Weave Scary Stories into Your Literacy Instruction

Scary stories aren't just for Halloween. Try some of the following resources and activities during the month of October or whenever your students are in the mood for something scary.

• Get students to dive more eagerly into nonfiction text by reading true information about the weird, the gross, and the unbelievable. Favorite passages can be found within the annual Guinness Book of World Records.
• Another resource for strange-but-true informational text is within the Capstone Publishing Extreme Series. Extreme Body Bugs, Extreme Pets Parents Hate, and Extreme Lunch are just a few of students' favorite titles. Check out the entire paperback series of short nonfiction texts at The Literacy Store.
• Target students' questioning and prediction skills. Stage a mystery in the classroom by having something come up missing or by having something "appear" in the classroom. Plant "clues" where kids can find them. Ask students to keep a log of clues in their writers' notebooks. Plan this mystery to last for several days and then unveil the solution or make it possible for students to figure it out with the last clue. (This activity could be modified for any grade to increase the difficulty of making predictions, asking questions, making inferences, drawing conclusions, etc.).

Classroom Library

• Looking for new titles to add to your classroom library? Here's a book list of scary stories with a short synopsis for each title from the Monster Librarian.
• For the middle school/high school classroom, here is a link to classic scary short stories.
• To ignite the publishing spirit in your student writers, maybe share some of these scary stories for kids by kids.

Fluency Activities

• Practice oral reading fluency using favorite spooky campfire stories available at Ultimate Camp Resource and American Folklore. Students can perfect a favorite story to read aloud to their classmates.
• In the fall, first and second graders can write scarecrow puppet shows. Pair students up to write a simple conversation between two scarecrows. Before reading it aloud, have them create scarecrow puppets with brown paper bags and practice their performances.