It seems like so many things are getting shorter these days: our weekends, our patience, and even our readings (beyond even the normal short stories that have consistently been part of the English Language Arts classroom).
Look at the SAT, for example (which is certainly a prime example of the type of reading high school students do these days, for better but mostly worse). It used to contain lengthy passages that discursively moved from page-to-page, enrapturing no one, but forcing everyone to bring an analytical, critical eye to the text and its questions.
These days the SAT isn’t a few lengthy passages but many smaller, more targeted ones.
This shift shouldn’t be a surprise in our screen-obsessed world where our attention flits about from site-to-site, Tik-to-Tok, feed-to-feed in the blink of an eye (if we even blink anymore as we stare into the void of the world wide web). Perhaps this is a contributing factor to so many students saying these days they “can’t focus” while reading.
Think about it…we ask students to read a 300 page novel for class, but for many, they only have the stamina for the 300 characters in their last text. In fact, in a recent survey of educators in Education Week “more than half said that, in grades 3-8 students’ reading stamina had declined precipitously since 2019.”
The question, then, is this: What can we do about this? And, per the subject of this blog, how can short stories help?
Building Stamina Through Short Stories
Timothy Shanahan, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, notes that “[a]cross a week or a couple of weeks of lessons, reading should make up a significant part of the class, and students should be held accountable–it should be clear they are really doing the reading.”
Indeed, like any skilled athlete (or educator) who must practice and perform in an on-going cycle investing significant time in skill development to get better, so too must a reader invest significant time reading and building skills and stamina to become a better reader.
This, of course, proves to be a challenge in today’s classrooms with today’s students because, ironically, they want to do the least with what will help them the most. This is where short stories can help.
Short Stories as an Accessible Genre
What’s longer than a text message, shorter than a novel, and often less enigmatic than a poem? Short stories, of course.
For many students, the short story genre is accessible and within reach. They aren’t daunted by their length unlike novels where they are gazing down the endless lengths of dozens and dozens of pages. With short stories, students aren’t puzzled by layers and layers of meaning and interpretation densely packed into the lines of a short poem. And, for many students, short stories are the Goldilocks-style “just right” for reading and writing.
For writing, students can fairly easily generate ideas for short story either by brainstorming a plot diagram or the elements for short story (like theme or conflict) or by using a generator for short story (like ChatGPT and its ilk).
Students, too, feel empowered to write short stories as they have likely seen other students successfully write short stories before (and, perhaps, even enter them in short stories contests like the short stories contests found here, per the National Council of Teacher of English), so they are not short of a model, a sample, or an example for short story inspiration.
For reading, students are more willing to give three pages of a short story a shot vs. 300 of a novel. If they don’t like the story or understand the story, there’s less of a challenge as they just need to parse paragraphs rather than chapters in a single sitting.
For teachers, too, short stories are important puzzle pieces that adapt to various needs and purposes in a curriculum. Studying the American Dream? There’s a short story for that. Is there systemic injustice in your community you want students to think about? There’s a short story for that, too.
We can also make questions for short stories that are pointed and purposeful that force students to dig into the text without exasperating them as they flip through countless pages for evidence, attempting to trace a theme through the eb and flow of a lengthy novel.
The challenge, then, is to find the right stories at the right time for our students.
See below for a collection of 21 short stories that students will read gladly (and will help them build their stamina).
20 Stories Students Will Read Gladly
- “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson: A chilling tale set in a small town where a yearly ritual takes a horrifying turn.
- “Button, Button” by Richard Matheson: A story of choices and consequences that forces the readers to consider the decisions they’d make in light of the characters’ choices.
- “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe: A psychological thriller where a murderer’s guilt leads to madness.
- “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant: A cautionary tale about the consequences of vanity and pride.
- “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell: A suspenseful story of a hunter who becomes the hunted on a remote island.
- “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs: A spooky story about a cursed artifact that grants wishes with unexpected consequences.
- “The Lady, or the Tiger?” by Frank R. Stockton: An intriguing tale of love, jealousy, and the ultimate choice
- “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe: A dark and twisted story of revenge set in the catacombs of Italy.
- “Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan: Child chess prodigy vs. her tiger mother who teaches her about “invisible strength.”
- “The Interlopers” by Saki (H.H. Munro): A gripping narrative of two enemies trapped together in the wilderness, forced to confront their hatred.
- “The Open Window” by Saki (H.H. Munro): A clever and humorous story about a mischievous girl who spins tall tales.
- “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst: A poignant story of love, pride, and the tragedy of unrealistic expectations.
- “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty: A gripping war story set during the Irish Civil War, exploring the brutality and dehumanization of conflict.
- “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor: A darkly humorous tale about a dysfunctional family’s encounter with a notorious criminal.
- “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber: A whimsical exploration of daydreams and escapism, as Walter Mitty imagines himself in heroic scenarios.
- “The Cranes” by Peter Meinke: A tale of love and life that leaves breadcrumbs for the reader to follow to its shocking ending.
- “To Build a Fire” by Jack London: A story of survival that pits man vs. nature.
- “The Lottery Ticket” by Anton Chekhov: A thought-provoking story about the allure of wealth and its impact on a humble family.
- “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut: A dystopian tale set in a society where everyone is forced to be equal, exploring themes of individuality and oppression.
- “The Landlady” by Roald Dahl: A creepy story about a young man who checks into a bed and breakfast with a peculiar landlady.
The stories above are good stories to build into units (like a unit centered on survival which could include “To Build a Fire” and “The Most Dangerous Game”), to share on special occasions (Poe short stories are great around Halloween), and to spark conversations in the classroom (“Button, Button” is a great what-if for students to ponder).
Allow students to discuss short stories in a Socratic Seminar or via short story stations for increased engagement!
In fact, the stories above are good anytime because anytime is the best time to read, especially for students who spend much of their time on a screen, so let’s move online to offline, from mindless scrolling to mindful reading, and grow their stamina through some great short stories.
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