Creative English Teacher — Short Stories

The Fun They Had I wanted to take a minute to share a quick lesson that went really well in my classroom. Every year I tend to do the same thing on the first day of school—go over the syllabus and play a game based on my classroom rules. This year, however, I decided to add another element to the first day of my sophomore English course. Several months ago, I was flipping through an old textbook, and I discovered a short story I had never read before. (By the way, old textbooks are a treasure trove of teaching ideas, and...

When the leaves start to change and the weather gets a bit cooler, that means it’s almost time for my go-to Halloween story:  Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” In the lineup of American authors, I feel like Irving gets short shrift. Sure, his stories aren’t super deep, but they’re fun, which should count for something! They are also some of the first works that can be considered distinctly American. Before I get too far ahead of myself, here are five reasons to teach the short stories of Washington Irving. Washington Irving was America’s first celebrity writer. In the...