Middle school teacher here trying to revive this thread.
One of my favourite authors for the grades I teach (7 and 8) is Gary Soto. I thoroughly enjoy his short story Seventh Grade, and his poem "Oranges" to name a few.
We still read The Outsiders in eighth grade and the students still seem to love it and find connections. They love the movie at the end of the unit as well.
What are some short stories you would recommend I read with my middle school students?
Well, I'm a bit of an outlier. By 2nd grade I was reading everything I could get my hands on from the back of cereal boxes to Greco-Roman mythology in the school library to flipping through Mom's nursing textbook to read the captions under illustrations. I loved the clear middle panels with the various systems on different clear cell pages.
Have you read
Bridge to Terabetha? Memorable book, does contain a LOT of swearing, dangerous/reckless behavior and one of the characters does die toward the climax.
Zindell,
The Pigman and
The Pigman's Legacy come to mind, but he wrote a lot more than that. Judy Bloom was good back in the day, might be more of a recommended list than everyone list, not sure. Or might blow a few boys minds if they have to read a "girlie" book.
Folklore, mythology. Anybook with horses, like
The Black Stallion, Black Beauty or
Misty from... can't remember how to spell the island. Laura Ingles Wilder's books, there are several in the series plus the one about her future spouse's childhood.
Chronicals of Narnia. Might have mangled the spelling on that last one.
Wish I could remember the titles or author, but there was a series of historical fiction novels where there was an "extra" character as the protagonist in historical events like the voyage of Columbus from the POV of the cabin boy.