Teaching Character Education through Literature Awakening the Moral Imagination in Secondary Classrooms

Fictional characters' struggles are of interest to students as they strive to set a course for their own life journey and make their own choices, and in doing so give consideration to the kind of person they would like to become. This book will show how you can help your pupils to more fruitfully examine literary characters' choices and commitments within the contexts of the novels they read, and in a way that respects the integrity of the story, embraces the complexity of a character's moral growth, and responds to the developmental readiness of the adolescent reader.

This bookshows how secondary and post-secondary teachers can help students become more responsive to the ethical themes and questions that emerge from the narratives they study. It helps teachersto integrate character education into the classroom by focusingon a variety of waysof drawing instructive insights from fictional life narratives. The case studies and questions throughout are designed to awaken students' moral imagination and prompt ethical reflection on four protagonists' motivations, aspirations, and choices. The book is divided into two parts. The firstprovides a theoretical approachwhile the second features case studies to apply this approachto the study of four literary characters: Sydney Carton from Tale of Two Cities Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby Elizabeth Bennet fromPride and Prejudice Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God The questions, ideas and approaches used in these case studies can also be applied to protagonists from other narrative works in the curriculum.

Part 1. Narrative and Moral Agency 1. The Schooling of Desire 2. Literature and the Moral Imagination 3. Fostering Ethical Reflection in Our Classroom Part 2. Case Studies in Character 4. Elizabeth Bennet: Humbled Herione 5. Janie Crawford Woods: Trial and Transcendence 6. Sydney Carton: Rekindling a Sense of Purpose 7. Jay Gatsby: The Tragedy of Blind Eros 8. Final Consideration Appendices a. Definitions and Distinctions b. Extending Reflection Across Novels c. Reproducible Character Study Charts d. Hotlist of Resources for Teachers