Are you looking for Halloween short stories middle school students will love to read? This 8 day short story unit for “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut contains scaffolded close reading activities and a no-prep narrative writing task that will engage your middle school and high school students. These reading comprehension resources are designed to support struggling readers, ELL/ESL, and special education students, such as differentiated activities, 36 PRINT AND DIGITAL task cards, and chunked text and guided reading questions.
After students complete the close reading unit with an emphasis on equality in the short story, they will write a first person narrative from the point of view of one of the audience members who has witnessed the events of the story. Students will write a sequel to “Harrison Bergeron” that tells readers what happens next: Is Harrison’s rebellion successful? Everything needed to teach and implement the narrative writing task is included in your download.
♥ Why You’ll Love This Resource:
✚ Saves You Time with Quick and Easy Prep
✚ Allows students to show their learning in multiple ways
✚ Covers Multiple ELA standards and skills
✚ Differentiated Options to Meet ALL Students’ Needs
► What Skills Are Covered in This Unit?
✓ Making Predictions
✓ Context Clues
✓ Main Idea and Objective Summary
✓ Citing Textual Evidence and Explaining How It Supports Your Answer
✓ Elements of Plot
✓ Characterization
✓ Making Claims and Supporting with Text Evidence
✓ Writing a Narrative
✅ What’s Included:
❶ Pre-Reading Activities
-Probable Passage (Making Predictions)
-Context Clues Mini Lesson
-Differentiated Vocabulary Activity
❷ Close Reading Activities:
-First Read: OMG! What Happened!?! (Main Idea and Objective Summary)
-Second Read: Guided Reading Question with a Double Entry Journal
-Four Corners Activity
-Third Read: Analyzing Equality in the Short Story
-Constructed Response Activity (Create a claim about equality)
❸ “Harrison Bergeron” Assessment
– 6 Multiple Choice Questions
– 2 Constructed Response Options (Students select 1 to answer)
– Constructed Response Rubric (Option to Add Your Own Criteria)
– Answer Key
❹ “Harrison Bergeron” Narrative Writing Task
– Narrative Writing Information Sheet (Clear Student Directions)
– Narrative Writing Reference Sheet (Option to Add Your Own Criteria)
– 3 Pre-Writing Options
– Rough Draft and Final Draft Pages
– Self and Peer Assessment Checklist/Feedback Form
– Writing Rubric ( Option to Add Your Own Scoring)
– Strong and Weak Writing Samples
❺ “Harrison Bergeron” Lesson PPT (Over 125 Slides)
– This PPT is designed to lead teacher and students through the entire unit.
– Contains learning targets, warm-ups, student instructions, lesson structures, formative assessments, and self-reflections
– Blank Slides included to allow you to customize the PPT.
❻ Annotated Teacher Lesson Guide
– Includes unit breakdown, daily lesson breakdown, learning targets, teacher tips, and more.
❼ BONUS: “Harrison Bergeron” Choice Board Activity
– Early finisher project
✌ What Other Teachers Are Saying About This Resource:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Sam H. says, “Great Resource! Good for differentiation! Lessons prompted great discussion!”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Kristy O. says, “Fantastic resource which made my dystopian literature unit extremely successful. My students and I loved the handouts and assessments.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Natalie A. says, “Really great resource! Very well organized and well-done. Great short story to kick off my dystopian unit.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Ippi H. says, “Used this for my high interest read with my 7th grade DL students. I shared the reading with them, and accommodated the activities. This resource supplemented my lesson really well.”
