Halloween Short Story Unit Plan - Scary Stories - Lessons & Assignments Volume 2
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Halloween Short Story Unit Plan - Scary Stories - Lessons & Assignments Volume 2: Elevate your English class with this chilling and thrilling short story unit, guaranteed to send shivers down your students' spines! Perfect for Halloween or any time of the year, our second volume of scary and surprising stories will captivate and engage your students. Explore the dark and mysterious world of suspenseful, creepy, and spooky tales with handpicked stories that are sure to keep your students on the edge of their seats with twists and unexpected turns. These stories promise to be a hit with your students!
Included in This Halloween Scary and Surprising Short Story Unit Vol 2:
➡️ Click Clack the Rattlebag by Neil Gaiman: Step into the chilling imagination of Neil Gaiman with this eerie short story lesson that blends suspense, symbolism, and storytelling. Use the 46-slide presentation to guides students through the text with author background, discussion questions, and literary device exploration, including onomatopoeia, irony, and symbolism. Students will sharpen their comprehension with reading questions, enhance vocabulary with a mystery words activity, and analyze key story elements in collaborative groups. Creative assignments are also included where students create their own monsters, write a spooky campfire tale, and craft their own ending to the story’s cliffhanger.
➡️ Click Clack the Rattlebag by Neil Gaiman: Step into the chilling imagination of Neil Gaiman with this eerie short story lesson that blends suspense, symbolism, and storytelling. Use the 46-slide presentation to guides students through the text with author background, discussion questions, and literary device exploration, including onomatopoeia, irony, and symbolism. Students will sharpen their comprehension with reading questions, enhance vocabulary with a mystery words activity, and analyze key story elements in collaborative groups. Creative assignments are also included where students create their own monsters, write a spooky campfire tale, and craft their own ending to the story’s cliffhanger.
➡️ The Hitchhiker by Lucille Fletcher: Take your students on a psychological road trip with Lucille Fletcher’s suspenseful radio play. Included is a 38-slide presentation to guide the lesson that explores themes of paranoia, fear, and reality through historical context, discussion questions, and genre analysis. Students will decode 1940s slang, track Ronald Adams’ cross-country journey, and analyze foreshadowing with ready-to-use assignments. Engaging creative tasks are also included like writing a diary entry from a passenger’s perspective, comparing the script to its Twilight Zone adaptation, and crafting original suspense narratives inspired by the story’s iconic “dead all along” trope.
➡️ The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell: Drop your students into the deadly hunt of Richard Connell’s classic short story with this resource. The 30-slide presentation explores historical context, literary devices, and techniques for building suspense, while comprehension questions and guided analysis deepen student understanding. Students will test their knowledge with a competitive board game, map out Ship Trap Island, and hunt for figurative language throughout the text. Creative assignments are also included like writing journal entries from General Zaroff’s perspective and crafting their own suspense stories.
➡️ The Veldt by Ray Bradbury: Enter the unsettling world of Ray Bradbury’s dystopian fiction with this engaging short story unit. A 19-slide presentation guides the lesson with author background, genre exploration, and discussion questions, while reading response questions and literary device notes check for comprehension and analysis. Students will also write a missing persons report and design a real estate listing for the technologically advanced Happylife Home.
➡️ The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street by Rod Serling: Explore the dangers of fear and mob mentality with Rod Serling’s science fiction classic. Originally a Twilight Zone teleplay, this lesson uses a 40-slide presentation to guide the lesson. Students will investigate paranoia with a pre-reading game, complete comprehension and cause-and-effect activities, and connect McCarthyism to the text’s main ideas. Creative assignments like designing a movie poster, casting a film adaptation, and comparing modern versions of the script are also included.
Please Note: We are not permitted to include the stories for copyright reasons, but they can easily be found online by searching the title + full text. Please reach out if you need help finding a story.
© Presto Plans
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Please Note: We are not permitted to include the stories for copyright reasons, but they can easily be found online by searching the title + full text. Please reach out if you need help finding a story.
© Presto Plans
➡️ Want 10 free ELA resources sent to your inbox? Click here!