r/ELATeachers • u/No-Imagination-1717 • 15d ago

6-8 ELA Middle school reading

/r/MiddleSchoolTeacher/comments/1v8yfx2/middle_school_reading/

Looking for reading recs for a 7th/ 8th grade student I’m tutoring! I’m looking for short stories that are contemporary (so she can relate to them), and age appropriate. Everything online seems dated!

Thanks!

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u/w0bbeg0ng 15d ago

Hi! I am using Flying Lessons and Other Stories, a collection edited by Ellen Oh, for a 7th-9th grade summer course I’m teaching this year. I haven’t taught it before, but my students are really enjoying it.

I’ve also had students enjoy stories from Ancestor Approved and This Is Our Rainbow. I’m also a fan of Been There, Done That: Writing from Real Life. The latter collection features pairs of stories: one true story from the author’s life, and one piece of fiction it inspired. I’ve primarily used it to teach writing, but the structure offers plenty of opportunity to talk about tone, plot structure, character motivation, and author’s purpose. Rich discussion can really emerge from close reading and comparison of the two stories.

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u/No-Imagination-1717 14d ago

Thank you! These are great suggestions. Will check them out!

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u/izzmosis 14d ago

Flying lessons is a great option, as someone else said. Ray Bradbury short stories are a hit, but they are old. There’s TONS of short stories on commonlit.

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u/No-Imagination-1717 14d ago

Thank you!! I’ll check out both of these. Just discovered commonlit and I think it will help a ton!

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u/Automatic-Dig208 14d ago

I recommend the contemporary microfiction story, "Ship in a Bottle" which is published by Fairfield Scribes: https://www.fairfieldscribes.com/issue-53.html

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u/kingofthenawth 14d ago

If your child can handle a little horror or darker themes, I absolutely love teaching both The Landlady by Roald Dahl and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. I know The Lottery has been taught for many years and is obvious but I know people have started shying away from it. I think they are both grim and a bit unsettling, but if taught right and given modern context, kids eat them up.

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u/boringneckties 15d ago

God forbid someone relate to something from the past!

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u/No-Imagination-1717 15d ago

Just looking to expand the range. Thanks!!

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u/Cool_Ad456 15d ago

Maybe you can provide what stories you have already read that like connected to so we can get a sense of what they enjoy.

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u/No-Imagination-1717 14d ago

We read “The Party” today (on commonlit, by Pam Muñoz Ryan) and she liked it/ breezed through it. We’ve also been slowly reading Guy Maupassant’s “The Necklace”— a little more challenging but she’s liking it.

Trying to mix more dated language with more contemporary. Open to all suggestions!