13 Halloween Horror Short Stories and Quizzes for High School ELA (Vol. 1)

Engage high school readers during the fall season with this Halloween short story quiz bundle, a collection of 13 editable reading comprehension quizzes covering works of fiction that feature everything from werewolves to witch trials and banshees to body snatchers. Featured authors include Guy de Maupassant, Mark Twain, H. G. Wells, Ambrose Bierce, and several other talented (though obscure) writers. Each print-and-go quiz is crafted to assess students' understanding of setting, characters, and conflicts. Answer keys and public domain copies of the short stories are included.

The featured stories bring eerie fun and a few chills to the classroom in September and October:

• "A Ghost" by Guy de Maupassant – A man's visit to an old friend becomes unsettling when he has a spectral encounter.

• "A Ghost Story" by Mark Twain – A humorous encounter with a ghost in a New York boarding house reveals a forgotten mystery.

• "The Banshee's Halloween" by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh – An Irish storyteller recounts a chilling tale of a banshee's visit on Halloween night.

• "The Body Snatcher" by Robert Louis Stevenson – Two medical students are drawn into grave-robbing and must face the horrifying consequences.

• "The Damned Thing" by Ambrose Bierce – A mysterious, invisible creature stalks the woods, defying all human understanding.

• "The Dogs of Salem" by David H. Keller – During the witch trials, supernatural revenge takes the form of vengeful dogs in colonial Massachusetts.

• "The Hungry Ghost" by Emil Petaja – A man confronts the ugliness of his actions and their consequences, highlighting the clash between decency and immorality.

• "The Inexperienced Ghost" by H. G. Wells – A man's seemingly benign interactions with a modest ghost lead to an undesirable fate.

• "The Red Room" by H.G. Wells – A skeptic spends a night in a supposedly haunted room only to experience unexplainable terror.

• "The Salem Horror" by Henry Kuttner – A man discovers a secret that awakens the spirit of a woman executed during the era of the Salem witch trials.

• "The Vow on Halloween" by Lyllian Huntley Harris – A young woman's Halloween vow leads to an eerie and devastating twist of fate.

• "The Werewolf Snarls" by Manly Wade Wellman – A town endures mysterious killings that indicate an ancient werewolf legend has come true.

• "The Witch's Cat" by Manly Wade Wellman – A cunning cat may be more than what it seems when a strange woman arrives in town.

Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats. (Alternatively, a self-grading Google option is available.)

Ideal for:

• Engaging students during the Halloween season

• Reinforcing student accountability during independent reading

• Introducing Gothic literature or Dark Romanticism in a unit on genre

• Aligning ELA lessons with aspects of American history (Salem witch trials)

• Pairing with celebrated works of horror fiction by the likes of Nathaniel Hawthorne, H.P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allan Poe

Resources are available for teaching short stories of various genres:

• Christmas Fiction - Google and printable

• Coming-of-Age Fiction - Google and printable

• Fantasy - Google and printable

• Horror - Google and printable

• Psychological Fiction - Google and printable

• Science Fiction - Google and printable

• Thematic Short Story Unit on Fear and Curiosity - Google and printable