Notes from the Inkpot
Writing, teaching, creating - one ink-stained idea at a time.
Favourite Short Stories for the Classroom: Powerful Texts That Spark Discussion and Debate
Short stories offer some of the richest opportunities for discussion in the classroom. Their compact form allows students to engage deeply with power, choice, identity, and consequence, while leaving space for interpretation rather than easy answers. The best short stories do not rush towards resolution; they invite debate, uncertainty, and close attention to language. This post brings together favourite short stories for the classroom — texts that consistently spark discussion and reward close reading. Organised by theme, it explores stories such as The Lottery, The Yellow Wallpaper, The Necklace, and The Monkey’s Paw, alongside practical classroom ideas designed to support thoughtful, discussion-led teaching.
The Fly by Katherine Mansfield: Post-War Grief, Masculinity, and Trauma (For English Teachers)
The Fly by Katherine Mansfield is often taught as a short, symbolic story — but its real power lies in what it reveals about post-war grief, masculinity, and emotional repression. Written in the aftermath of the First World War, The Fly explores what happens when loss is expected to be over, yet trauma quietly persists beneath ordinary life. This post is designed for English teachers looking to bridge WW1 poetry and post-war prose, showing how lived experience shapes literature long after conflict has ended. It explores Mansfield’s personal connection to war, the symbolism of the fly as repeated trauma, and the story’s unsettling portrayal of power, control, and suppressed emotion. With classroom-ready activity ideas and links to wider conflict poetry, this deep dive helps teachers position The Fly as more than a standalone short story — but as part of a broader conversation about aftermath, memory, and the long shadow of war.
Teaching The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Without Context (And Why It Works)
When teaching The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, I deliberately avoid giving students historical context before the first reading. Instead, I let them experience the story as it was designed to be read: ordinary, unsettling, and deeply uncomfortable. In this post, I explain why teaching The Lottery without context leads to stronger discussion, deeper understanding, and more meaningful student responses — and how delaying explanation allows the text itself to do the work.
Teaching Edgar Allan Poe in the Secondary English Classroom
Edgar Allan Poe remains one of the most effective writers to teach in the secondary English classroom, offering short stories and poems that reward close reading, discussion, and interpretation. His work explores unreliable narrators, psychological tension, symbolism, and moral ambiguity, making it ideal for discussion-led lessons that move beyond plot and towards deeper literary thinking. In this post, Poe’s most commonly taught texts are organised by theme rather than chronology, allowing teachers to explore patterns around guilt, power, grief, atmosphere, and logic across both prose and poetry. With practical classroom ideas and links to complete teaching resources, this guide supports secondary English teachers looking to teach Edgar Allan Poe with depth, flexibility, and intellectual rigour.
How to Teach All Summer in a Day (Including Discussion Ideas & Creative Writing Activities)
All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury is a powerful KS3 short story that explores conformity, bullying, empathy, and collective cruelty through a deceptively simple science-fiction setting. This classroom-focused guide shares practical teaching strategies, discussion ideas, and creative writing approaches to help students engage deeply with the text while encouraging thoughtful analysis and reflection. Drawing on literary context, lesson flow, and meaningful creative responses, this post shows how All Summer in a Day can be taught as more than a plot-driven story — and how it opens into wider conversations about responsibility, silence, and moral choice in both literature and the classroom.