Browse 13 High School Close Reading resources made by teachers, for teachers. Printable and digital lessons, activities and more from independent teacher stores, ready to download.
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Created byStudents can recognize an eerie setting—but can they explain how a writer creates that feeling? This FREE Gothic literature mini-lesson helps students in grades 9–12 analyze how word choice, ordinary details, and uncertainty make a setting feel unsettling.Students begin by comparing two descriptions
9th - 12th Close Reading, Literature
Free
Created byTeach Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House with a complete novel unit built for 10th Grade English. Students get the support they need to understand what is happening before they are asked to decide what it means.The unit includes lesson slides, an 18-page student packet, an exact filled key
9th - 12th Close Reading, Literature, Novel Studies
$19.99
Created byVirginia Woolf’s “A Haunted House” fits easily into part of a class period, but the shifting pronouns and two couples can make the first read confusing. I revised this activity after using the story with my own AP Lit students and seeing where they lost the thread. The first five questions help stud
10th - Higher Education Close Reading, Literature, Short Stories
$3.00
Created byTeach Saki’s “The Open Window” in one class period without stopping the story to death. Students read the complete story straight through, briefly sort out the ending, and then go back to examine how Vera gets Framton to believe her. Includes the full public-domain text in a beautifully illustrated
8th - 12th Close Reading, Literature, Short Stories
$4.99
Created byStart the year with a real English lesson that gives you useful information about your students without making the first week feel like a test. In this low-pressure activity, students read an original short story, discuss possible interpretations, and write a brief evidence-based response.Student-fa
8th - Higher Education Close Reading, Literature, Writing
$4.50
Created byTeaching “The Fall of the House of Usher” is difficult for one simple reason: students cannot analyze what they cannot follow. Poe’s prose is dense, the plot is strange, and the story’s best ideas only land when students know what is actually happening.This 8–9 day guided-reading unit gives students
9th - 12th Close Reading, Literature, Reading
Also included in: Edgar Allan Poe Unit Bundle | Background, The Raven & House of Usher
$7.50
Created byHelp students understand what happens in “The Raven” before asking them to interpret its symbolism and psychological horror.This close reading mini-unit follows Poe’s poem chronologically, with a stanza-numbered reading text, vocabulary support, a student analysis packet, and coordinated lesson slid
8th - 12th Close Reading, Literature, Poetry
Also included in: Edgar Allan Poe Unit Bundle | Background, The Raven & House of Usher
$5.99
Created byStudents can follow what happens in “House Taken Over” and still miss the strangest part: Irene and the narrator barely resist as their world gets smaller. This lesson sequence slows the story down, makes the house and both takeovers concrete, and then moves students into ambiguity, evidence, and in
9th - 12th Close Reading, Literature, Short Stories
$6.99
Created byBring a little fog into your AP Literature classroom. This two-day case-file lesson for Stephen King's “Strawberry Spring” asks students to investigate the evidence, commit to a theory, and reconsider what they thought they knew after the ending.The Halloween atmosphere gives students a reason to le
10th - 12th Close Reading, Literature, Short Stories
$5.99
Created byLet students picture Poe's palace before they decide what it means. In this two-part lesson, students closely read and draw "The Haunted Palace," then return to the poem to trace its tonal shift, identify its human features, and discover how the palace becomes a picture of Roderick Usher's mind.FULL
8th - 12th Close Reading, Literature, Poetry
$4.50
Created byNeed a quick way to introduce Gothic literature without turning it into an elements checklist? This free Gothic literature activity pairs a student-friendly field guide with a continuous public-domain excerpt from Edgar Allan Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Students identify details that cre
8th - 12th Close Reading, Literature, Reading
Free
Created byKeKeep “The Monkey’s Paw” tense instead of turning it into a worksheet marathon. This two-day secondary ELA lesson uses a few deliberate reading stops, then asks students to go back and examine how W. W. Jacobs builds suspense through warning, irony, pacing, Gothic atmosphere, and ambiguity.“The Mon
8th - 12th Close Reading, Literature, Short Stories
$5.99
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Created byLooking for an engaging way to teach poetry analysis in your high school ELA classroom?This ready-to-use set of 7 poetry analysis stations and task cards helps students move beyond surface-level responses and into deeper literary analysis. Students practice analyzing figurative language, tone, struc
9th - 12th Close Reading, Poetry, Writing
$4.75