Short Story
Background Information & Activities

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Review with your children that a short story is a short piece of fiction that has a beginning, middle, and end. Fiction is writing that comes from the imagination, and not just from facts. Fiction can feature imaginary characters and settings, such as a fairy tale about three pigs living in houses made of straw, wood, and bricks. It can also feature imaginary characters living in a real-world setting, such as a short story about a child living in an ancient civilization. Short stories can even feature real characters in fantastic situations, such as a story where Abraham Lincoln travels in time or to a different planet. Short stories are only limited by the imagination and there are many different genres of fiction such as historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction. Short stories can be very short and be only a few sentences, or they can be much longer. Review that short stories can often be read in one sitting, while a novel or a chapter book takes longer to read. Explain to your children that no matter the length, all short stories tell a complete story.

Explain to your children that ideas for short stories can come anywhere and any time. Encourage your children to carry small notebooks with them so they can write down story ideas easily. They can look at old diaries and journals for ideas, or get inspired by articles in newspaper and magazines. Poems, songs, and pieces of art can also inspire ideas. After your children find an idea for a story, the next step is to brainstorm characters and events that will happen in the story. Your children may want to take notes, create outlines, conduct character studies, or create a story map. A story map is a graphic organizer that tells the character, setting, and major events that happen in a story. You may want to display or distribute different graphic organizers and story maps for your children to copy and use.

Your children should understand that details are very important in short story. They help the story come to life. How do the characters look? How do they feel? Where is the story taking place? What are some important information the reader needs to understand about the characters and the setting? Pose different questions for your children to answer as they prepare to write. Explain that in many short stories, the characters face a conflict, or problem, and must solve it. Conflicts can be external, such as a knight battling a dragon, or they can be internal, such as a monkey overcoming a fear of heights. Remind your children that in short stories, characters change and grow. Encourage them to think of ways how their characters can change.

After they compose their short stories, they must go back and revise. Remind children that when they revise, they go back and make changes. They may want to add more sensory details or information to help the reader understand the story. We recommend watching the Writing with the Senses movie together as a review. They may want to strengthen their sentences by using stronger words and more vivid adjectives. They may want to add dialogue to help readers get a sense of the characters. Children may want to “workshop” their work with peers and find different ways to improve and revise their stories. After they revise, they should proofread their work. Explain that when they proofread, they look for errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics. They should look for misspellings and errors in capitalization and punctuation. Students may wish to proofread each other’s work and if possible, you should distribute a checklist that lists common mistakes to look for when proofreading.

Remind children to print or handwrite neatly. If readers cannot understand the writing, they will not understand the story. The last step of writing a short story is to publish it and share it with people.

Short Story Teacher Activities – Click Here!

Short Story Family Activities – Click Here!

Short Story Teacher Activities

© 1999-2009 BrainPOP. All rights reserved.

One Liner

As a writing exercise, pick a sentence for students to include in a short story. You may want to choose a piece of dialogue such as “Of course I can do that!” or a silly sentence such as “The penguin told me it was too hot.” Write the sentence on the board and have them create a short story around the line. Remind students that the line does not have to be the punch line, it just has to be used in the story in some way. Have students outline their story, make story maps, and write, revise, and proofread their work. You may want to pair up students to help each other revise and proofread. After they are completed with their stories, have student volunteer share their stories or publish them in a class anthology.

A Big Problem

Remind students that many short stories have a conflict, or a problem that the characters face. Discuss different problems that students have faced and together as a class, create a story map. Brainstorm settings, characters, and different events that can happen in the story. Then have students write the short story. Even though the settings, characters, and events may be the same, the styles will differ. Have students share their work and compare and contrast how the stories are alike and different.

Short Story Study

Have students bring in their favorite short stories and share them with the class. You may want to have students read their stories to the class or have them summarize and create a short story report. Discuss the characters, setting, problem, and events in each story. How does the character change? How does the character face the problem? What is the main character like? Have students make observations about the short stories they read.

Revisionist History

Have your students research different historical events and figures. Then have them write a short story “revising” history. What might have happened if we did not land a person on the moon? What might have happened if the Pilgrims did not land in Plymouth? Have students outline their ideas and write short pieces of historical fiction and share them with each other.

Short Story Family Activities

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A Story a Day

Expose your child to different short stories by reading a different one each day. Remind your child that short stories spread across many different genres, such as fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction. Read different short stories and discuss how they are alike and different. What is your child’s favorite short story? Why?

Looking Back

Together with your child, look through photo albums together. Discuss favorite family members or family trips and what makes them so special. Then have your child look through old diaries or journals, or even old writings. Can he or she find ideas for stories or characters? Make sure your child writes down ideas in a notebook.

Short Story Redux

Have your child choose a short story and change the characters, setting, or events to create another short story. For example, your child can rewrite “The Three Little Pigs” so that they feature different animals or houses. He or she may want to change the setting to a city instead of the country. Have your child outline the story, create a story map, and write, revise, and proofread the story.