English Journal - Volume 91, Issue 5, 2002

Suggests educators should help students read religious texts such as the Bible, the Torah, and the Koran and that they should teach ways to reflect critically on these texts. Discusses ways to teach the Bible.

Describes how a small team of district teachers created a year-long course for senior honors using world literature to help confront seniors’ passage between childhood and adulthood by raising the questions that echo through time and by offering diverse and insightful suggestions.

Describes a high school world literature course. Outlines four “destinations” for topics including: searching for meaning; injustice; romantic love; and border crossing. Discusses teaching techniques and literature the author uses to teach the class.

Grapples with the difficult task of helping students differentiate between “myth” as a false belief or lie and “myth” as a cultural phenomenon embedded in sophisticated systems of meaning and action. Outlines four goals for the world mythology unit that help explore this greater sophistication with ninth graders. Concludes that the unit helps students locate themselves within this cultural dynamic.

Notes there are many resources available that will stimulate student thinking about the diverse people in the world. Considers Esmeralda Santiago’s “When I Was Puerto Rican,” and notes how it provides a great tool for helping high school students explore their understanding and appreciation of the emerging Hispanic culture.

Believes that students must be able to make a basic connection to the collective humanity. Notes that teenagers especially care about injustice and through exploring the global picture of human rights violations, they become aware and have desire to act on that awareness. Uses the humanistic approach to make 16th- to 20th-century British literature more accessible to students.

Describes the designing of a parallel curriculum for ninth graders who are required to take both World Literature and World Cultures. Concludes that there are opportunities for both students and teachers to connect to the cultures of the world and better understand the people and their literature.

Defends the author’s decision to work toward Adolescence and Young Adult/English Language Arts National Board Certification. Provides some insight into what traits an educator needs to have a successful and less stressful experience while working on a portfolio: passion, preparation, and perseverance. Gives some advice for preparing for certification.

Considers how the events of September 11th made fear drive students away from acceptance and interest in what was before a cultural learning experience. Discusses students’ reactions to Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart,” which depicts colonization from the point of the Ibo people. Concludes that curriculum may need to address issues of culture more sensitively than ever before.

Presents six educators’ ideas for good activities for teaching world literature to high school students. Describes ideas, activities, and experiences with innovative ways to teach World Literature.

Considers what educators can do in the classroom to foster openness to other cultures, religions, and ways of being. Notes that as a teacher in an international school, the author perhaps faces challenges and opportunities different from teachers in typical American secondary schools. Concludes that the strategies used to teach literature in his English classroom have universal application.

Notes that English teachers have to do their part in teaching literary-cultural literacy, but they also have a responsibility to expose students to the wide range of literature that exists outside of the de facto Young Adult Literature perpetuated by school curricula. Presents annotations of 10 new or overlooked Young Adult books worth reading.