Why should we use relevant short stories for MLs?
Multilingual Learners in grades 6-12 need practice reading fiction, however, they rarely have the stamina to read novels like in a typical ELA/English class. Therefore, short stories for MLS are the perfect text to use to help with reading strategies, literary elements, and other objectives of the ELD/ESL class. Short stories are used in middle and high school classes, but often they are older, less relevant texts. Multilingual Learners come to us from a variety of cultures, so we want them to feel represented in the texts they read. The short stories also need to be accessible and even shorter than average. These need to be high-interest, low readability. I have scoured the internet and have made a list of short stories that are perfect for your students. Most are available for free, but some are in anthologies. I have also linked to any great teaching resources available.
Humorous Short Stories for MLs
There’s nothing secondary students like more than humor. MLs need a lot of practice with English humor, as sometimes it doesn’t translate. However, I have found some perfect short stories that check all the boxes for your students.
“The Ingredients” by Jason Reynolds
What I love about this short story is that it is culturally relevant, authentic, and modern. Jason Reynolds is a current author of such books as Ghost and Long Way Down. Those two books are very serious, but not “The Ingredients.” This text is a very lighthearted day-in-the-life of boys from Bedstuy, Brooklyn on a hot summer day imagining the sandwiches they are going to make for lunch. The text goes into descriptive detail about the sandwiches, many of which come from different cultures. The boys themselves represent people of color, and tease each other in a fun, friendly way. Your students, especially the boys, will love this one. There is also a surprise twist ending, helping you to teach irony. Check out this teaching guide for activities that go along with this story.
“Priscilla and the Wimps” by Richard Peck
In this very short story “Priscilla and the Wimps,” students in a middle school are being terrorized by Monk Klutter, the school bully, and his gang Klutter’s Kobras. That is, until Priscilla gets involved. There is so much you can work with in this text: theme, allusion, character traits, author’s purpose, and plot among others. The ending is ambiguous, which leads to a great inferencing opportunity. The story was written in 1971, but there is so much about it that is still relevant your students will barely notice. For a teaching guide including activities, check this one out.
“The Zoo” by Edward P. Hoch
This short story is extremely short, but very effective. An intergalactic zoo comes to Earth with horse-spider aliens from a different planet. The ending has a surprise twist that will delight you and your students. Point of view is an essential element to teach with this text, but also irony, making inferences, comparing characters, and theme. This text is also a great introduction to the science fiction genre, but is also very funny. This text screams accessible. If you’re looking for a teaching guide, here’s one you might like.
“Charles” by Shirley Jackson
This short story is a classic for a reason. To summarize the story, a kindergartener named Laurie encounters a VERY badly misbehaving classmate and delights in telling his family all about Charles’ misdeeds. If you haven’t read “Charles”, I don’t want to spoil the twist ending! You’ll love it and so will your students. This text offers teaching opportunities for irony, foreshadowing, characterization, point of view, plot, conflict, and theme. It is not very long, and very relatable. This teaching guide will help you with its many graphic organizers.
Other Favorite Short Stories for MLs
“No-Guitar Blues” by Gary Soto
In “No-Guitar Blues,” the main character Fausto has big dreams to play guitar in a rock band like Los Lobos. He must wrestle with his guilt after finding a lost dog in a wealthy neighborhood and elaborating on the story in order to get reward money. What I love about this text, as with all the other Gary Soto stories, is the representation of Hispanic/Latino culture. There are a lot of themes in this book that are relevant to today, even though this story was written in the 80s. This short story can be used to teach theme, allusion, cause and effect, plot, symbolism, and conflict. If you want a teaching guide for this short story, follow this link.
‘Four Skinny Trees” by Sandra Cisneros paired with “Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein
This option is different than the other ones mentioned on this page. ‘Four Skinny Trees” comes from the novella House on Mango Street, which is a series of vignettes about a Mexican-American girl coming of age in Chicago. This novella is one of my favorites to teach middle and high school MLs. I can skip around because most of the chapters are not linear. There is a loose plot, but most of it are vignettes of people in the main character’s life.
“Four Skinny Trees” is a chapter from the novel House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. In that novel, the main character Esperanza is a 12-year old girl of Mexican descent living in urban Chicago. She hates the eponymous house on Mango Street, as it doesn’t match the one in her imagination, which would be away from the city and instead be on a hill with a garden. Nenny is her little sister, who doesn’t have the same desires and is content with where the family lives. Esperanza is the narrator who is also a writer. She writes in prose. Whenever I read this chapter, I am reminded of the line from “Where the Sidewalk Ends” that mentions asphalt flowers growing. This led me to pair the two texts together.
“Where the Sidewalk Ends” is written by famous poet Shel Silverstein and can be found in the eponymous book Where the Sidewalk Ends. It is a deceptively profound poem. The poem is about escaping the negativity of the city to the joys of nature. It is also about hope and how children can be the leaders of change. Considering Esperanza’s name means Hope in English, you can see the connections between the texts. For my teaching guide on this that walks your MLs through the close read of these text, follow this link.
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