Hillsdale College K-12 Classical Education Podcast

How to Teach a Short Story

Nov 10, 2025
Benedict Whalen, an Associate Professor of English at Hillsdale College, shares his insights on the teaching of short stories. He highlights their importance in a classical education, emphasizing their simplicity and depth. Whalen discusses how short stories encourage close reading and warns against treating them merely as examples of literary devices. He advocates for reading aloud in class to enhance understanding and compares the study of short stories to analyzing novel chapters. Recommended authors include Chekhov, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway.
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INSIGHT

Power Of The Compressed Short Story

  • Short stories are compressed, punchy works where every line does more work than in longer forms.
  • Their tightness trains students in close, careful reading and reveals powerful simplicity.
ADVICE

Read Stories Aloud As A Shared Event

  • Read short stories aloud together so students can experience the work as a shared encounter.
  • Use class time for collective encounter, then discuss impressions to cultivate wonder and conversation.
ADVICE

Let The Story Be The Centerpiece

  • Privilege the story itself rather than treating it as a vehicle to teach technical terms or movements in literary history.
  • Use devices and terminology only to deepen appreciation and understanding of the work, not as the primary goal.
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