Ninth-grade English classes provide another good opportunity for integrating School-Connect lessons. The School-Connect curriculum provides Literature Links and Writing Windows in the Lesson Extensions section of each lesson. A Literature Link is a book chapter, short story, or poem that ties in with the School-Connect lesson theme, while a Writing Window provides opportunities for reflection, often as a follow up to the Literature Link. For example, in Module 1 teachers have the option of assigning The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and having students write an autobiographical journal of reflections about the community in which they live. Literature Links use reading selections that are commonly assigned in ninth-grade English courses, and many Literature Links are based on selections from widely used ninth-grade English textbooks.

Literature Links were inspired by Amy Corvino, a pilot teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland, who saw her students “come alive” when School-Connect lessons were integrated with reading assignments. Initially, she thought that the School-Connect lessons might create more time pressure; instead she found that students connected to the readings in a new way and “flew through” the novels, plays, and short stories because of the added relevance to their lives.

• House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
• The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
• That Was Then, This is Now by S.E. Hinton
• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
• Poems and short stories from ninth-grade English textbooks