Ray Bradbury
Lesson plans and teaching resources

| Biography | | Dandelion Wine | | "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" | | Fahrenheit 451 | | The Martian Chronicles | | Short Stories |

Biography and Background

A Conversation with Ray Bradbury
In this YouTube video (8:00) Ray Bradbury discusses his early love of reading, writing Fahrenheit 451 , and his writing process.

Letters about Literature: Dear Ray Bradbury
A middle school student writes about the impact reading Fahrenheit 451 had on her. Short writing prompt: write a comment for the bottom of the blog, responding to the student. Longer writing prompt: at what points do you agree and why? Where do you disagree and why?

Ray Bradbury
Biography, interview, criticism from the Internet Public Library.

Ray Bradbury
The author's official site. Click on "At Home with Ray" and follow the links to a series of video clip interviews with the author.

Dandelion Wine

Dandelion Wine
A variety of reading strategies, including an anticipation guide, handouts for a Socratic Seminar, and vocabulary support. Adobe Reader required for access.

Dandelion Wine Quiz Questions
15 multiple choice questions over the whole book. Click on "Next Page" at the bottom for the answers.

Dandelion Wine
Scroll down on the page for 11 essay topics.

"The Drummer Boy of Shiloh"

"The Drummer Boy of Shiloh"
Click on "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" to the left to find 6 printable pages of activities for this story. This extensive document contains materials for several other stories, as well. Be careful not to print the entire document unless you want all 116 pages. Requires Adobe Reader for access.

Fahrenheit 451

Click here for these lesson plans.

The Martian Chronicles

The Martian Chronicles Digital Booktalk
This short video (2:20) could serve as a prereading activity.

Study Guide for The Martian Chronicles
The site includes chapter questions and other resources.

Short Stories

"All Summer in a Day"
Writing, Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA), vocabulary, handouts, learning activities, lesson plans and other teaching resources.

"The Fog Horn"
Students note details as they read. Includes text-dependent questions and suggested evidence-based answers, academic vocabulary, a culminating writing task with prompt and model response, and additional learning activities. Word processor required for access.

"The Last Night of the World"
Text of the story.

"The Pedestrian"
Vocabulary, literary terms, and comprehension questions. This 2-page document requires Adobe Reader or compatible application for access.

"The Pedestrian"
In this activity students are asked to read several definitions of "science fiction" and choose the one that best relates to this story. They write to defend their choice.

Travel to Venus!
Students will identify the important people, places, and things in their lives. Then, students will have the opportunity to determine and explain why these "nouns" are an important part of their lives as they compose an original poem. This lesson is designed to support reading of "The Long Rain."

"A Sound of Thunder"
Vocabulary, comprehension questions, and other teaching resources.

"There Will Come Soft Rains"
Writing prompt, vocabulary, text of the story, close-reading notes, questions: lesson plans and teaching resources.

"The Veldt"
Writing prompts, questions, vocabulary, critical analysis, lesson plans, and other teaching resources.