Don’t let your literature anthology dictate the short stories you read with your middle school and high school students. There are so many wonderful short stories out there, many of which can be used to teach a variety of literary elements and paired with other texts. Here are 13 of my favorites…

In my first year of teaching, all of my students did the same assignment at the same time. Choices were limited. Maybe students could pick one of two extension activities at the end of reading a short story, but individual students working on different assignments of their choosing didn’t happen. As I grew more experienced in the classroom, I also grew more comfortable with students making choices and working independently…