Are you looking for a middle school reading comprehension activity that assesses students’ knowledge of a short story with questions, fun writing activities, and fun ELA projects middle school students will love? I have the perfect solution to end your search…TASK CARDS! These short story task cards for “A Sound of Thunder” are the PERFECT reading comprehension activities for middle school and high school students to demonstrate their new learning.
These PRINT and DIGITAL task cards are designed to break up the monotony of normal short story unit assignments and captivate students’ attention. This short story reading comprehension activity contains 36 rigorous and engaging CCSS aligned tasks that require students to not only think critically when reading this classic short story, but also allows them to tap into their creativity.
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Resource:
✅ Saves You Time with Quick and Easy Prep
✅ Allows students to show their learning in a creative project
✅ Can be used for ELA learning stations, group work, early finishers and more!
✅ Perfect Activity for Substitute Days
✅ Clear Student Directions and Criteria
✅ Easy Way to Scaffold and Differentiate
✋ What’s Skills Are Covered:
• Citing Text Evidence
• Main Idea and Supporting Details
• Theme
• Author’s Point of View
• Elements of Plot
• Characterization
• Figurative Language
• and MORE!
✍ What’s Included:
• 36 “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst Task Cards
– 16 CCSS Aligned H.O.T. Questions
– 20 Creative Projects
• Short Story Handouts
• BONUS: DIGITAL Short Story Task Cards (Google Slides)
✅ The following questions/tasks are included in this product:
→ Question #1- Author’s Purpose
→ Question #2- Central Idea
→ Question #3- Theme
→ Question #4- Characterization
→ Question #5- Point of View
→ Question #6- Time Period
→ Question #7- Real Life Influences
→ Question #8- Figurative Language
→ Question #9- Conflict/Resolution
→ Question#10- Setting
→ Question #11- Theme & Development
→ Question #12- Painting a Picture
→ Question #13- Plot
→ Question #14- Objective Summary
→ Question #15- Mood
→ Question #16- Context Clues
→ Task #1- Movie Poster
→ Task #2- Be A Critic
→ Task #3- Picture It
→ Task #4- Interview the Author
→ Task #5- Interview a Character
→ Task #6- Comic Book
→ Task #7- Instagram
→ Task #8- Facebook
→ Task #9- Twitter Feed
→ Task #10- Trading Places
→ Task #11- Likes/Dislikes
→ Task #12- Rewrite
→ Task #13- Prequel
→ Task #14-Sequel
→ Task #15- Diary of a Character
→ Task #16- Cover Artist
→ Task #17- Dear Abby
→ Task #18- Music to My Ears
→ Task #19- Morning Announcements
→ Task #20- Word Cloud Collage
What Other Teachers Are Saying About This Resource:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Theresa K. says, “I loved the variety of activities to choose from. I also love that I can pick and choose what activities to use and that they are all independent of each other and I don’t need to use them in any certain order. Activites included were engaging yet made the students think critically about the story.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Buffy H. says, “I love the variety of questions and the scaffolding—I’m using with my students to help them prepare for an upcoming panel discussion, and the design of these task cards are excellent to support student thinking for any kind of task whether independent or as part of a discussion.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Amanda H. says, “The cards were engaging for the students; they enjoyed choosing their task, rather than simply being assigned another worksheet. I appreciated the printing instructions, too, as we have one designated person in our building for printing major projects, so I gave her the instructions and it was easy for her to follow, too!”
