Emergency Sub Plans: Short Story Analysis

Any teacher can tell you that even when you’re sick, it’s easier to go to work than to put together sub plans on late to little notice. Still, emergencies happen. You wake up and you just know that getting out the door is an impossibility. Or one of your family members is sick and the decision has already been made: you’re staying home.

Sometimes we get lucky—the day we’re out falls on a day when students have a work day for a paper or project, but more often than not, we have to figure out how to fill 45-90 minutes for our students with a substitute who may or may not be equipped to help them with their learning. It’s the worst kind of planning, and so we’ve put together these emergency sub plans for you and your students.

Short Story Guide | ShortStoryGuide.com

Run by a man named Howard and his dog Chester, ShortStoryGuide.com is an incredibly well-organized website full of short stories. The menus at the top of the page organize the short stories by subject/theme, sci-fi/fantasy, authors, places/people, analysis, and collection/anthology.

For the quickest path to picking a text, check out the list of “Best Short Stories for Middle Schoolers & High Schoolers.” All of the stories are summarized, and most of them have links to read (and print!) the full text of the short stories. The stories that don’t have links, or have links that are in Amazon previews, are typically findable elsewhere on the internet. If you’d like an even shorter list of stories to chose from, check out this blog post on short stories with surprise endings.

Emergency Sub Plans:

1. Pick text. Print copies or make digital copy available. Make sure you’re clear about how the reading of the short story should be conducted in class (individually, out loud by teacher, out loud by students (Don’t choose this last option. Here’s why.))

2. Pick annotation guide. Modify as necessary. Leave instructions for substitute to review annotation guide with students. Identify annotation resources (markers, colored pencils, sticky notes, etc.) and leave instructions for sub re: where to find them. Here are some annotation guides you can use or use as inspiration to create your own:

   • Lewis University Writing University | A Simplified Guide: Writing a Literary Analysis

   • Amphitheater Public Schools Annotation Guide

   • Deerfield-Windsor School AP Literature | Instructions for Reading and Annotation (pages 2-4)

   • Saint Anthony’s High School | English 10 Honors | How to Annotate using C.A.P.E. Method

3. Decide how students will look up unfamiliar words (Hard copy of dictionary? Can they look words up on their phones?). Leave instruction for substitute so they know which resources are appropriate to use.

4. Decide what your final product for students will be: do they just need to read and annotate? Do you want them to write something based on what they’ve learned? Are they creating a project/poster/presentation?

   • Germanna Community College | Writing a Literary Analysis Paper

   • UDC.edu | Amundsenhs.org | Outline Structure for Literary Analysis Essay

   • LewisPalmer.org | Jestice/English 1 | Short Story Unit Project

5. Decide how students’ assignment will be graded. Create rubric.

   • Edutopia.org | Literary Analysis Rubric

   • Mercer Island Schools | Literary Analysis and Argument Essay Rubric

   • Skyline College Literature Essay Rubric

   • TVUSD Literary Analysis Rubric: High School

   • Utica.edu | Basic Rubric for Assessment of Essays About Literature

6. Arrange for someone to produce copies of the text, annotation guide, and rubric for your students.

7. Assignment for students:

   1. Read short story with pencil in hand focusing on two things only: understanding what’s happening in the story and circling words you don’t know the meaning of.

   2. When you finish reading, look up the definitions of the words you didn’t know. Remember that many words have multiple meanings, so look at the word in context to make sure you’ve chosen the right definition. Squeeze a simplified definition near the word on your copy of the short story. Identify the words you need to define by imagining this: when I’m back, I’ll pick words from the text at random and students at random to define them. If you see a word and wouldn’t like to be called on to define it on the spot, look the word up and write the definition down so that you’re prepared when we review.

   3. Review the annotation guide and create a key on your worksheet or your copy of the short story so that it’s clear what each symbol or color is tracking.

   4. Re-read the story, annotating for the plot devices, literary devices, etc. identified on the annotation guide. Remember that you don’t need to highlight whole sentences—if you’re tracking a metaphor, and the metaphor only uses one or two words, just mark those words.

   5. When you’ve finished annotating, review your assignment sheet and your rubric so you know which elements are the most important to do well and correctly. Do the assignment. Your work is due on ___________. Your work needs to be submitted to _______ by ______ in order for it to be considered on time. We will review this assignment together on ____________.