I thought your lessons was really cool. I was always hugely interested in mythology, and would have jumped at any mythology-based lesson. I hadn't thought about using mythology in Language Arts yet, and now I'm totally excited to try it one day.
I think that perhaps my favourite part of your lesson was that the different envelopes of myth-sentences had been varied or adapted, providing differentiated instruction. Right on!
I agree - I really liked the mythology lesson and found that, similar to our found poetry lesson, it could be quite flexible and adaptable for different classroom situations and levels. I also like the idea of allowing students to mix both their creative writing with the excerpts in the envelope - which is an aspect that wasn't included in our lesson and is a nice variation. Good job on the presentation!
This was another fun activity that we did in class. I also loved the idea of doing cross-curricular activities. I am excited to pair this with a socials class too. I liked the idea of using a different langauge myth - that was a great way to safely include and hook and engage your ESL students. The lower level students would also be able to use a simpler book if needed in the resource room. You mentioned that you would group the students according to ability and I think that putting all the LD or lower learners in one group would be a potential disaster. What do you think about this and is this what you meant? Really engaging activity -thanks!
When you first mentioned discussing ‘creation myths’, I was a little apprehensive about how some strongly religious students might react. Once I understood the kind of myths we were looking at, I thought it worked out well. By the end of our group’s time putting together the myth, I was dying to find out how the real myth worked out. I liked the idea of students relating myths from their own cultures. Great lesson to bring together different subjects!
This was an excellent cross-curricular and cross-cultural exercise. You could easily adapt this lesson for socials and come at from an anthropological, religious, historical, or literature perspective. This lesson could be very multidisciplinary. You could take this in many ways. I liked the inclusioon of creation myths from many cultures. An excellent tool for examining what all myths have in common and what their purposes are before moving to Greco-roman myths. Moreover, the lesson is a great way to make your class/curriculum more multicultural. You could encourage people from ethnic backgrounds to discuss what they know about myths from their own cultures. The activity was fun and made good use of problem-solving, educated guessing,and prediction skills. Well done.
I thought your lesson was original and engaging. We don't usually come accross mythology in a langage arts class, but I think it's a great way to combine story-telling with cultural traditions, and ancient characters. I think it's great that ESL students would be encouraged to look at myths written in their own language from their own culture. In this way, they will have the same opportunity to arrange the story and engage with the text. One thing that I jotted down during your presentation was that it seemed like a lot of material to cover in one class. The lesson might be more effective if it were covered over the length of two classes. I guess it would depend on your students though...their grade level, ability, and level of interest in the content.
I loved your hook into the lesson, by asking the students to write in three sentences how the earth was created. I can imagine the students really enjoying this, as they share what they came up with with their peers. I think this would reaaly engage the students as they begin to read creation myths from all over the world. Great job!
I don't really have anything new to say - I agree with what's been posted. I really liked having to put a myth together - great way to bring a bit of global into a local classroom!
Using the variety of mythologies was a great way to help bring some diversity into the classroom. It's nice to get away from the stock Greek myths.
I think that having students interact with the text, mentally and physically, is truly beneficial.
The multiple steps of the lesson and activity really helps bring mythologies into the literary realm rather than just isolated to history/soical studies.
I think it would be important to include modern creation stories as well. I find many people see the realm of religion as taboo in the classroom, but if discussed in certain ways, like through the activities that the group demonstrated, it would be a productive endeavour.
The mythology lesson was fun! That is a great way to introduce different cultures to students in a humanity class. I was glad that you addressed the needs of different students within your class, such as the growing ESL population. I think that individual group work is a good way to build students confidence. Also, working in their own language initially would be a good way to hook students into the activity. You addressed multiple ways of suiting different learners, which is a vital part to every lesson plan and the dynamic climate of each individual classroom.
The only comment I have regarding further development for the lesson would have to regard time limits for the activities. I think that the students would acquire more from the activity if you gave them more time to work on the original myth. I found myself wanting to continue to work on it after you had stopped us.
I thought the lesson went very well. I think the starter activity on the overhead was a great idea, because it provided a good link between the first lesson of the unit and this one. It also had students thinking about their own beliefs and how they could express them in a very short amount of time and space. Also, the activity was very engaging. It gave students the opportunity to see how different cultures viewed the world we all share. Well done.
I also really enjoyed your choice of topic. An idea for an extension: Myths are easy to brush off as "unreal" or nonfact. How can you get across the real power of these myths within their cultural contexts? For example, I think using the oral tradition of storytelling or incorporating drama into the enactment of these myths could be effective.
Hi Kelly! I thought that you brought up a good question about putting all the LD or lower learning in one group. I think that this could potentially lead to disaster, but given the proper motivation, segregated groups containing students with similar academic achievement can be successful as well.
First, I will outline some ideas on why not to segregate. I know there is a very big debate regarding segregation in education. Some common examples include separating girls and boys, middle class from upper class, advanced or "gifted" students from LD or lower learning. I do believe that in many instances this type of segregation can create a false sense of reality for students. Depending on a teachers personal aims or goals of education, I believe feelings towards the segregation issue will differ.
Personally, I believe in aiding in the development of law-abiding citizens who are able to interact and work with people of all abilities and learn from the differences. I believe in creating opportunities for students of all levels and abilities to work together, so high achieving students have the opportunity to work and even help lower achieving students. This interaction provides every student with a sense of success when the group together produces a finished product.
I do also believe that there are positive outcomes to placing students in groups with similar achievement levels. When the opportunity arises where as the teacher I can use various texts and it does not matter that the students are not reading the same material, this type of grouping is possible and I believe successful. I think that most ‘disastrous’ situations or behaviour problems stem specifically from a lack of motivation. If students were grouped in this way and there were not various levels of material, the lower achieving students could find the material to be too difficult and therefore cause possible behaviour problems stemming specifically from their inability to complete the task at hand. Similarly the material could be too easy for other groups causing a similar type of behaviour situations.
I think that providing students with work that is tangible, and as in this lesson, with a specific outcome task that would be handed in for evaluation, the behaviour difficulties would be at a minimum and the motivation would be there for on task behaviour.
Sorry, I realize this was a long winded response to the question! Thanks for the feedback everyone! Suzy
That was a great lesson. As a big fan of Josef Campbell, I liked that you were encouraging students to look across cultural lines. I also like the format that made it seem much less daunting. I also liked the cross -curricular aspect of it also. I find it a really useful way to make connections to larger ideas for students, and helps students who have a block about a particular subject. It was also a wealth of material. I felt like it was a month long unit in the making.
I thoroughly enjoyed your lesson and cannot wait to try out your activity in my own classroom. I found your activity engaging and very inventive. I also liked your explanation of how to include and get ESL students feeling confident and interested in mythology.
An excellent exercise. My thoughts were that it would be interesting for students from other countries to bring in creation myths from their homelands, and then they cut them up and give them out to the class. The other idea, as a group activity would be to have the groups write their own creation myths....and then explain why they wrote what they did.
Mythology is a great unit to teach because it is one such topic which lends itself to the disciplines of both English and Social Studies. I thought your activity having students put together a myth is a great idea and also promotes social interaction and learning through diversity.
17 comments:
I thought your lessons was really cool. I was always hugely interested in mythology, and would have jumped at any mythology-based lesson. I hadn't thought about using mythology in Language Arts yet, and now I'm totally excited to try it one day.
I think that perhaps my favourite part of your lesson was that the different envelopes of myth-sentences had been varied or adapted, providing differentiated instruction. Right on!
I agree - I really liked the mythology lesson and found that, similar to our found poetry lesson, it could be quite flexible and adaptable for different classroom situations and levels. I also like the idea of allowing students to mix both their creative writing with the excerpts in the envelope - which is an aspect that wasn't included in our lesson and is a nice variation. Good job on the presentation!
This was another fun activity that we did in class. I also loved the idea of doing cross-curricular activities. I am excited to pair this with a socials class too. I liked the idea of using a different langauge myth - that was a great way to safely include and hook and engage your ESL students. The lower level students would also be able to use a simpler book if needed in the resource room. You mentioned that you would group the students according to ability and I think that putting all the LD or lower learners in one group would be a potential disaster. What do you think about this and is this what you meant? Really engaging activity -thanks!
When you first mentioned discussing ‘creation myths’, I was a little apprehensive about how some strongly religious students might react. Once I understood the kind of myths we were looking at, I thought it worked out well. By the end of our group’s time putting together the myth, I was dying to find out how the real myth worked out. I liked the idea of students relating myths from their own cultures. Great lesson to bring together different subjects!
This was an excellent cross-curricular and cross-cultural exercise. You could easily adapt this lesson for socials and come at from an anthropological, religious, historical, or literature perspective. This lesson could be very multidisciplinary. You could take this in many ways. I liked the inclusioon of creation myths from many cultures. An excellent tool for examining what all myths have in common and what their purposes are before moving to Greco-roman myths. Moreover, the lesson is a great way to make your class/curriculum more multicultural. You could encourage people from ethnic backgrounds to discuss what they know about myths from their own cultures. The activity was fun and made good use of problem-solving, educated guessing,and prediction skills. Well done.
I thought your lesson was original and engaging. We don't usually come accross mythology in a langage arts class, but I think it's a great way to combine story-telling with cultural traditions, and ancient characters.
I think it's great that ESL students would be encouraged to look at myths written in their own language from their own culture. In this way, they will have the same opportunity to arrange the story and engage with the text.
One thing that I jotted down during your presentation was that it seemed like a lot of material to cover in one class. The lesson might be more effective if it were covered over the length of two classes. I guess it would depend on your students though...their grade level, ability, and level of interest in the content.
Another great presentation =)
I loved your hook into the lesson, by asking the students to write in three sentences how the earth was created. I can imagine the students really enjoying this, as they share what they came up with with their peers. I think this would reaaly engage the students as they begin to read creation myths from all over the world. Great job!
I don't really have anything new to say - I agree with what's been posted. I really liked having to put a myth together - great way to bring a bit of global into a local classroom!
Using the variety of mythologies was a great way to help bring some diversity into the classroom. It's nice to get away from the stock Greek myths.
I think that having students interact with the text, mentally and physically, is truly beneficial.
The multiple steps of the lesson and activity really helps bring mythologies into the literary realm rather than just isolated to history/soical studies.
I think it would be important to include modern creation stories as well. I find many people see the realm of religion as taboo in the classroom, but if discussed in certain ways, like through the activities that the group demonstrated, it would be a productive endeavour.
The mythology lesson was fun! That is a great way to introduce different cultures to students in a humanity class. I was glad that you addressed the needs of different students within your class, such as the growing ESL population. I think that individual group work is a good way to build students confidence. Also, working in their own language initially would be a good way to hook students into the activity. You addressed multiple ways of suiting different learners, which is a vital part to every lesson plan and the dynamic climate of each individual classroom.
The only comment I have regarding further development for the lesson would have to regard time limits for the activities. I think that the students would acquire more from the activity if you gave them more time to work on the original myth. I found myself wanting to continue to work on it after you had stopped us.
Overall, good job!
I thought the lesson went very well. I think the starter activity on the overhead was a great idea, because it provided a good link between the first lesson of the unit and this one. It also had students thinking about their own beliefs and how they could express them in a very short amount of time and space. Also, the activity was very engaging. It gave students the opportunity to see how different cultures viewed the world we all share.
Well done.
I also really enjoyed your choice of topic. An idea for an extension: Myths are easy to brush off as "unreal" or nonfact. How can you get across the real power of these myths within their cultural contexts? For example, I think using the oral tradition of storytelling or incorporating drama into the enactment of these myths could be effective.
Hi Kelly! I thought that you brought up a good question about putting all the LD or lower learning in one group. I think that this could potentially lead to disaster, but given the proper motivation, segregated groups containing students with similar academic achievement can be successful as well.
First, I will outline some ideas on why not to segregate. I know there is a very big debate regarding segregation in education. Some common examples include separating girls and boys, middle class from upper class, advanced or "gifted" students from LD or lower learning. I do believe that in many instances this type of segregation can create a false sense of reality for students. Depending on a teachers personal aims or goals of education, I believe feelings towards the segregation issue will differ.
Personally, I believe in aiding in the development of law-abiding citizens who are able to interact and work with people of all abilities and learn from the differences. I believe in creating opportunities for students of all levels and abilities to work together, so high achieving students have the opportunity to work and even help lower achieving students. This interaction provides every student with a sense of success when the group together produces a finished product.
I do also believe that there are positive outcomes to placing students in groups with similar achievement levels. When the opportunity arises where as the teacher I can use various texts and it does not matter that the students are not reading the same material, this type of grouping is possible and I believe successful. I think that most ‘disastrous’ situations or behaviour problems stem specifically from a lack of motivation. If students were grouped in this way and there were not various levels of material, the lower achieving students could find the material to be too difficult and therefore cause possible behaviour problems stemming specifically from their inability to complete the task at hand. Similarly the material could be too easy for other groups causing a similar type of behaviour situations.
I think that providing students with work that is tangible, and as in this lesson, with a specific outcome task that would be handed in for evaluation, the behaviour difficulties would be at a minimum and the motivation would be there for on task behaviour.
Sorry, I realize this was a long winded response to the question! Thanks for the feedback everyone!
Suzy
That was a great lesson. As a big fan of Josef Campbell, I liked that you were encouraging students to look across cultural lines. I also like the format that made it seem much less daunting.
I also liked the cross -curricular aspect of it also. I find it a really useful way to make connections to larger ideas for students, and helps students who have a block about a particular subject. It was also a wealth of material. I felt like it was a month long unit in the making.
I thoroughly enjoyed your lesson and cannot wait to try out your activity in my own classroom. I found your activity engaging and very inventive. I also liked your explanation of how to include and get ESL students feeling confident and interested in mythology.
An excellent exercise. My thoughts were that it would be interesting for students from other countries to bring in creation myths from their homelands, and then they cut them up and give them out to the class. The other idea, as a group activity would be to have the groups write their own creation myths....and then explain why they wrote what they did.
Mythology is a great unit to teach because it is one such topic which lends itself to the disciplines of both English and Social Studies. I thought your activity having students put together a myth is a great idea and also promotes social interaction and learning through diversity.
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