Summary
Students are introduced to the story structure of the mythic journey as they begin to study art of early global cultures. Students will see the overarching similarities between cultures as they study hero myths of several early peoples. Using project pages in Wikispace, they will conduct research on a chosen mythic hero from early Japan, India, Greece, Judaism, and Buddhism. They will use online sources using the “CRAAP” test of site authenticity. Students will record found information, plugging their hero’s specific story elements into Joseph Campbell’s Mythic Hero design scheme. Students from 3 different class periods will add to the same project page. Students in later class periods will check the authenticity and accuracy of earlier period’s research, as group members from all three class periods will receive the same grade. After comparing the mythical structures from all of the hero myths, students will view George Lucas’s Star Wars and look for the same mythic structure that exists in modern mythical heroes. They will use this design structure to view another hero movie of their choice. At the end of the lesson, students will come up with an overarching reason for finding the same structure through early and modern myths by writing a comparative essay.
TIPC Ratings
This lesson is Ideal/Target. Students are using an authentic task using a synthesis of resources. Students research and analyze sources for accuracy and research value. They find information on the internet and must judge its validity, using other group members as resources. They use the “CRAAP” test and other previously taught ways of evaluating the resources. They interact and display with this information through powerful posts and discussions on the class wiki.
This lesson is Ideal/Target. The lesson asks students to collaborate with group members as well as with students from two other classes. The use of a collaborative project page on Wikispaces provides a space for synthesis of ideas and a place for other students to view and learn information.
This lesson is Ideal/Target. The teacher facilitates learning by asking students to question a set of knowledge, to apply a model to knowledge that they already possess. Students use learned knowledge to analyze modern ideas of mythology and write an essay, applying their learned knowledge to a scholarly writing assignment, part of the AP curriculum.
This lesson is Approaching. The lesson asks students to synthesize their learned and past knowledge to analyze a familiar and loved movie with an educated mind, apply what they have learned to new subject matter and write a small comparison paper. Students use learned information to make overarching decisions about the artwork they are learning about in class.
Student Artifact
