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Anyone who has ever taught language arts has heard, "I don't know what to write about" from a student or two. If you've ever heard that from a student, take a look at the following sites and apps to find writing prompts.

Emoji Prompts uses emojis as writing prompts. To generate a prompt just go to the Emoji Prompts site and click the blue "and then" button to add emojis to the screen. Students can write stories inspired by the combinations of emojis that are displayed. Emoji Prompts was created by Ian Byrd and I learned about it from one of Tony Vincent's recent Tweet s.

Story Dice for iOS is a free app that lets you select up to ten dice from four story categories. The dice feature pictures that are intended to prompt you to write about them or include them in a story. You can roll the dice by shaking your iPad or by just tapping the roll icon. Want to write your own Star Wars fan fiction? Story Dice has a Star Wars category.

Scholastic Story Starters is a great tool that students will enjoy using to create short, creative fiction stories. Scholastic Story Starters offers four story themes; fantasy, adventure, sci-fi, and scrambler. To create a story on Story Starters a students picks a theme, enter his or her name, chooses his or her grade, and spins the big wheels of prompts. The student can spin the wheels until he or she finds a prompt he or she likes. After the prompt is selected the student can write his or her story using the letter, postcard, notebook, or newspaper format provided by Scholastic Story Starters. When the story is finished it can be printed.

StoryToolz offer a nice collection of useful tools for writers. Writers who are struggling to come up with ideas for fiction stories will like the story starters featured on StoryToolz. StoryToolz has three tools that you can use to get story ideas; Random Conflicts, Half Title Generator, and Story Idea Generator. To use any of these three tools just select the tool from the main menu then look at the randomly generated idea. If you don't like the options, run the tool again until you get options that you like.

Toasted Cheese is a daily writing prompt site that publishes prompts on a monthly calendar. The whole month is laid out for you with a different prompt each day. Don't see anything you like on the current calendar? That's okay, click through the previous months to find old prompts. Periodically, Toasted Cheese holds writing contests which you can learn about by clicking on the links on the calendar. The writing contests are based on one or more of the prompts from the calendar.

Make Beliefs Comix is a multilingual comic strip creation service that offers more than 300 comic templates. These printable templates are in addition to the online Make Beliefs Comix creation tool. The templates are divided into dozens of thematic categories including history, holidays, and civil rights. There is even a category of templates titled Emotions which is designed to help students express how they are feeling through comic characters. The printable templates from Make Beliefs Comix could be excellent resources to use as creative writing prompts. You could have students start a simple story by using the templates then expand the story into a longer narrative.

Writing Sparks. Writing Sparks offers timed writing prompts to share with your elementary school students. Students can respond to the prompts by writing on paper, in a word processing document like MS Word, or by writing on the Writing Sparks website. The Writing Sparks website provides students with templates to complete as they respond to each writing prompt. In the video that is embedded below I provide a demonstration of how to use the free Writing Sparks service.

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Seven Good Places to Find Writing Prompts

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Anyone who has ever taught language arts has heard, "I don't know what to write about" from a student or two. If you've ever heard that from a student, take a look at the following sites and apps to find writing prompts. Emoji Prompts uses emojis as writing prompts.

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Stories from people of all backgrounds and beliefs

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Okay. It's hundreds of episodes. Thousands of stories. Here are lists with some favorites.

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ESL English Language Learning - Adult Literacy - Listening & Reading - Audiobooks - Stories

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ESL English - Adult Literacy - Listening, Reading, Audiobooks, Short Stories, Songs, PET exam

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There are 57 fifteen-minute MP3 files. That is about 14 hours of listening.

The Stories Sorted by Author

Bierce, Ambrose (1842-1914)

Burroughs, Edgar Rice (1875-1950)

Butler, Ellis Parker (1869-1937)

Cather, Willa (1873-1947)

Chopin, Kate (1850-1904)

Crane, Stephen (1871-1900)

Folk Stories

Garland, Hamlin (1860-1940)

Harte, Bret (1836-1902)

Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804-1864)

Henry, O. (1862-1910)

Irving, Washington (1783-1859)

Jewett, Sarah Orne (1849-1909)

London, Jack (1876-1916)

Melville, Herman (1819-1891)

O'Brien, Fitz-James (1828-1862)

Poe, Edgar Allan (1809-1849)

Porter, Eleanor H. (1868-1920)

Stockton, Frank R. (1834-1902)

Twain, Mark (1835-1910)

Weaver, Caty

Wharton, Edith (1862-1937)

MP3 Files Problems?

About

These will all print very cleanly (without printing the MP3 player and menu.)

You can read the text as you listen to its MP3 file.

The Voice of America (VOA) American Stories are good for people studying English
because they can not only listen to the stories but also read them. These are in VOA's Special English.

This site only hosts the American Stories that are not adaptations of copyrighted material.
"All text, audio and video material produced exclusively by the Voice of America
is public domain. However, some images and graphics are licensed for use and
covered by all applicable copyright laws."

Please note that though the source files were in the public domain, I have done some editing.

Other VOA Material on This Web Site

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American Stories in Easy English / American Stories in VOA Special English (ESL/EFL)

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Listen and Read Along - Text with Audio - For ESL Students - For Learning English

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Listening exercises for esl - short audio stories for esl learners: beginners and elementary level.

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Free Online English Lessons and Exercises

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Take free online English lessons and exercises here. English Maven offers hundreds of English grammar and vocabulary lessons to help you study English online. Come learn English with English Maven today! Great for use in School or at Home. All ability levels welcome including beginner, intermediate, and advanced English students.

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I recently saw your shout out to BCHS on your blog, as well as the podcast where you spoke to some of my classmates and fellow castmembers of Stroke Static. I played Ruthie in Stroke Static and The Prioress in The Canterbury Tales. I would like to take the time to let you know just how much that performance meant to me. Participating in Stroke Static was by far one of the best, most rewarding, and life-changing experiences of my life so far. But even past that, the fact that we touched so many people in our performance really affected me. I sincerely wish that you could have been there to see it. It was truly magical. I would like to thank you from the very bottom of my heart for the work you put into this play. I hope we made you proud!

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Theatrefolk - The Drama Teacher Resource Company

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Theatrefolk, the ultimate resource for drama teachers. Find engaging plays, lesson plans, and more to engage your students.

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Poetry In Voice | Canada's best resource for teaching poetry. Lesson plans for teachers, and poems, writing workshops and more for students

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We are a globally renowned resource that provides assistance with English to students, teachers, professionals, and organizations across the world. Our goal is to assist clients in their development as writers - no matter their skill level.

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Purdue OWL® - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University

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We are a globally renowned resource that provides assistance with English to students, teachers, professionals, and organizations across the world. Our goal is to assist clients in their development as writers - no matter their skill level.

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Middle school is a funny place. Students can be mature and insightful one minute, obtuse and petulant the next. Yet even the most resistant scholar will enjoy a good story. The 40 stories below are sometimes surprising, other times hair-raising. They are all guaranteed to raise questions and instigate discussions in your classroom that can lead to meaningful dialogues about what really matters in the lives of your students.

Need a short story fast? Engage your middle school (or high school!) students with these 40 short stories! #shortstories Click To Tweet

Just $3 per month (or $36 per year!)

Note: Would you like access to ALL of our curated short story resources - PLUS a free lesson plan template you can use for ANY short story - right here on this page - without having to enter your email address more than a dozen times?

For less than the cost of one cup of coffee shop java, you can have ongoing access to current and future curated resources! Let us do the late-night searching for you. Sign up here for instant digital access.

Purchased access but still not seeing links to the resources? Make sure you login to your account by clicking the Customer area link at the top of the page and entering the login information you created. Click the "All Curated Short Story Access Membership" link in your customer area.

1. All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury | Short Story Unit | Short Story Unit on TpT

2. Amigo Brothers by Piri Thomas

3. The Scholarship Jacket by Marta Salinas

4. Icarus and Daedalus by Josephine Preston Peabody

5. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keys

6. Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

7. Raymond's Run by Toni Cade Bambara

8. Rules of the Game by Amy Tan

9. The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs

10. The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant by W.D. Wetherell

11. To Build a Fire by Jack London

12. The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry (Available in our All Access Membership)

13. Seventh Grade by Gary Soto

14. A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury

15. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (Available in our All Access Membership)

16. The Lady or the Tiger? by Frank Stockton (Available in our All Access Membership)

17. There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury (Available in our All Access Membership)

18. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

19. Hearts and Hands by O. Henry (Available in our All Access Membership)

20. Mother and Daughter by Gary Soto (Available in our All Access Membership)

21. The Rocking Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence (Available in our All Access Membership)

22. Miss Awful by Arthur Cavenaugh (Available in our All Access Membership)

23. Charles by Shirley Jackson (Available in our All Access Membership)

24. The Moustache by Robert Cormier (Available in our All Access Membership)

25. Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Available in our All Access Membership)

26. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka* (Available in our All Access Membership)

27. The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell (Available in our All Access Membership)

28. The Two Brothers by Leo Tolstoy (Available in our All Access Membership)

29. The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe

30. The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty (Available in our All Access Membership)

31. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce (Available in our All Access Membership)

32. The Veldt by Ray Bradbury (Available in our All Access Membership)

33. Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving (Available in our All Access Membership)

34. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

35. The Third Wish by Joan Aiken (Available in our All Access Membership)

36. The Landlady by Roald Dahl

37. The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov (Available in our All Access Membership)

38. Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling (Available in our All Access Membership)

39. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

40. Thank you, Ma'am by Langston Hughes

41. Names/Nombres by Julia Alvarez

BONUS!

1. The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry | Assessment Activity & Creative Writing Project | Assessment Activity & Creative Writing Project on TpT

2. The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson | Assessment Activity & Writing Project | Assessment Activity & Writing Project on TpT

3. The Masque of the Red by Death by Edgar Allan Poe* | Assessment Activity | Assessment Activity on TpT

4. The Stone by Lloyd Alexander (Available in our All Access Membership)

5. 2 B R 0 2 B by Kurt Vonnegut (Available in our All Access Membership)

6. The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury

7. The Adventures of the Blue Carbuncle by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Note: An RTE subscriber recently emailed me to ask if there was a simple way to subscribe to all the curated resources in one place, without having to enter an email address for every short story. At the time, there wasn't, but we have worked out a way to make it easy for you to access all the resources in one place - right here on this page! For just $3 per month, you can have ongoing access to current and future curated resources! Let us do the late-night searching for you. Sign up here for instant digital access.

Purchased access but still not seeing links to the resources? Make sure you login to your account by clicking the Customer area link at the top of the page and entering the login information you created. You can then return to this post, or click the "All Curated Short Story Access Membership" link in your customer area. Once you login, your short story list will look like this.

NOTE: Curated resources do not include the units that RTE has developed in house.
Copyright notice: These stories are published on sites other than reThinkELA.com and NO copyrighted stories are excerpted or quoted in RTE-created materials. Some stories are in the public domain (not copyrighted), or are excerpts of larger works, while others are not. In some cases, teachers may print a class set for their own classroom usage, but there are exceptions. Please check with your district regarding its policies and licenses for reproducing printed copies. Generally speaking, you may ask students to download their own copies (outside of the one you download for your own use) to their devices for their own educational studies.

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40 Excellent Short Stories For Middle School

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Middle school is a funny place. Students can be mature and insightful one minute, obtuse and petulant the next. Yet even the most resistant scholar will enjoy a good story. The 40 stories below are sometimes surprising, other times hair-raising.

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Choose activities

Decide if you want your students to proofread passages, combine sentences, or complete a diagnostic. Use our ten minute activities as building blocks during your classroom instruction.

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Quill.org | Interactive Writing and Grammar

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Quill provides free writing and grammar activities for middle and high school students.

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ReadTheory | Reading Comprehension Exercises

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Reading comprehension exercises — online, free, & adaptive. Fits K-12, ESL and adult students. Easily track progress for the entire class.

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CBC.ca - watch, listen, and discover with Canada's Public Broadcaster

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Canada's home for News, Entertainment, Sports, Music and much more

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The latest news from across Canada and around the world.

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It's time to improve literacy skills during social studies instruction and ensure that readers of all abilities have what they need to access grade-level social studies concepts.

Join us on Thursday, December 7 for a look at scaffolded materials that provide extra literacy support while building key social studies concepts and skills.

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Newsela | Content and assessment platform

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Content Aligned To National & State Standard, Flexible To Support Relevant Curriculum. Find the Perfect Piece Of Content For Lessons. Go beyond the book.