This story takes about 20 minutes to read. While the plot is thrilling, it’s really the analysis of the details in this one that makes it AP-worthy. “The Sound of Thunder” – This story mixes time travel with tourism in an exciting tale.

The three Bradbury texts I see suggested for AP Lit the most are these: Most students read Fahrenheit 451 earlier in their high school career, but I love introducing them to his short stories as well. I couldn’t find a single Bradbury text that rose higher than others, so I’d just suggest including at least one. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’ConnorĪnother master of the short story form is Ray Bradbury. The story is pretty short, only a seven minute read. This is a story you can teach and return to over and over again throughout the year. Once students understand the taboo topic that drives the conversation, they’re eager to read it again and analyze it. However, Hemingway’s sparse narrative style and unique choices in dialogue are an excellent opportunity to teach subtext. Most have no idea what is going on, which is exactly what you would expect. I love watching my students discuss this story after a cold read. Not only is it rich with literary elements for analysis, the story has this wonderful “What the heck?” element to it. I paired it with setting in this Skill Spotlight lesson. You could literally grab a skill at random and make it work for this story.

Of all the Skill Spotlight lessons I’ve written, “Hills Like White Elephants” is by far the most recommended by AP Lit teachers for the skills in the CED.

Good short stories to write an essay on