English 9 Enriched: The Importance of Storytelling

This falls into the preparation for selecting a topic for their research paper seeded in storytelling.  Students have already read two articles in preparation: “Learning Through Narratives: The Impact of Digital Storytelling on Intergenerational Relationships” by Kim Flottemesch and “The Inside Story” by Peter Guber

We also watched the following video by Jay O’Callahan called “The Power of Storytelling”:

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/14806071″>Jay O’Callahan: The Power of Storytelling</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/99u”>99U</a&gt; on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

While watching the video, we did a Visible Thinking Exercise in order to brainstorm more ideas for possible research topics.

Students shared what they heard, thought, and wondered about the Power of Storytelling based on the video.

As the students work through this project, we will also be watching and discussing the Mythic Journeys documentary. 

We will, in particular, be examining the corpse’s riddles related to the stories in “The Bone Orchard” segments.   The class will be broken into five groups, one for each of the following tales:

– “The Three Brahmin”

– “The Stupid Brothers”

– “The Noble Emperor”

– “Jacob and Isaac”

– “The African Kin”

Student groups will have to argue whether or not they agree with the King’s answer to the riddle in their assigned tale, and they must support their position with logic and textual evidence.   I will be having the other groups play “devil’s advocate” and counter the presenting group’s position about the King’s response for each story.   This will give them practice for creating arguments for their research papers.

English 9 Enriched: “The Night Journey of the Soul”

The Night Journey of the Soul

Every culture across time and geographic location has, through its myths and legends, attempted to answer the question of where one goes after death.  In the universal (across time and location) myth of the descent into the underworld, the hero finds himself an explorer in the province of death itself.  Readers follow the hero as he faces in depth what man himself so fears.  The hero is humanity’s hope in overcoming death and understanding its meaning.

Your task:  Your group will be assigned one of the tales of the Descent to the Underworld from the Leeming text.  After reading the tale and discussing its significance with your group members, you are to write an essay in which you discuss what mankind can learn about the afterlife from both this story and the essay “The Night Journey of the Soul” by David Adams Leeming.

–          Independently, read both “The Night Journey of the Soul” and the assigned Land of the Dead tale (from cultural mythology).

–          Individually, highlight five significant quotes from each piece for a total of ten quotes (what you SEE in the text) that relate to the above statement.

–          After you have a total of ten significant quotes highlighted, then meet with your group members to share. 

–          Brainstorm three things your group THINKS about how the pieces relate to the topic of the Underworld, and three things your group WONDERS about the topic. 

–          Collaboratively write a FOUR-CHUNK paragraph about what comfort and/or warnings are divulged in each of these readings about the night journey of the soul?  What can be learned from the hero of your group’s tale about his/her trip to the underworld?  What does this tale say about the beliefs of its particular culture?

–          Pick a new scribe who will be the one to share your findings on the Hero’s Journey website by Friday.

Your audience:  Fellow members of the human race who seek comfort in the “knowledge” of what may (or may not) come after death.

 Selections from Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero

by David Adams Leeming

1.  Inanna (Ishtar)                       Babylonian/Sumerian

2.  Wanjiru                                     African

3.  Kuan Yin                                   Chinese

4.  Kutoyis                                      Blackfoot Indian (Native American)

5.  Hermodr and Balder            Icelandic

6.  Izanagi and Izanami             Japanese

Hint:  Do not merely relate that the culture believed in an afterlife… that goes without saying.  Also, do not say that the culture believed in honoring the dead or respected the gods… again, it’s obvious or these stories would not exist.  What specifics from the tales can you share about any rituals described?

English 9 Enriched: Cultural Heroic Tales

Various Heroic Legends

Each group will have a separate story to analyze and separate into The Hero’s Journey (as many of the steps as possible).  As you did for Hercules, discuss three ideals, behaviors, and/or attitudes of the culture that are reflected in your tale.   Make a poster depicting an episode from the hero’s tale that specifically reflects an important value of that culture and present to class.  While each group is presenting, the remaining members of the class will take notes on each culture’s values/beliefs that seem present in the tales.

We are using the book Mythology: The Voyage of the Hero by David Adams Leeming for this exercise:

Group 1:  Prometheus                          (Greek)

Group 2:  Kutoyis                              (Blackfoot Indian)

Group 3:  Gawain and Percival            (European)

Group 4:  Gilgamesh                          (Sumerian-Babylonian)

Group 5:  Pele, Hiiaka, Lohiau           (Polynesian)

Group 6:  Faust                                     (German)

These are the posters from the groups in Delta Class:

These are the posters from Sigma Class:

Once they finished their posters, the students had to divide the story itself into sections that each member would tell as if a storyteller.  I was looking for character voices, familiarity with the elements of the story, effective telling so that the audience could follow, and analysis of the heroic apotheosis and connection to the culture.

In many cases, we still have to work on the storytelling aspect itself.  Many of them are too shy to let go with it.

After all presentations I said to them:

Now that you have heard all of the tales and the findings of your friends, what cultural values do these seem to have in common?  Brainstorm in your groups and come up with three.  Given that these stories have been told in different places and during different time periods, what do these similarities seem to suggest about people in general?  Are these particular values reflected in the American culture?  Explain your answers.

English 9 Enriched: The Hero’s Journey of Hercules

This was group work once again.  Like what they did with Gawain, they had to identify portions of the Hero’s Journey; however, we did different work with the Initiation Stage.

We had six groups: Departure Stage; Labors 1-3; Labors 4-6; Labors 7-9; Labors 10-12; Return Stage

Each group would work collaboratively, create an illustration, and then share their information with the rest of the class while those seated take notes.

For the Initiation, students had to examine how Hercules completed each labor and identify two heroic traits that he exhibited.  They also had to explain how Hercules embodied the values and beliefs of the Ancient Greek culture thorough his completion of each task (or else why would the stories still be told?).  As an example of what I meant, I told them to think about what Superman embodies for this culture (Truth, Justice, and the American Way) and explain how his deeds support the values of the American culture.

This was their task:

Departure:  identify all the steps of the Hero’s Journey for this stage, and illustrate them as a pattern (use arrows to show the order); place a caption under each step as textual support (don’t forget to cite)

Initiation:

For each labor, you must:

– create an illustration (fold the sheet into thirds; it works best that way)

– identify two character traits exhibited by Hercules in the completion of that Labor

– explain what the retelling of this Labor shows about the values/beliefs of the Ancient Greek culture

Return: same as Departure except for the Return Stage

__________________________________________

The completed illustrations

The Departure

Labors 1-3

Labors 4-6

Labors 7-9

Labors 10-12

Based on the posters, we still need to work on explaining how the hero’s deeds embody the values of the culture, but in our discussion, we were able to get that teased out.  As we progress through the unit, I am hoping that their posters will contain stronger text as well as interesting drawings.