Byrdseed

  • About
  • Best Of
  • Speaking
  • Puzzlements
  • ByrdseedTV
  • Depth & Complexity
  • Differentiating
  • Better Teaching
  • Social Emotional
  • April

Halloween Classics For Your Classroom

Halloween classics for the classroom Illustration by Harry Clarke

Halloween gives us the opportunity to go beyond arts and crafts and use the holiday as an excuse to dive into some classic suspenseful stories. Luckily, many of these stories are in the public domain.

Most of these are probably most suitable for middle and high school. I put the word count so you can get an idea for pacing. But, remember, you don’t have to read an entire story. Just grab some interesting passages to entice your class and explore how famous authors build tension and suspense.

Short Stories

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart (~2,000 words) is short enough to print on one sheet of paper. I read this one with my 6th graders every year. So fun to act out. You’ll find many other Poe short stories at the same link.

From Arthur Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes fame, The Horrors of the Heights is a supernatural tale involving a pilot trying to reach an altitude past 30,000 feet (~6,500 words).

W.W. Jacobs’ The Monkey’s Paw, a classic quick read about the unintended consequences of wishes (~4,000 words). I could see this being a great starting point for remix stories.

Finally, The Brothers Grimm’s Hansel and Gretel seems somewhat appropriate for Halloween (~3,000 words). There are many other Grimm stories available at the same link.

Longer Stories

Irving Washington’s classic The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (~12,000 words), familiar to many students because of the Disney cartoon.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story: The Adventure of the Speckled Band builds Halloween-like suspense (~10,000 words)

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a complex and spooky classic. And here’s a Scholastic study guide to go with it (~25,000 words)

And if you want full-length novels, you’ve got such classics as:

  • Bram Stoker’s Dracula
  • Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
  • H.G. Well’s The Invisible Man

Differentiation information in your inbox.

I'll send you one or two emails a month to help you better understand and differentiate for gifted students.

Get free resources now!

Byrdseed.TV: Differentiation Done For You

Don't have time to create differentiated lessons? Byrdseed.TV is packed with pre-made resources to save you time (and delight your students).

Check out Byrdseed.TV today!

More about Differentiate With Classics
  1. Novelty, U2, and Literary Response
  2. The Original Puzzlement: A Zoetrope
  3. Oz, Paragraphy, and Writing Strategies
  4. Adding The Beatles to a Lesson on Cause and Effect
  5. Differentiating With Classics
There are even more articles about Differentiate With Classics →

Get In Touch

Please contact me with questions or comments at: ian@byrdseed.com

Want to share something?

Everything written here is licensed as CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted. What does this mean?


Privacy Policy • Disclosure



Copyright © 2009 - 2021 Byrdseed, LLC

MENU
  • About
  • Best Of
  • Speaking
  • Puzzlements
  • ByrdseedTV