In my unit, my students will start to build an understanding of the basic components of a myth as well as how it relates to the Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell and the other theorists whose work pre-dated Campbell as well as more modern work on myth done by more contemporary academic Henry Louis Gates, Jr. By studying myth through these frameworks, I will be giving my students a system to examine storytelling in order to not only understand stories from their own culture and others, but to begin to examine their own stories and see how their stories connect. As a part of the culminating assignment, students will be asked to generate their own definition of the hero’s journey utilizing the new learning. With this definition, students will produce a work of their own optimizing their definition.
Lesson 1: Understanding Myth
In this introductory lesson, it will be important to activate students’ prior knowledge on myth to build new background that will be critical for the heart of the unit. For this lesson, students should break into groups and generate a list of what they know about myths. After giving the students 5-10 minutes to brainstorm, the class should come back together and share their thoughts. As a class, generate a master list of things that students have said they think are related to myths.
Students will utilize the Britannica for Kids website in order to access the article on Mythology. Britannica offers the article at three levels: Kid (suggested for kids 5th grade and below), Student (6th to 8th grade), and Scholar (9th grade and above). I would consider a student’s language proficiency when assigning the reading. Furthermore, I would make it clear in the instructions that once a student finishes one level of the article, they should move up. I think this will be critically important for students who are struggling with language in order for them to be able to not only complete the written work, but also to experience grade level reading. Additionally, student engagement will propel them further.
While students are reading, they should be identifying up to 2-3 facts per section of the article. If necessary, review the text feature (subtitle) in order for students to understand the structure and as a way to consider how they are organizing their knowledge.
In the final stage of the activity, students should go back and look at their initial list. They should then identify at least two things from the list that they believe are still true and two things they believe are no longer true. Students will then explain in a brief response why their learning has changed.
Lesson 2: Hero of Mythic Proportions
In this lesson, the critical idea is to consider how we see heroes as heroes are critical to the work of mythology and our understanding of the work they do. To start this assignment, students should be provided up to ten minutes to respond to a journal topic: Who is your hero and why do you think they are a hero? Before students begin writing, have them either brainstorm the ideas of a hero together or in small groups to activate the thought process. This should take around five minutes. Additionally, once they have developed their list of traits, have them consider who they think is a hero. Once they have done both of these components, students will then be given ten minutes to write their response.
Now that students have developed a baseline for a hero, they will be asked to view a short video, Theseus and the Minotaur. When they are watching, the question they should be considering is whether or not Theseus is a hero? Students should take notes considering characters, setting, plot, and theme as these notes will be used for other assignments. For today, the students specifically will be asked to focus on Theseus’ actions. After completing the film and finalizing their notes, students should have a discussion in their groups talk about Theseus and determine whether or not Theseus was a hero. They would also need to have at least two pieces of evidence to support their claim. Finally, students will write down their responses.
After completing this, students will repeat the process for a second video, The Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, students will repeat the note taking process as well as examining the actions of the hero. Then, they will have the same discussion with their groups providing two pieces of evidence.
At the end of the lesson, students should consider what their definition of a hero is.
Lesson 3: The Ongoing Evolution of the Hero
The teacher will review the students’ responses from the previous day on what the student definition of a hero is. Once these are shared, the teacher will connect some of the students’ thoughts to the ongoing work of the hero that has done by literary critics over the past few centuries.
In this assignment, students will be asked to break into groups and they will be given one of information about three people: (a) Lord Raglan’s biography and work, (b) Otto Rank’s biography and work, and (c) Joseph Campbell’s biography and work. Students will work in their groups on the first day to pull out details from each of the three individuals’ biographies and work statements. Give each group about ten minutes to examine each set of the material. If time allows, teacher should then mix all the groups up and ask students to compare their notes and improve upon what they already have written down.
For this assignment, the teacher can either choose to use the biographies generated for this paper or give students the attached original sources to draw out their own information. Additionally, it might be interesting to have the teacher have the students pull out information and compare to what was previously generated.
At the end of the first day, have the students consider what similarities they see between the three writers.
In the second day of this lesson, the teacher begins asking the students to consider what a trickster is by showing them a clip called Maui Stole the Heart. Students will then briefly discuss what they think the meaning of a trickster is.
Using the same groups from the previous lesson, students will continue to do the work they did for the other literary theorists with the work and biography of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Allow the students about ten minutes to gather details before mixing the groups up again so they can compare their notes.
Then, like the previous day, the teacher should give the students time to recognize the differences and similarities between the trickster work of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and the other theorists. With this work, students should generate a class definition of what it means to be a trickster.
Lesson 4: Life vs. Life’s Work
In this lesson, students will begin to examine the different theorists who have done work on the hero. In examining the lives of the theorists, students should be actively engaging in thinking about how a writer’s work impacts what they write. To activate this skill, we will ask students first to consider writing a short biography of their own life.
In this engagement activity, students and the teacher should brainstorm important parts of a student’s life thus far (birth, family, schooling, etc.). Utilizing this list, students can jot down individually ideas for their writing for 5 minutes. Afterwards, students will share in small groups what they would write about as it allows students the opportunity to build upon their own biographies by considering others. After sharing, students would then be provided the opportunity to write a brief biography.
Allow the students the opportunity to compare their final products to the example texts (any of the biographies from the previous lesson). Provide the students the opportunity to revise and edit their work as this will be critical to the end of unit task. The teacher should take the opportunity to provide any mini lessons they might need during this process.
Students should then be asked what the five most important things to them are. Once they have generated that list, ask them to see how those elements were incorporated into the biographies they wrote. Then, ask the students to consider how the biographies they had read of the theorists may have impacted the critical work being done by those men.
To accomplish this goal, students will work in groups of two to three and generate a list of what they think the top 3 things that were important to the writers and then to make connections to the theorists’ work.
After this conversation, see if the class feels their definition from the first part is representative of what they value and to consider making revisions if necessary.
Lesson 5: Dueling Myths
In this lesson, students will recognize the fluid nature of myths and how they have been adapted for the modern time of the writer. This lesson could be shortened or extended, but it will most likely, in any form, be a multiday lesson.
In the introductory activity, students will be asked to compare their written responses that they made in the Hero of Mythic Proportions lesson. The groups should be able to recognize that even though they had all discussed the response prior to writing, their writing isn’t exactly the same. It will be important to do this as a group and not as pairs as some students with limited written language capabilities may in fact have worked together. It is also possible to fish bowl this activity with several students who demonstrate a strong division in their written responses in the same group allowing all students to observe as this discussion occurs. The main takeaway from the conversation should be that writing on the same topic will vary based on the writer’s approach.
One of the first assignments students would engage in would be comparing the work of Rick Riordan to another translation. Students should note the difference in the voice of Riordan and the other writer as well as the addition of another setting. Students would then be asked to use one of the tales they have already been expose to and rewrite one of them (Theseus or Orpheus) utilizing either Riordan’s style or their own individual style.
In examining this, the students will start to recognize that the writer’s approach impacts the way a story is told. As a result, students will be assigned to read James Baldwin’s retellings of Prometheus and Pandora’s Box. Students will then be provided with copies of the myths translated by another writer. Students will choose one of the two stories and compare.
As a culminating act, students will then use one of the two stories and write their own version of the myth using modern language. Students can choose to rewrite part of the myth individually or the entire myth in a group of 2 to 3 (encouraging this as it aligns with the deeper goal of groupism). This writing assignment can be used as part of the final assignment.
Lesson 6: Using Critical Lens & the Hero’s Pattern
For this lesson, students will examine the writing of various myths applying both the pattern they have developed and the patterns they have studied to see which pattern best seems to fit the myth. To begin the lesson, have the students watch one of the videos from lesson 2 and analyze the hero using their definition. If necessary, to build capacity, have the students watch both videos and practice examining the stories through the lens of the hero.
Over the course of several days, have students read several different myths examining them as they have earlier in the lesson by initially examining the basic story elements (characters, setting, plot, theme) before having them consider at least two theorist (including themselves) and determine how well the story matches the pattern. I would suggest repeating this with no less than four stories. In the resources section, several sites are included with lists of myths to choose from.
In the final day of the lesson, the teacher will instruct the students to rewrite one of the myths that they have read so that it better fits the pattern of one of the other people they studied. This doesn’t have to be a complete narrative, but a paragraph or two in which the story is slightly different because they consider the work of another theorists.
After completing the writing, the students and the teacher should talk about how the work they did in the last two lessons was different emphasizing the difference between the change in voice (in the prior lesson) and action (in this lesson). Students will want to be able to do both in the final task.
Lesson 7: A Myth of our Own
For the final culminating lesson, students will develop their own mythic stories. For this assignment, students may work in groups to adapt or create a myth with a hero in it. This story can be original or it can be an adaptation of an existing myth. Students have already gone through a drafting stage in lessons 5 and 6 that should ideally be used as the foundational work for this assignment.
For the final product, students will have the ability to be creative in how they choose to tell their stories. Students will have the option to make a video, a comic book, a traditional written story, a script, or any other creative option.
Upon completion of the product, the students should consider if their character would meet the definition of a hero based on either Raglan, Campbell, Gates, and/or Rank. Additionally, they should assess the hero against their own definition. In this written metacognitive response, the teacher should encourage students to consider what parts of themselves they put into the character and plot of the story.
Ideally, this would end with a presentation of student work with students considering how other stories met the class criteria for the definition of the hero.
