Conduct a close reading of George G. Toudouze's well-known horror story "Three Skeleton Key." This plan breaks up the reading into several steps and provides text-dependent questions to ask along the way. Learners will have the chance to talk about the text and to write essays using strong textual evidence.

Concepts

short stories, close reading, academic vocabulary, textual evidence

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Use the questions in a variety of ways depending on the needs of your class (whole-class discussion, think-pair-share, independent response, small groups)

Classroom Considerations

• The resource includes a rubric for the extra essay, but not for the main essay
• The plan provides a sample evidence chart (for preparing the essay); you will likely want to create your own blank chart, or have students draw their own in their notebooks
• Note that you will need several days to complete all of the steps

Pros

• Answers to the text-dependent questions are included
• Comes with a sample essay that you can use as a model for your learners
• Includes extension ideas

Cons

• None

Common Core

RL.7.1 RL.7.2 RL.7.3 RL.7.6 W.7.2.a W.7.3.a W.7.4 W.7.9.a SL.7.1.a L.7.1.a L.7.2.a