Overview

Love hurts. Breaking up is hard to do. For all the joy that relationships and friendships can bring, showing romantic interest, establishing boundaries, and expressing identities as partners and friends isn’t easy for teens. They navigate an often ugly social universe. Even commonplace struggles can derail academic focus and harm emotional health. English teachers hope to give students communication skills, a love of literature, a passport to an intellectually vibrant life rich in opportunity. Through discussions of canonical works of literature, assignment ideas, anecdotes from teaching, and student perspectives, this book outlines how an academically rigorous English class can also heal, empower, and provide wisdom for teens weathering storms in their social lives. English class is health class. Widely taught novels brim with rich lessons about courtship, love, heartbreak, sexuality, bonds, and belonging. Learning to write stories, reflections, and arguments, speak confidently, and listen critically gives students powerful tools for self-expression, advocacy, and empathy in their relationships and friendships. The stakes are high and the rewards far-reaching. Students with healthier social lives do better academically, but they also end up becoming more responsible, caring grown-ups capable of improving an adult society that too often feels unsafe and tragically bereft of compassion.

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9781475848298

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Struggling to squeeze a social-emotional learning unit into an already packed curriculum? Andrew Simmons offers a perfect solution: rethink our literature lessons. Querying the attitudes and actions of fictional characters, students begin to examine their own. Contemplating the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in the lives of others offers insight into their own. Lit really can help!--Carol Jago, former English teacher at Santa Monica High School, past president of the National Council of Teachers of English, and author of The Book in Question: Why and How Reading Is in Crisis

Struggling to squeeze a social-emotional learning unit into an already packed curriculum? Andrew Simmons offers a perfect solution: rethink our literature lessons. Querying the attitudes and actions of fictional characters, students begin to examine their own. Contemplating the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in the lives of others offers insight into their own. Lit really can help!--Carol Jago, past president, National Council of Teachers of English; author, The Book in Question: Why and How Reading Is in Crisis Andrew Simmons' approach to teaching high school English helps students develop academic and social skills they will need to negotiate their world. He uses the themes of canon to enable his student to explore their sense of identity, social relationships, and their personal journey. This book explains and exemplifies how a teacher can connect the students' interests and social concerns to literature. While developing needed academic reading, writing, and discussion skills, students explore their own lives through the universal themes of literature. This student-centered approach allows them to examine stories from different perspectives and become confident critical thinkers. This approach can empower students towards activism and provide wisdom to weather the challenges of high school in the 21st century.--Phyllis Goldsmith, Director of Teacher Development, UC-Berkeley History Social Science Project

Struggling to squeeze a social-emotional learning unit into an already packed curriculum? Andrew Simmons offers a perfect solution: rethink our literature lessons. Querying the attitudes and actions of fictional characters, students begin to examine their own. Contemplating the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in the lives of others offers insight into their own. Lit really can help!--Carol Jago, former English teacher at Santa Monica High School, past president of the National Council of Teachers of English, and author of The Book in Question: Why and How Reading Is in Crisis Andrew Simmons' approach to teaching high school English helps students develop academic and social skills they will need to negotiate their world. He uses the themes of canon to enable his student to explore their sense of identity, social relationships, and their personal journey. This book explains and exemplifies how a teacher can connect the students' interests and social concerns to literature. While developing needed academic reading, writing, and discussion skills, students explore their own lives through the universal themes of literature. This student-centered approach allows them to examine stories from different perspectives and become confident critical thinkers. This approach can empower students towards activism and provide wisdom to weather the challenges of high school in the 21st century.--Phyllis Goldsmith, Director of Teacher Development, UC-Berkeley History Social Science Project

Author Information

Originally from Kentucky, Andrew Simmons is a public high school English teacher and writer in Northern California. He has written for The Atlantic, Edutopia, Vox, The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and other publications.

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