The 3 Best Short Stories for High School

I love teaching short stories in all of my high school English classes. The great thing about short stories is that you can take as much time or as little time as you need. You can select short stories that can be completed in a period or you can use longer stories that take a week or more. Short stories are extremely versatile. That is why this week three high school English teachers are sharing what we believe to be the three best stories high school English.

Three English teachers share three of the best short stories for high school. The teachers share their favorite stories and ideas how to use them in the high school English classes.

3 of the Best Short Stories for High School

One of my favorite ways to begin the year is with a Flash Fiction Unit. You can read all about that here.

But if you are looking for stories that are a little longer, be sure to check out these:

McLaughlin Teaches English’s Favorite Short Story for High School

Really great short stories for high school students have a twist ending. And that’s why “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is one of my favorite stories to use with 11th and 12th graders. The surprise ending gets them every time. (Although unfortunately sometimes they need a little guidance to get to exactly what it means. 🤷‍♀️)

“A Rose for Emily”

If you are unfamiliar with the story, it is Southern Gothic and Miss Emily is the talk of the town. She has never married and has finally passed away. It’s been decades since anyone except Miss Emily’s one servant has been in the once luxurious mansion owned by her controlling father before he passed. The townsfolk are eager to get inside and see just what has been going on for all these many years.

Classroom Activities

One of the best parts for teaching this story (aside from THE TWIST ENDING) is the nonlinear plot line. The story jumps back and forth in time, starting in the present moment of Emily‘s funeral. It then jumps around going back to when she was a young woman, when she was courting a man, when she bought the rat poison and then to when she finally disappeared from society all together.

A great activity to do with this story is a timeline. Give students events in the story, have them cut them into strips and then put them in the correct order—not the order in which they happened in the story, but the order they happened it time. It challenges them to go back into the story, do close reading, and determine how the events actually transpired. Finish up with a seminar or writing task in which the students address why Faulkner would have used this structure for his story.

Additionally, Faulkner’s language is so rich. You can do a deep dive into the setting by examining the details he uses to describe the house, past and present. You can have students focus on the characterization. There is a point in the story where he describes Miss Emily as “dough-like.” Great conversations can come out of just that one line. And finally, the point of view is intriguing because it is a collective first person point of view. For more on teaching point of view, check out this post.

Three English teachers share three of their favorite short stories for high school. The teachers share their favorite stories for high school and ideas how to use them in the high school English classes.

Smith Teaches 9 to 12’s Best Short Story for High School

Lesa from SmithTeaches9to12 loves an opportunity to incorporate contemporary short fiction and finding “Weight” by Dhonielle Clayton in recent years has been a great addition to her English classes!

“Weight”

The story is part science fiction and part romance. It focuses on two teenagers in love who go to a ‘clinic’ to have their hearts weighed to see who each loves and how much. The story chronicles their visit and outlines the reason to proceed and the reasons to leave before finding out the answers. Despite a somewhat open ending it still feels resolved in a satisfying way.

Classroom Activities

There are so many things that can be done with this story. You might start with tracking the structure (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution). Then dive into character profiles of Marcus and Grace. Ending with writing beyond the ending of the story as it’s left somewhat unresolved.

You might spend a lesson breaking down the story for the writer’s craft moves – how the characters’ relationship is established, the creation of setting, the use of dialogue, and the imagery in the surgery scene, etc.

The story also provides the possibilities of discussion about power dynamics, gender roles, and relationship goals. In small groups students could tackle any or all of these topics with a close reading of the story. Include chart paper for documentation, assign different members a different color marker to write with for accountability, and then provide time for sharing with the whole class either through a gallery walk or mini-presentation.

Lesa’s students from grade 9 through 12 have loved this story and she hopes your students do too!

A Better Way to Teach’s Favorite Short Story for High School

Missy from A Better Way To Teach loves using mentor sentences and mentor texts to teach how to craft sentences, and she finds that short stories are a great opportunity to look at well-written sentences.

One of Missy’s all-time favorite short stories to use with high school students is Langston Hughes’ story Thank You Ma’am. First of all, this story is super short, so your students could read it in about 10-15 minutes. Although it’s short, it has so much packed into it. It’s an example of a story that makes use of every single word. It’s also a perfect story for the teacher to read aloud to students and let them just take it in.

“Thank You M’am”

It’s the story of a young boy, Roger, who attempts to snatch the purse of Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones. When grabbing the purse, he falls, and she grabs him. She takes him home, has him wash his face, and gives him dinner. She doesn’t ask him any questions about his home life, but she gets an idea of who he is and why he attempted to steal her purse. At the end of the story, she gives him money to buy new shoes, which is the reason why he said he wanted to steal her purse.

The reader is left with a sense of awe at the way Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones handles the entire thing, and we are left feeling like the boy, amazed, grateful, and even questioning some things.

Classroom Activities

There are a number of great talking points for this story that will relate to many things you’ll address in your classroom throughout the year: choices, integrity, forgiveness, empathy. It’s also an easy story for teens to relate to–who among us has not made a poor choice? Were we shown empathy and compassion or ridicule? Mrs. Luella is not a soft character, and yet she shows love. There’s just so much great stuff to dig into here.

Beyond talking about the content of the story, this is the perfect story to talk about form and craft because it is so well crafted. Many sentences showcase the use of action verbs, well-placed modifiers, and specific nouns. By pulling a few of these sentences out of the text and discussing how the author uses, say an action verb or two, students will start to see that writers craft their work–it doesn’t just come flowing out of them perfectly.

After choosing a sentence, have students write a sentence in a similar style. You could have students even write almost the exact same sentence but change the verbs and see how it affects the meaning of the sentence.

Missy loves using mentor sentences and sentence frames to get students into the practice of observing craft. You can read more about how I do that here: “How To Use Sentence Frames.” If you’d like a little more direction on how to use mentor sentences to teaching writing craft and grammar concepts, I’d love to send you a free lesson for teaching vivid verbs, which you can grab here.

Missy hopes you have a great time digging into this beautifully-written short story that is as relevant now as it was 60 years ago!

Teaching Really Great Short Stories

Short Stories like “A Rose for Emily,” “Weight,” and “Thank You, Ma’m” are stories full of life and academic possibilities. Above are just a few of the reasons that we think that these are the best short stories for high school students. You can let us know in the comments below what you think the best short stories for high school are. We’d love to know your opinion on our stories or your own pick!

Thank you to Missy Davis of A Better Way to Teach and Lesa Smith of Smith Teaches 9 to 12 for joining me to share our favorite short stories to teach in high school.