lottery, The Veldt, The Monkey’s Paw, The Possibility of Evil, A Rose for Emily, The Yellow Wallpaper, Where Are You Going, & Where Have You Been?
Symbolism – All Summer in a Day (the sun), There Will Come Soft Rains, The White Umbrella, The Lottery, The Scarlet Ibis, The Masque of the Red Death, The Yellow Wallpaper, Everyday Use (the quilts), A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, The Rocking-Horse Winner, The Minister’s Black Veil, & The Fall of the House of Usher.
Technology, dystopia, or science-fiction conventions – Examination Day, The Pedestrian, There Will Come Soft Rains, The Fun They Had, Harrison Bergeron, The Veldt, A Sound of Thunder, The Hanging Stranger, Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed, EPICAC, 2BR02B, The Cold Equations, Speech Sounds, & Time Capsule Found on a Dead Planet.
Unreliable narration, ambiguity, or deliberate open endings – The Lady, or the Tiger?, Popular Mechanics, The Cask of Amontillado, A Rose for Emily, The Yellow Wallpaper, The Guest, Recitatif, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, & The House of Asterion.
Isolation, conformity, or social pressure – The Pedestrian, All Summer in a Day, The Lottery, Harrison Bergeron, A Rose for Emily, The Yellow Wallpaper, The Minister’s Black Veil, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, & Speech Sounds.

What short stories work best for struggling or reluctant readers?
Choose stories with clear language, short lengths, and strong hooks, such as “Thank You, Ma’am,” “The Landlady,” “All Summer in a Day,” “Seventh Grade,” “The Open Window,” “The Fun They Had,” “Sticks,” and “The Story of an Hour.” Build in context support, visual supports, and read-alouds or “I do, we do, you do” modeling to help students get the most out of them.

What are good short stories for AP Literature or honors students?
From the Advanced section: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” “The Garden of Forking Paths,” “Recitatif,” “Cathedral,” “The Wall,” “The Semplica-Girl Diaries,” “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” “The Dead,” “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” and “An Imperial Message.” These choices will reward students who can handle ambiguity, shifting perspective, dense style, and/or philosophical questions.

How can I teach controversial short stories in high school?
Introduce controversial stories with a short note about why the content is important and which skill or theme you’re studying. This models critical reading. Always be aware of your school and community expectations; when in doubt, check with a trusted colleague or administrator. The more obviously controversial titles on this list are Survivor Type, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, Bloodchild, The Jaunt, and A Good Man Is Hard to Find. However, use your own judgment for all stories.

Where can I find full short story lessons?
I have complete, ready-to-teach lessons for these three stories:

The Yellow Wallpaper (On-Level) – grab my full lesson here.
The Minister’s Black Veil (On-Level) – grab my full lesson here.
The Fall of the House of Usher (Advanced) – grab my full lesson here.

These lessons include the materials, discussion questions, activities, and assessments that have worked in my classroom!

Want ready-to-teach resources that work with any short story? Browse my short story materials here!

Connect with Me!

What are your favorite short stories to teach? Why do you love them?

Share in the comments! I’d love to hear your suggestions and have my readers add to this conversation.

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