If you’re going to set them a Shakespeare, I would personally advise against Merchant of Venice. I studied it in college and, apart from the famouss Shylock and Portia speeches, I found it extremely dry. If it were me, I’d go with something like MacBeth. It’s dark, action packed, profound in its examination ambition and masculinity, and, best of all if this is a lower ability class, short. Also, it wouldn’t take too much imagination to link it to modern day stuff like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad without diminishing the seriousness of the text too much. And I’d imagine most of your students are familiar with at least one of those shows.
As for books, I’d recommend Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton, A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (considered by many to be the first proper detective novel, if memory serves). I’d also second all recommendations of Things Fall Apart. An absolutely amazing book, one of the best I’ve ever read, possibly the best.
Something like Taming of the Shrew, which you can see restaged as Kiss Me Kate or 10 Things I Hate About You - or Much Ado About Nothing, which had a modern adaption would be good as well. Plays in general - for people who don’t read much - are really easier to watch, then read. Its like poetry, when you start, its best if its read aloud to you by someone who loves it, most people don’t have a lot of success just picking up a volume of Yeats.
I’m wondering if something by Paul Gallico might be worth reading. Two of his come to mind: The Snow Goose and Love of Seven Dolls. Both are easy reads, neither is terribly long, and both are, IMHO, accessible to teens (I read each during my teenage years, though they were not part of my coursework).
The former, placed against the backdrop of WWII, explores themes of friendship, but also of loneliness, which many teens experience, even into their late adolescence. Patriotism plays a role too, but not the flag-waving, “we’re number one” kind–just a gentle “we’re all in this together and we’ll do what needs to be done to get through this” attitude.
The latter is, IMHO, where Gallico shines. A shy, mousy girl, not attractive enough for the chorus line, takes a job with a puppet theatre in a travelling carnival. The puppeteer is a mean man, who openly hates her–but he does not let it show with the puppets; and she interacts with the puppets in such a way as to entrance audiences. He eventually becomes captivated by her, but he cannot, or will not, show it. Themes to be explored include communication and finding one’s niche; and ultimately, whether we should “wear masks” in our dealings with others.
The protagonists in each are young people, about the age of the students you’re teaching, which may help in drawing your students into the stories; more than if they were reading about people in their thirties or older. Gallico may never be filed under “literature,” but he is a good storyteller, and I think that he can serve as a good introduction to more serious works.
I found Hesse’s *Narcissus and Goldmund *deeply affecting (to the point of being troubling) when I read it in college. It seemed to say something about the sort of life decisions I was trying to make.