Lamb to the Slaughter: ECR Prompts

Writing lesson · Grades 8–10 · PDF + slides · $5 or included with All-Access

These are extended constructed response prompts for Roald Dahl's "Lamb to the Slaughter," for grades 8-10. Each prompt is set up like a STAAR ECR item, with the same checklist and character limit.

The prompts ask students to explain two examples of irony and how they shape the theme, show how Dahl uses characterization and irony to build the twist ending, argue whether Mary's actions reflect the pressures on women at the time, and look at how the setting drives events. The fifth is a correspondence prompt: students write as a detective to a superior officer about the case.

Show the four prompts on the slides, then hand out the doc pages. Each page has the 'Remember to' and 'Manage your time' checklists and the 2,300-character limit.

What's included

• ECR prompt slides (.pptx) with 4 prompts and ECR rubric slides
• Response pages for 5 prompts in STAAR format (editable Google Doc)
• Writing and time-management checklist on every page
• Correspondence prompt: a detective's letter about the case

How teachers use it

• Writing task after reading the story
• STAAR ECR practice with the real character limit
• Assign different prompts to different groups or class periods