So, you’re teaching horror stories, but you don’t want to do the same, boring unit that everyone else does? You want your students to be engaged, creative, and to learn the foundational purpose and practices of the horror genre. In this blog post, I’ll cover 5 tips for teaching horror stories so that your unit will stand out!
Follow these tips and your students will be talking about your particular class all month!
Setting the Scene
We don’t always get a say about when we can teach something. But if you’re going to be reading scary stories with your students, I think we all know the best time of the year: October! The first semester
is the natural choice for any kind of horror unit.
Of course, you can do these activities at any point. It could be a fun end-of-the-year unit or even a unit for an enrichment block.
But if it’s your first year teaching horror at all, let me stress this point: set the mood!
Use your projector to project a spooky scene or haunted house. You could even play some creepy music in the background while you and your class read the stories. Bring in some fake candles to “light” around the room.
Remember, some of your students will be horror buffs. For them, your classroom picks might not be scary enough.
Other students, however, will be more sensitive to scary situations.
Some kids won’t have read a single piece of horror since their last Goosebumps book. Your students are going to be all over the place when it comes to their comfort with horror.
The goal is to teach students about the elements of horror, how writers create suspense, and to have fun. Need a unit that does all of that? Grab my two-week Horror Unit right here!
Teaching Horror Stories Tip #1: Define Horror
Don’t assume students will know what you mean by horror. Yes, they intuitively know what the horror genre is. They know when they’re watching a scary movie or reading a creepy tale.
But defining “horror” is challenging.
Students may not be able to explain the genre’s purpose or its essential elements. They probably won’t think about the nuances of the genre or be able to name subgenres like Gothic literature.
And they definitely won’t think to talk about the importance of setting the mood or using foreshadowing to prime the reader.
Because students aren’t strangers to horror, you don’t have to spend a whole class period making them write down lengthy definitions, list tons of examples, or do a jigsaw activity to create a definition.
But you should directly introduce horror as a genre in literature, film, and art, and go over common techniques found in the writing. The real issue will be getting students to stop talking about their favorite horror flicks and start thinking about horror as an art form worth analyzing.
If you’d like to save yourself some time, I have a short and sweet horror genre introductory presentation here. This quick (and editable) presentation covers the elements of horror and includes a guided notes sheet to keep students on track.
Teaching Horror Stories Tip #2: Teach and Review Literary Terms
When you’re defining horror for your students, don’t forget to cover the most useful literary terms. I consider the following must-know terms for talking about horror: “mood”, “setting”, “foreshadowing”, and “suspense.”
Don’t take for granted that your students know these crucial literary terms. Despite learning “foreshadowing” every year since 6th grade, my seniors still struggle to define it every year!
I like to review these words right away in the beginning so that we can watch for these writing techniques as we analyze our horror texts.
Analyzing an author’s use of foreshadowing and suspense also helps us dive deeper into a text. For example, if you’ve defined “suspense,” you can have students track how an author created it in a short story. This can then serve as a mentor text if you later have students do their own horror writing!
Teaching Horror Stories Tip #3: Use Film
You’ll find immediately that your students can talk about horror films forever. Use that to your advantage and incorporate some film into your unit.
Film clips can be especially beneficial for providing a visual example of a writing technique.
For example, I think it’s difficult for students to track suspense in text. Rather than start with this, I like to review suspense and look at some examples in film first.
I show my students a collection of horror shorts, have them rate the shorts for their level and suspense, and then we discuss where in the videos suspense was heightened and where it fell flat.
The kids have so much fun playing film critic, they don’t even realize they’re learning! And later when I start teaching horror stories, that eye for suspense will more easily transfer to text.
If you’d like to try this suspense activity with your students, you can get everything you need right here.
A note of warning though–even the tamest, suspenseful clip might be too much for some students. I’ve had a past student who even asked to step out of the room because they couldn’t stomach the suspense! So just give your students a little trigger warning before hitting play.
If you want more ideas for using film in the classroom in general, my friend Yaddy wrote this great blog post all about it.
Teaching Horror Stories Tip #4: Reach Beyond the Classics
I mostly teach high school seniors. By the time they get to me, Edgar Allan Poe has been beaten to death.
In fact, when I say that we’re going to be reading some horror stories, often students will reply, “So we’re going to be reading that Poe guy?” as if he has a monopoly on the genre.
I adore Poe like every other self-respecting English teacher, but I want to expose my students to a variety of authors. I also love to mix in modern texts into my units whenever I can.
So I encourage you to “go beyond Poe” when you’re teaching horror stories this year.
Stephen King is a good call for a modern horror author because students are familiar with, and intrigued by, him. Many of his stories are not appropriate for teaching, however. This one, however, is short, only has a few swear words, and is a fantastic piece of horror.
If you’d like to skip the prep, grab my two activities for “Popsy” by Stephen King right here.
Another one of my favorite canon-alternatives is “Out of Skin” by E. M. Carroll.
I love this one because it’s a digital graphic novel–something that students do not expect! Because so much of the information is presented in the images, students really have to stretch their inference skills.
(If you want any tips for teaching with graphic novels, check out this post.)
Mixing in a variety of modern authors and different media can not only keep students engaged, but it can help show them that the horror genre is alive and well and all around them.
Teaching Horror Stories Tip #5: Let Students Create
My last tip for teaching horror stories is to let students create their own.
After studying foreshadowing techniques and examining creepy settings, it’s only right that students should try their hand at creating their own! Plus, we have to climb our way up that Bloom’s Taxonomy scale, right?
I always get excited to sit down and craft a creepy tale, but my students don’t. Often when I tell them that we’re going to write a scary story their eyes go wide–it’s the most scared they get throughout the whole horror unit!
Anticipate that many of your students will become immediately overwhelmed when told to write creatively. Make sure to provide a small, focused task and lots of scaffolds.
There are two kinds of horror story writing I like that are gentle for reluctant writers.
The Horror Personal Narrative
To quell some of your students’ writing fear, you can give them a specific topic that they’re intimately familiar with: their own fears.
Don’t tell students to just “write a horror story.” Most will freeze up. There’s too many options, and they’ll be overwhelmed.
Instead, you can narrow it down to a horror personal narrative. A horror story can literally be about anything, but a personal narrative is at least confined to the student’s real life.
A horror personal narrative narrows down topics even more–students will just write about a scary moment or memory from their own life.
Like with any other writing activity, you’ll want to have a rubric ready and help your students outline. If you like the idea of a personal horror narrative, you can easily grab everything you need here.
I also recommend creating stories with your students! Maybe you could tell them about how terrified you were on the first day of teaching in your current school. Or how, as a new teacher, you were scared to face your classes every single morning.
Maybe you even mention the time you jumped in the parking lot when leaving work too late, or the time you had to face an inbox with dozens of emails from angry parents.
The Two-sentence Horror Story
Alternatively, you can scaffold even further by assigning a two-sentence horror story.
Writing a two-sentence horror story has become a very popular activity. You can search for them all over the web and find some really awesome (and creepy!) examples. Netflix even has a whole show now based around some of the best.
And any student can find a way to write two sentences.
If you’d like to offer your students this activity, I have everything you need for free right here.
Conclusion
Whenever you’re teaching horror stories, make sure to cover the basics: introduce your unit, cover the literary terms, and review important writing techniques.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you and your students have fun! Incorporate some out-of-the-box (or out-of-the-canon) literature. Use some film clips and illustrations in your unit.
And always let students have the opportunity to craft their own scary story. The activity doesn’t have to be long or even a final project, but students’ minds need time and space to create, experiment in writing, and try new things.
Do this, and I promise this is a unit students will still be talking about at the end of the year!
If you’re looking for ways to incorporate the Halloween spirit into your classroom, check out this blog post full of October teaching ideas.
Otherwise, if you have no idea where to start in planning a short horror story unit–or just don’t have the time!–check out my two-week horror genre study unit right here.