The topic “animal roles in mythology” is a broad one due to the immense wealth of stories handed down in the many cultures that form the human kind. Some of the stories are passed to us via the oral tradition, others through written and pictorial accounts. Yet they are representative of some of the basic concepts involved in mythology. They are reflections of long thought-out questions that have moved the human race to where it now stands. They are born from the need to explain the universe around us, to bring order and meaning to our existence. In no way is this unit to grapple with all these issues; it is a small beginning in the process that our ancestors walked before us.
I intend to start by checking for background knowledge regarding the children’s own interpretation of the world around them. These lessons play a very important role in the implementation of the unit since it will act as the foundation from which the children will build knowledge regarding mythology. Most of the tasks will be performed in pairs and as a whole class, providing the students with opportunities to share the work with the rest of the class. The teacher logs each of the comments after each whole class sharing session, followed with the next question for the children to work in pairs. A similar lesson regarding the creation of the universe will follow.
I want to emphasize that these discussion of what the children think about the origin of the world and the place of animals in it will be completed before they hear any mythological story. My hope is that these discussions will put the children in a position to understand the stories better and they will also give a context into which to place their reaction to the story.
The children will use index cards to write and name some of the animal characters that are the focus of the stories. It will provide the student with a visual representation of the animal and a name to which to refer in listening to or reading the stories. It will provide the student with the “comprehensible input” with which to make sense in participating in the stories. The back of the index card will later be used to write the name of the mythical stories in which the animal appears. By the time the children finish their index card collection they could have ten or twenty cards with pictures, drawings, and their names.
These cards will also be used in performing each of the tasks that follow. The lesson plans have been broken down into tasks so as to allow focus on the performance and content standards on which this unit focuses. They have been written with the student in mind. The descriptions give the student a clear understanding of what they are expected to do, how they have to do it, and how they are going to be assessed. The students will receive copies of the assessment by which they will evaluate their work. Some of the tasks ( see Task 3), once introduced, can be used throughout the school year and with other type of stories.
I suggest you make tapes of some of the myths so as to provide the student with many opportunities to listen to the same story. These could be used at the listening center after they have been introduced to the class. In each retelling, as an extension of the story, the teacher can reinforce or focus on a different content standard (i.e. the teacher can do a mini lesson on note-taking, writing, character study, etc.). The following is a list of suggested strategies to meet the goals and objectives of this unit.
Language arts: Introduce the story as a read-aloud, focusing on listening skills, doing a share-reading lesson, whole class, in guided-reading with smaller groups of students (make a copy of any of the stories in book format). As a listening center (Task 3). As a writing prompt changing one of the main characters.
Art : Making graphic representations (Task 1).Making geographic models (mountains, lakes, volcano).
Making pictures of Ashanti proverbs and sayings like the ones cast in brass (Courlander, p.129).
Science: Classification. Animal characteristics.
Social Studies. Maps, models, find traits found in families among the characters in own lives.
Games: Make a set of cards with fantastic and animal creatures to pair by name or myth (Blythe).
It is important to note that the performance tasks are to be given to the students prior to the beginning of the task. It is the road map that the student, will use to be able to perform what we are asking them to do. As part of the process the students will also be able to preview the assessment tool by which they will be evaluated. Please look at appendix A for a list of the rubrics.
Performance Task 1
Title: Creatures in the world
Background: There are many creatures and animals with whom we share this planet. You already know many domestic and wild animals. Many stories have been told about these animals in the different cultures that form the human race. We are going to read and listen to many of these stories; but let us first find out how much we already know about animals.
Task: You will work with another partner in making, taping, and writing a list of all the animals you can think of. Afterwards you will classify them according to whichever rule you choose. You need to tape and write your answers to some questions.
Purpose: To describe all the creatures we know into categories and give reasons how and why they came about.
Procedure:
List all the animals you can think of.
Make groups of animals.
Read each question and write down the answers.
Why are there so many different types of animals and living creatures?
Where do animals come from?
Why do we need animals?
Who made the animals and the different creatures?
Were there animals before there were humans?
Why are they different?
How do animals communicate?
Can animals talk to people? What about the other way around?
Can you think of an animal that does not exist?
Audience: Classmates and teacher
Assessment:
Please see Performance Task pre-writing - APPENDIX A.
Extension: Have children draw animals in the back of an index card. Write the name and a major characteristic of that animal.
Give the students categories by which to make the classification. i.e. Animals that live in the water, that fly (air), underground, etc.
A unit of science studying animal characteristics and classification could also originate through this activity, paralleling this one on mythology. Thus, at the same time we learn about different animals, we discover stories associated with them and vice versa.
Performance Task 2
Title: The making of the universe
Background: There are many creatures and animals with whom we share this planet. It is in this earth that we are able to breathe and live. Have you ever thought about how it came about?
Task: You will work with another partner in reporting to the class answers to the following questions. You need to record your answers to present to the class.
Where does the earth come from?
Why is it here?
Who created it? Why?
Audience: Classmates and teacher
Purpose: To describe reasons on how the earth came about.
Procedure: Think about where you live.
List everything you can think about what you have to have in order to be alive. Write them down.
Read and answer with a drawing and a sentence to each of the questions in a separate index card.
Assessment: Please see Performance Task pre-writing - APPENDIX A .p.38 and a modified version for fiction p.45
Extensions: A unit on the planets. Making models of the earth, lakes, rivers, air, fire.
Performance Task 3
Title: Animal and creation myths 1.
Background: There are many stories about the creatures and animals with whom we share this planet. Through reading and listening to these stories we have a better understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
Many of these stories were passed along from person to person until they were written down.
Task: You will listen to and read stories about animals and the creation of the world. Afterwards you will create an outline or other organizer and will retell the story to your partner. You need to write down the important parts in the order they happen so you can retell the story to someone else.
Audience: Partner
Purpose: To retell the story heard or read to a partner with as much detail as possible with the use of 5 drawings or sentences that you are going to draw or write.
Procedure: Make an organizer by writing the name of the story in the middle of a blank page and, as you listen to the story, writing the most important parts (who, what, where, why, how) in the rest of the space.
Now you can listen to the story.
Draw 5 pictures or write 5 sentences (beginning, middle, middle, middle, end), using your organizer.
On the back of each picture write the names of the main characters.
Write where the story takes place.
Retell the stories to another classmate with the help of the pictures you drew, the map, and the index card.
Assessment: Please see Performance Task pre-writing - APPENDIX A.
Extensions: Students tape another version of the same story.
Performance Task 4
Title: Animal and creation myths 2.
Background: There are many different places on this earth. In each of those locations many myths have been written about the creatures and animals with whom we share this planet. Through reading and listening to these stories we learn about the world.
Task: You will listen to and read stories about animals and the creation of the world. You will locate the country of origin of the myth in a world map and will retell the story to your partner.
Audience: Partner
Purpose: To locate the country where the story originates and to retell the story heard or read to a partner with as much detail as possible through the use of 5 drawings or sentences that you are going to draw or write.
Procedure:
Write the name of the book or the story in an index card.
Write who wrote it and the country where it was written.
Write the name of the continent.
Now you can begin to listen to the story
Draw 5 pictures or write 5 sentences (beginning, middle, middle, middle, end)
On the back of the index card write the names of the main characters.
Write where the story takes place.
Locate in the map the continent where the story originates.
With a piece of yarn draw a line from the country to the index card.
Retell the stories to another classmate with the help of the pictures you drew, the map, and the index card.
Assessment: Please see Performance Task Assessment List - Listening. APPENDIX A.
Performance Task 5
Title: Fantastic Creatures - The Phoenix
Background: There are many fantastic creatures and animals that don’t exist anywhere else but in books and people’s imagination. One of those fantastic creatures is a bird by the name of Phoenix.
Task: You will work making a drawing of the fantastic creature and coloring it after listening to a description of its appearance (what it looked like).
Purpose: To describe the Phoenix with a picture and retell it to another student.
Procedure:
Write the word “ Phoenix” in the front of an index card.
Listen to or read to what a Phoenix looks like.
Make a drawing on the back of the index card.
Suggested resources and technologies:
Look at electronic resources: Elfwood Fantasy Art Gallery
Blythe (1977). Dragons and other fabulous creatures.
Assessment: Please see Performance Task Assessment List - Listening. APPENDIX A.
Extensions: Note taking. Tell a version of the story of the Phoenix. Do Task 2 with the telling by writing the name of the story and where it originates in the index card. Also any other information that is important about that version.
Performance Task 6
Title: The Chimaera
Curriculum social studies content standards:
Locate the seven continents and four oceans
Identify mountains, lakes and rivers
Library media and technology: Use a computer to access information
Purpose: Teach to a student from another classroom.
Question connecting content to purpose: How did the mountains and the rivers form? Are there rivers and mountains in every continent?
Work Habits: Working cooperatively
Thinking skills: List and locate.
Format of products and/or performance(s): Note cards
Audience: Another student in the school.
Role of learner in task: Biographer.
Instructional arrangement. Small group
Technology or resources suggested: What’s a biographer? What do they do?.
Background: There are many fantastic creatures and animals that don’t exist but in books and people’s imaginations. One of those fantastic creatures is an animal by the name of Chimaera.
Task: You will listen to a very long story about animals and the creation of the world. After you will create an outline or other organizer and will retell the story to your partner. You need to write down the important parts in the order they happen so you can retell the story to someone else.
Audience: Partner
Purpose: To retell the story heard or read to a partner with as much detail as possible.
Procedure: Listen to the story
Extensions: This lesson would be done as in the first lesson of the Phoenix, by making a graphic representation of the mythical creatures of Pegasus and the Chimaera.