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- “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. I love “To Build a Fire” so much! It mirrors my own life in so many ways, which is why it is one of my favorite short stories with moral lessons!
- “The Cactus” by O. Henry. One of my favorite things about this short story by O. Henry is its clever twist ending! Many short stories with moral lessons have similar twist endings, which could be why they make such great additions to thematic units!
- “After Twenty Years” by O. Henry. Loyalty is a concept students are extremely focused on in middle and high school, so including short stories with moral ideas connected to loyalty is a great way to encourage students to engage with certain texts!
- “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury. The story “The Pedestrian,” like its title, is incredibly unassuming. A man in a not-far-off future walks his neighborhood alone.
- All Summer in a Day. "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury is a science fiction short story that transports us to Venus, where the sun only shines for two hours every seven years - quite the weather shock, huh?
- Amigo Brothers. "Amigo Brothers" is a heartwarming tale by Piri Thomas, revolving around two best friends, Antonio and Felix, both superb boxers from New York City.
- The Scholarship Jacket. "The Scholarship Jacket" by Marta Salinas is an inspiring tale that tackles themes of perseverance, integrity, and the true meaning of success.
- Icarus and Daedalus. "Icarus and Daedalus" is a captivating Greek myth that paints a vivid picture of inventiveness, daring, and the perils of overconfidence.
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Best Short Stories for Middle School: Free PDF. Below we’ve selected our favorite 16 short stories for middle school. These 16 stories can be found in our free PDF download (click thumbnail to preview). Accompanying lesson plans can also be found at TpT with over 182 pages of thought-provoking and engaging material. What’s in our lesson plans?
- “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison
- “Stone Animals” by Kelly Link
- “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury
- “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” by Rod Serling
- “Hearts and Hands” by O. Henry
- “The Fir Tree” by Hans Christian Andersen
- “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant
- “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin
- “The Library of Babel” Jorge Luis Borges
- “The Circuit” by Francisco Jiménez
“The minute I walked in and the Big Bozo introduced us, I got sick to my stomach. It was one thing to be taken out of your own bed early in the morning—it was something else to be stuck in a strang...
Why I love this: Morrison’s stated goal in this short story, which begins in an orphanage, was to remove “all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial.” Also, it’s perfect for studying style and spurring conversation.
“Carleton was serious about how he played. Tilly sat on the landing, reading a book, legs poking out through the railings. Whenever Carleton ran past, he thumped her on the head, but Tilly never sa...
Why I love this: It’s another one of those longer short stories that is so rich with stylistic and narrative elements that it can serve as a short novel unit.
“‘We guarantee nothing,’” said the official, ‘except the dinosaurs.’”
Why I love this: It’s rich with descriptive language and fast-paced, dialogue-heavy action. This story unfolds its terrible tension to reveal a perfect ending.
“Maple Street. 6:44 p.m., on a late September evening. Maple Street in the last calm and reflective moments … before the monsters came!”
Why I love this: Reading a play can be a wonderful classroom management trick. For example, let the talkative kids ham it up, let the quiet kids just follow along, and let the sound-effects kids do their thing.
“Among the newcomers were two young men, one of handsome presence with a bold, frank countenance and manner; the other a ruffled, glum-faced person, heavily built and roughly dressed. The two were...
Why I love this: Even though O. Henry’s language can be tough for kids today, “Hearts and Hands” is quick and clear and hits exactly as you want his stories to hit.
“And the Wind kissed the Tree, and the Dew wept tears over him; but the Fir understood it not.”
Why I love this: It’s a poetic fairy tale, and it’s great for teaching theme. Expect that short stories like this one will make middle schoolers get mad at you, though.
“The sight of the little Breton girl who came to do the work in her little house aroused heart-broken regrets and hopeless dreams in her mind.”
Why I love this: It’s great for honors students and for teaching how to write compelling characterization.
“Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.”
Why I love this: It’s a perfect anchor text for a discussion assignment.
“Like all men of the Library, I have traveled in my youth; I have wandered in search of a book, perhaps the catalogue of catalogues; now that my eyes can hardly decipher what I write, I am preparin...
Why I love this: Read it with the students, and then dive into magical realism or fantasy.
“It was that time of year again. Ito, the strawberry sharecropper, did not smile. It was natural. The peak of the strawberry season was over and the last few days the workers, most of them braceros...
Why I love this: We enjoy doing this as a read-aloud, to lead into reflective writing or discussion.
Dec 21, 2021 · In this short story for 7th graders, Nora and Arthur Lewis receive a package that contains a mysterious button. A man named Mr. Steward explains that if they push the button, someone they don’t know will die and they will receive $50,000. Arthur is horrified, but Nora is intrigued. Eventually, Nora pushes the button and Arthur dies.
Oct 8, 2023 · There is overlap between the stories for children and adults. Many of them are suitable for both. I've divided them as a general indication of their difficulty level. The parenthetical description after the title and author indicates what the lesson or moral is related to. 8 Stories With Moral Lessons for Children 1.
Sep 10, 2020 · The Best Short Stories for Middle School. “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury. “All Summer in a Day” is a short science-fiction story published in 1954. The story is about a class of students who live on Venus – a place where the Sun is visible for only one hour, every seven years. Only one student remembers the Sun and writes a ...
