The Monkey’s Paw Digital Close Read – Distance Learning

Engage your students in digital close reading and literary analysis! This digital close reading activity for “The Monkey’s Paw” is aligned with the common core state standards (reading literature and writing) and requires students to go back to selected passages from the text to read and closely analyze specific literary elements: figurative language, mood, and foreshadowing.

With an emphasis placed on close reading, students will gain a better understanding of W. W. Jacobs’ short story, as well as increase their understanding of conflict, suspense, and theme. Students will then be able to write a one-paragraph literary response that includes quotations and analysis.

In this assignment, students will complete these tasks:

Read the short story

Go back and closely read selected passages

Annotate the short story and/or the selected passages

Find and cite evidence of specified literary elements

Write literary analysis paragraphs

This assignment includes:

Teacher instructions for assigning this file via Google Classroom

A link to the short story

A 16-slide Google Slides presentation for student work

A suggested answer key

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