Using Classic Texts From the Past to Foster Future-Ready Skills

As educators, our role is to cultivate the skills, mindsets, and competencies students need to navigate an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world. What if the classic literature we’ve always taught became a launchpad for the very skills our students need to thrive in the future? English language arts classrooms are a natural home for developing these capacities. Canonical literature, the timeless texts that have shaped our literary tradition, provides rich ground for exploring identity, examining society, testing perspectives, and reflecting on one’s place in the world. But we can go beyond the book.

Each reading experience can invite students to nurture the learner within—to think deeply, communicate clearly, find and solve problems creatively, and engage as global citizens prepared for lifelong learning. These are the kinds of essential skills and mindset identified in the state of New York’s “Portrait of a Graduate” to help students thrive beyond school. Classic texts can serve as springboards for meaningful learning experiences that help prepare students for future success.

Canonical Texts to Revisit

1. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of boys stranded on an island who descend into chaos, revealing the fragile balance between civilization and savagery. As a foundational work in modern literature, the novel continues to resonate for its psychological and allegorical depth. It asks enduring questions about human nature, leadership, and the moral compass that guides societies.

These themes make Lord of the Flies a natural entry point for developing students as critical thinkers, global citizens, and reflective and future-focused learners. Its exploration of power, ethics, and community invites students to think critically about their world, connect the story’s conflicts to real-world dynamics, and reflect on the values that sustain collective responsibility.

Here are some ways to teach the novel:

• Socratic seminar. Use essential questions like “What happens to civilization without shared values?” to drive close reading and discussion.
• Debate. Students adopt the roles of characters from the book, such as Ralph, Piggy, Jack, and Simon, in a debate on leadership and ethics.
• Real-world connection. Research a current event involving power or conflict and create a multimedia comparison in Canva or NotebookLM.
• Reflective journal. After key plot points, reflect on how fear, power, or peer pressure shape decisions. Record thoughts digitally in Book Creator or in a handwritten reader’s notebook.

2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye captures the voice of Holden Caulfield, a disenchanted teenager grappling with identity, belonging, and the loss of innocence in postwar America. Celebrated for its authentic narrative voice and enduring exploration of adolescence and mental health, the novel continues to resonate with students who are navigating their own transitions between childhood and adulthood.

The novel’s introspective tone and universal themes make it a rich text for cultivating students as reflective and future-focused learners, effective communicators, and critical thinkers. Holden’s raw honesty and emotional complexity prompt students to reflect on their own growth, question societal expectations, and consider how voice and perspective shape understanding, both in literature and in life.

Here are some activities to consider:

• Personal reflection journals. Students explore themes of identity, isolation, and authenticity by responding to prompts related to Holden’s experiences.
• Literary analysis. Students analyze Holden’s narrative voice, discussing how tone, language, and point of view influence reliability and reader connection.
• Socratic seminar. Students engage in dialogue around questions like “What does it mean to grow up?” or “Is Holden protecting innocence or resisting reality?”
• Creative writing. Students write their own first-person narrative using stylistic features modeled after Salinger’s voice.

3. The Tempest, by William Shakespeare. In The Tempest, Shakespeare weaves a tale of betrayal, colonization, reconciliation, and forgiveness through the story of Prospero, a sorcerer exiled to a remote island. As one of Shakespeare’s final and most symbolic plays, it endures as a cornerstone of the Western literary canon and continues to challenge readers to explore questions of power, justice, and humanity.

The play’s exploration of manipulation, empathy, and redemption offers powerful opportunities for students to develop as academically prepared, effective communicators and global citizens. Through studying The Tempest, students analyze complex language and structure while examining themes that transcend time and culture. They consider how authority and voice are constructed, how colonization has shaped narratives, and how forgiveness can be an act of both strength and liberation.

Here are some ways to bring that into your classroom:

• Performance-based assessment. Students rehearse and perform a selected scene, focusing on tone, diction, and rhetorical choices. Reflect: What is Prospero’s real source of power?
• Literary essay. Develop a thesis on the role of forgiveness and colonization in the play using textual evidence and scholarly criticism.
• Visual annotation. Use visual thinking routines (e.g., See, Think, Wonder) to unpack complex metaphors or soliloquies and share insights in a gallery walk.
• Intercultural connection. Compare Caliban’s portrayal with voices from postcolonial and global perspectives. Discuss: How do we amplify the voices of all people?

4. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises follows a group of American and British expatriates traveling through Europe in the aftermath of World War I as they grapple with love, loss, and meaning in a fractured world. A defining novel of the “Lost Generation,” it endures for its spare, modernist style and its exploration of disillusionment, identity, and resilience.

Hemingway’s portrayal of characters seeking purpose in uncertainty makes this text particularly valuable for helping students grow as reflective and future-focused learners, creative innovators, and critical thinkers. As students examine the emotional landscapes of Jake, Brett, and their circle, they engage with timeless questions about how individuals rebuild identity, cope with change, and find connection after disruption, questions that feel especially relevant to their own lives and the world they’re inheriting.

Here’s how to get kids thinking about the book:

• Social and emotional learning community reflection circles. Explore how the characters navigate emotions like grief, change, and disconnection. How do their choices reflect ways we cope and stay grounded in our own lives?
• Character autobiography. Write a first-person reflective narrative from Jake’s or Brett’s perspective, exploring emotional resilience and identity after trauma.
• Theme mapping. Track motifs of disillusionment, masculinity, and escapism across the novel. Create visual mind maps to illustrate how these evolve.
• Cross-genre writing. Compose a modern version of the novel as a podcast, diary, or screenplay. Reflect on your own creative choices and invite others to respond, encouraging innovation and adaptation.

When we align classic literature with future-ready competencies, we remind students and ourselves that these stories speak to what it means to be human. We keep coming back to them, not because they’re required, but because they still have something to teach us about courage, empathy, and possibility.

When we help students find their own connections within these pages—when Holden’s honesty mirrors their questions or Prospero’s forgiveness reflects their growth—the stories begin to live again. They stop being classics of the past and become guides for the future. That’s how we keep the canon alive: by helping students see that the power of these texts has always been, and will always be, in the people who read them.