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

This book shows 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 teachers to integrate character education into the classroom by focusing on a variety of ways of 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 first provides a theoretical approach while the second features case studies to apply this approach to the study of four literary characters: Sydney Carton from Tale of Two Cities Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby Elizabeth Bennet from Pride 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. Book Cover......Page 1 Half-Title......Page 2 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgments......Page 7 American Foreword......Page 9 British Foreword......Page 11 Introduction......Page 13 Part I Narrative and Moral Agency......Page 22 1. The Schooling of Desire......Page 24 2. Literature and the Moral Imagination......Page 38 3. Fostering Ethical Rreflection in Our Classrooms......Page 50 Part II Case Studies in Character......Page 58 4. Elizabeth Bennet—Humbled Heroine......Page 61 5. Janie Crawford—Trial and Transcendence......Page 89 6. Sydney Carton—Rekindling a Sense of Purpose......Page 114 7. Jay Gatsby—The Ttragedy of Blind Eros......Page 132 8. Final Considerations......Page 156 Appendix A Definitions and Distinctions......Page 170 Appendix B Extending Reflection Across Novels......Page 173 Appendix C Character Tables......Page 175 Appendix D Hotlist of Teaching Resources......Page 178 Notes......Page 180 Bibliography......Page 187 Further Reading......Page 192 Index......Page 195 Offering guidance for teachers looking to include character education within their lessons, this book demonstrates how teachers can provide an encounter with literature that enables students to be more responsive to ethical themes and questions Helps student examine the choices made by literary characters in the context of novels to explain moral growth and development. Karen E. Bohlin. Includes Bibliographical References (pages [199]-206) And Index. Mode Of Access: World Wide Web.