Unit Plan Template Unit Plan Template

Unit Author

First and Last Name Kathryn Wolfington

Author's E-mail Address kwolfing@jeffco.k12.co.us

School District Jefferson County Public Schools

School Name Evergreen Middle School

School Address 2059 Hiwan Drive

School City, State, Zip Evergreen, CO 80439

School Phone 303-982-5020

Unit Overview

Unit Title Hero’s Are Made of This—Analyzing LiteratureUnit Summary: Using Joseph Campbell’s theory of the monomyth in mythic and contemporary literature, students will analyze and identify the journey that characters travel to become a hero and complete their quest. After being introduced to the theory, the students will participate in a class-wide novel study of The Golden Compass to which they will apply their new knowledge as they follow the main character’s heroic journey. As a culminating activity, students will create a circular monomyth based on a hero in a piece of literature or movie, chosen by the student. Students will post their final project on the web and share it with their classmates during a short presentation.Subject Area Language Arts

Grade Level 8th gradeApproximate Time Needed 4-5 Weeks

Unit FoundationTargeted State Frameworks/Content Standards/Benchmarks

Colorado Language Arts Standards Grade 8http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeassess/documents/OSA/standards/reading.pdf

Standard 1: Students will read and understand a variety of materials.d. Students will infer using information from a variety of text and genre.g. Students will identify the meaning of unfamiliar words in context using word recognition skills and context clues.

Standard 2: Students will write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences.I N T E L ® T E A C H T O T H E F U T U R Ewith support from Microsoft ©2000 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved 1

a. Students will write in a variety of genres such as editorials, personal narratives, essays, stories, and letters for specific purposes (for example, to explain, to inform, to analyze).

Standard 4: Students will apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing.a. Students will use reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing skills to solve problems and answer questions.d. Students will analyze text to make predictions and draw conclusions.

Standard 5: Students will read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources.

Standard 6: Students will read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.a. Students will read and respond to a variety of literature that represents perspectives from places, people, and events that are familiar and unfamiliar.b. Students will apply literary terminology and knowledge of literary techniques to understand text.

ISTE National Education Technology 2.0 Standardshttp://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students_2007.htm

Standard 1: Creativity and InnovationStudents demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

Standard 2: Communication and CollaborationStudents use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

Student Objectives/Learning Outcomes♦The student will be able to define the stages of a hero’s journey through an on-line quiz.

♦The student will be able to analyze mythical and contemporary literature for characteristics of Joseph Campbell’s stages of a hero journey and explain/apply this theory from/to a variety of literature.

♦Students will be able to navigate through internet sites to explore examples of graphics and analysis of stories (films, books, poetry, myths, fairy tales) that follow the hero’s journey and exude archetypes laid out by Campbell’s theory.

♦The student will be able to diagram the stages of a hero’s journey in a piece of literature using technology.

♦Students will be able to apply the hero’s journey to their life.Curriculum-Framing Questions

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Essential Question

At the end of my life, how will I compare to a hero? Will my life follow the hero’s journey? Are there already parts of my life that fit into the theory of the monomyth?

Unit Questions What do most myths and stories told over the centuries have in common?

Content Questions

How does point of view change the impact of stories I read and hear?

How is the hero’s journey similar to the plot line I have learned about in English classes in the past?

Student Assessment Plan

Assessment Summary

Students will read a piece of literature or watch a film and then analyze the story using the theory of the monomyth. Students will share their investigation into this story through a visual wheel found on the Internet that allows them to break down the stages of a hero’s journey specifically according to their chosen story. http://monomyth.org/monomyths/ Students will save their monomyth to the web site and share their diagram with the class.

Assessment Timeline

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Before project work begins

Week 1Activity 1— Created using SMART Notebook software.Students work in small groups:*To look at the Word Portrait word list and choose words from each category (Physical, Mental, Social, Moral) that exemplifies what/who a hero is. The pages will be laminated and students will circle their chosen words using a vis-à-vis pen. Once all groups have been through the lists, each group will take turns coming up to the board and writing the words that they chose. In the end we will literally have a “word portrait” of a hero.*Who were you thinking of when you listed the characteristics?*As a group choose two of the following characters and tell what they have in common? Harry Potter, Shrek, Dorothy Gale, Batman, Luke Skywalker, Simba-The Lion King. The teacher will point out that all of these characters follow the Hero’s Journey.

Activity 2— Teacher-created SMART board presentation (using Notebook 10.0 software) explaining the stages of the hero’s journey. Students will be shown the monomyth ring of Joseph Campbell’s theory.http://monomyth.org/monomyths-2/monomyth-viewer/?id=2&mode=view Student Notes: Students may choose to take notes using a teacher-created table or web. Both are copied at the bottom of this document.Homework: Students will watch Different Stories, Common Themes from Discovery Education Streaming on-line. After watching, students will choose one of the stages of a hero’s journey that was evident in either The Wizard of Oz or Huck Finn and describe how this stage was represented.Video Description: Themes recur because they appeal to readers across cultures and decades. This portion traces the themes of friendship and good vs. evil that appear in The Wizard of Oz and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.Different Stories, Common Themes. Discovery Channel School. 2006. unitedstreaming. 7 July 2008<http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/> NOTE: You can find the video temporarily downloaded to my blog athttp://summerit5710-kat.blogspot.com/ titled by the videos name.

Activity 3— Students will read or watch fairy tales and identify the stages of the hero’s journey that are evident in each story. Students may chose to read the story on-line, or watch a cartoon of

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it on YouTube.

The Brave Little Tailorhttp://www.fln.vcu.edu/grimm/schneider_e.htmlMickey-The Brave Little Tailor (1938) on YouTube.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyGf8VPoYyY

Hansel & Gretelhttp://www.ivyjoy.com/fables/hansel.htmlGrimm’s Fairy Tale Classics Hansel and Gretel 1/3http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTLQgKA-enYGrimm’s Fairy Tale Classics Hansel and Gretel 2/3http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWVBvsEjdLUGrimm’s Fairy Tale Classics Hansel and Gretel 3/3http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6POFFI-VFk

Activity 4— The class will analyze a variety of familiar movie clips to practice finding the various stages of a hero’s journey. (See document copied below Movie Clips & Heroes)

Activity 5— Students will work in cooperative groups to create their own list of movie scenes or book scenes that fit into the twelve stages of the hero’s journey and share their list with the class using the document camera. (See document copied below The Hero’s Journey Through Movies We Know.)

Activity 6—Quiz of the stages of a hero’s journeyThis quiz is a short assessment to see how well the students can identify the order and description of the twelve stages of the journey. http://quizstar.4teachers.org/index.jsp NOTE: To see this quiz, go to this web site and sign in to the student log-in page. I have made up a student named Brent Wilson. His username is brentw, password it6515. There is one untaken quiz titled The Hero’s Journey.

Student work on projects and complete tasks

Weeks 2 & 3

Novel StudyThe class will do a novel study, led by the teacher, and analyze the journey of the main character as he or she travels through each phase of becoming a hero. Students will do a majority of the reading at home.The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (930 Lexile)

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During Reading:Activity 1-- Teacher-created SMART board presentation (using Notebook 10.0 software) exploring archetypes in literature, based on the writings of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, and with a lot of help from http://taliessin.org/Archetypes.doc .

Activity 2—Matching Situational Archetypes using Inspiration software.Directions: With a partner, match the ARCHETYPE (yellow stars) with the DESCRIPTION that best fits. Organize your answers in whatever fashion makes the most sense to you. Side-by-side, change the colors by going to Effect>Fill Color. When you are finished, SAVE your new document to your folder on the server. EMAIL your document as an attachment to Ms. Wolfington kwolfing@jeffco.k12.co.us Be sure you put both partners’ names in the subject line.NOTE: The point of this assignment is to prove that we have the innate knowledge about how stories work. Even though we haven't talked about these archetypes, you should be able to match them all up correctly simply based on the knowledge and expectations you have about stories already in your psyche.This assignment is copied below in this document.

Activity 3-- Students will journal on-line through a class wikispace.Journals may include:Journal 1: What archetypes do you see emerging in this story? Compare them to another story that has the same archetype.Journal 2: Respond to one of the following criticisms that people often have about the theory of a hero’s journey. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?1. The monomyth theory discourages originality in writers.2. Why is one hero so special anyway?3. Why is the hero always a dude?4. It’s so cheesy to have the same storyline in every story.5. The monomyth was just constructed by Hollywood.Criticisms taken from http://www.clickok.co.uk/index4.html  

Journal 3: Write your response to the following quote:In his later years, Joseph Campbell was fond of recalling how a friend once wrote of the curious feeling one (person) can have, of there being an author somewhere writing the novel of our lives, in such a way that through events that seem to us to be chance happenings there is actually a plot unfolding of which we have no knowledge.

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Activity 4-- Students will investigate the theory farther through these websites: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/smc/journey/ In this web site students can go stage by stage of the hero’s journey and read its definition, as well as find out about a few stories that include this phase.http://www.moongadget.com/origins/myth.htmlThis site has a compare and contrast of Star Wars and The Matrix as they follow the theory of the hero’s journey.

Activity 5-- Students will use http://school.discoveryeducation.com/ to create a crossword puzzle of interesting words from The Golden Compass. Students will trade their crossword puzzle with another student.

Activity 6—Students will watch clips from The Power of Myth (PBS), a t.v. interview with Joseph Campbell where he explains some of his myth theory.

Week 4Final Project:Use http://monomyth.org/monomyths/ to create a visual wheel, a monomyth ring, which outlines the steps of the hero’s journey in a book or movie (approved by teacher) that you have analyzed.--The teacher will model for students how to create a monomyth ring using the story Shrek.--Students will draft their monomyth ring at school using Inspiration. See attached sample below.--Students will use peers, parents, and teachers to revise and edit their monomyth ring. View sample at http://monomyth.org/monomyths-2/ titled Shrek—A Hero’s Monomyth by Ms. W. (The creators of the website are still working to get everything running smoothly. My wheel may or may not be posted at this time.)--Students will submit their monomyth ring to www.monomyth.org so that it can be posted on the web site.--The rubric for this project was created in RubiStar. ID # 1593621. You can view the rubric athttp://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=PrintRubricDownloadFile&rubric_id=1593621&

After project work is completed

Students will give a short presentation sharing their monomyth ring with their classmates.

Unit Details

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Prerequisite Skills

Instructional Procedures

Accommodations for Differentiated Instruction

Resource Student

When given pictures of scenes from a movie they have already seen (possibly Cars or The Lion King), students will be able to put the scenes in the correct order as they happen in the movie. When given labels for the 12 stages of a hero’s journey, students will be able to correctly label each stage.

Non-Native English Speaker

Using visuals (clip art, photographs, pictures from Internet), create a story that has 8 of the 12 stages of a hero’s journey and depict it using Photo Story 3. Be able to verbally identify each stage as it shows on the screen.

Gifted Student

Write your own story of a character that goes through the adventure of becoming a hero and depict it through a digital story using Photo Story 3. Brainstorm, rough draft, revise & edit before beginning the technical creation of the story.

Materials and Resources Required for UnitTechnology – Hardware (Click boxes of all equipment needed.)

Camera

Clicker System

Computer(s)

Digital Camera

DVD Player

Internet Connection

Printer

Projection System

Scanner

SMART board

Television

VCR

Video Camera

Video Conferencing Equip.

Other: Document CameraTechnology – Software

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Photo Story 3, Inspiration

Printed Materials The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

The Power of Myth (PBS series of interview with Campbell)

Supplies

Internet Resources – Links http://www.webenglishteacher.com/hero.html This is the resource that helped me find most of my information and helped me create my ideas. Many of the following web sites are included on this webpage.

http://monomyth.org/ This website is dedicated to teaching the theory of the monomyth while giving plenty of examples and visuals to help different types of learners understand.

http://www.divineparadox.com/Arts/archetypes_on_the_path.htm Character archetypes and the twelve steps are accompanied with a study of other ways to look at the hero’s journey.

http://www.yourheroicjourney.com/Journey.shtml A great article that says it all in a little different way. This author breaks the steps into 8 levels, and takes some time to explain to the reader how they can interpret events in their life that may be following the hero’s journey.

http://www.skepticfiles.org/atheist2/hero.htm A practical guide that breaks the journey down into 12 steps. Simple explanations.

http://www.cerritos.edu/fquaas/resources/English102/hero.htm A teacher’s website that includes some helpful graphics and visuals of the hero’s journey. Particularly interesting to me were the last three “The Hero’s Journey:” links on this page.

http://www.clickok.co.uk/index4.html#anti A detailed deconstruction of successful stories and Hollywood blockbusters that reveal the 188 stages of a hero’s journey.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/joseph_campbell.html Some thoughtful quotes by Joseph Campbell.

http://www.jcf.org/new/index.php

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Joseph Campbell’s Foundation

http://www.htc.net/~thehuels/heroes.htm A lesson plan for high school with some higher level thinking questions which were helpful to me when designing my lesson.

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=784 A unit plan from www.readwritethink.org that analyzes characters as heroes specifically.

http://www.moongadget.com/origins/myth.html About halfway down the webpage is a table that compares and contrasts Star Wars to The Matrix using Campbell’s monomyth theory.

http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/smc/journey/ Once a really cool webquest, this site is no longer maintained; however, there are still worthwhile pieces of info here. Especially the reference page which you can get to by clicking on “I am packed and ready to go” in the upper left hand corner. Next, click on the green suitcase titled reference and follow the directions. There is tons of neat stuff to see here!

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Design Rational

Background Information:

Evergreen Middle School is located in Jefferson County School District west of Denver in the foothills. The student body is mostly in the above average socio-economic level with approximately 10% of the population receiving free and/or reduced lunch. The school enrollment includes approximately 5% minority students.

Last year the staff and community voted to add a large Gifted and Talented program to the school’s schedule, which has brought about a slight increase in enrollment. This along with a remodel of the building has increased expectations for an already “Excellent” school. This new Gifted and Talented program, along with a very involved parent community, will bring about new challenges and a new outlook for teachers as our student body will require a different kind of focus that has been provided in the past. The need to prepare our students with 21st Century Learning Skills has never been more evident than today.

Needs Assessment & Data Analysis

Evergreen Middle School’s improvement plan focuses on CSAP improvement in the areas of Math, Reading, Writing, and Science. As a language arts teacher, my focus will be on the improvement of reading scores. The reading scores for the past three school years were as follows:

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These tables were taken from the Evergreen Middle School Profile on the Jeffco web site.

Based on these results, it is quite evident that the students at Evergreen Middle School perform highly on standardized tests. In the area of reading students appear to be mastering the proficiencies set forth by the Colorado Basic Literacy Act (CBLA). Therefore, I have researched and learned about Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth theory and would like to introduce it to 8th graders as a new way to analyze literature and look for patterns in literature as well as life. I want to help students through this time in their life when they first start to realize that the world does not revolve around them, and to help them see that the human story hasn’t changed all that much over time. Recognizing archetypal patterns in literature brings patterns we all unconsciously respond to in similar ways to a conscious level. This is a skill that students will use throughout their lives, and a theory that will broaden their realizations of the history of literature and of man-kind.

Method of Teaching

This unit begins with activating schema by starting with small groups brainstorming for information they already know. Once their minds have the right filing cabinet open, then I can help them insert some information about the hero’s journey through a short class lecture on a SMART board. As we move into the

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novel study students will have to put their new knowledge to use as we imply a variety of Marzano’s instructional strategies including:

♦Identifying similarities and differences between current stories and myths of the past, as well as written literature and film as literature.♦Note taking during class lectures, self directed reading, internet research, and while viewing films. Templates, or graphic organizers, to assist with note taking will be available for students that wish to use them. ♦Homework will be required throughout the unit of study as students are asked to do a majority of the novel reading outside of class.♦Nonlinguistic representation will be evident throughout this unit as students use graphic organizers to take notes during class lectures, brainstorm in cooperative groups, create rough drafts, and publish their final project. Inspiration 8 software will be used during the unit to help students visually display what they may be unable to say in words.♦Cooperative learning will occur when students brainstorm to create a list of ideas, as students communicate during the novel study through on-line discussions, and before students publish their final project as they ask their peers for help with editing and revising their work.

Students will do all of this while they enjoy reading a really wonderful story. Students will be assessed along the way with formal and informal assessment to ensure that they understand the theory being taught.

I chose The Golden Compass because of the female hero. In most other stories, the hero is male, and we’ll talk about many of those in class. This novel might help the girls stay engaged with this unit. Plus, this movie just came out and it was a big hit so there may be a high interest level with this story. Finally, this book is the first in a series of three, and if my reluctant readers enjoy the first book, chances are they’ll pick up the second and third eventually.

Technology Integration

The goal of incorporating technology into this unit is to enhance the learning that students will gain.

Students will learn the basics of the Monomyth theory and literary archetypes through presentations on a SMART Board. Both presentations allow for student interaction with the SMART Board. Students will read on-line fairy tales and view video clips of documentaries and short stories on-line. Both forms of student assessment will occur on-line, the formative quiz and the summative Monomyth ring that will be published on the Monomyth.org web site. Students will participate in on-line journaling, Internet research, and a variety of activities that utilize the Inspiration 8 software.

I have been in contact with the creators of the web site where students will be posting their final projects. This is to ensure that student work can be posted, and then revised after being posted on www.monomyth.org . The director of the web site also let me know that they are in the process of creating more educational related activities for this web site, so by the time I teach this unit their web site may have even more interesting tools I can use. Contact: Rich Schwab Executive Director of MonoMyth.org & Mythological ConsultantCenter for Symbolic Studies

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The Hero’s Journey Notes Name ______________________________

Stages of the Hero’s Journey Description of What Happens in this Stage

Examples: Movie scenes, books, stories

The Hero in His Ordinary World

Call to Adventure

Refusal of the Call

Meeting the Mentor

Crossing the Threshold

Tests, Allies, and Enemies

Approach the Inmost Cave

The Supreme Ordeal

The Reward(Seizing the Sword)

The Road Back

The Resurrection

The Return

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Movie Clips & Heroes

Stage of a Hero’s Journey Movie with clip that shows thisOrdinary World Harry Potter living with his mom’s family

Call to Adventure Field of Dreams—Voice in the cornfieldRefusal or Reluctance to the Call The Patriot—Mel Gibson’s character does not want to enter

the war and argues about it during a hearing.The Lion King—Simba doesn’t think he can do it.

Meeting the Mentor Pan’s Labyrinth—The faun is the gate keeperThe Lion King—Simba meets the baboon.

Crossing the Threshold Shrek—Shrek accepts the dangerous mission to rescue Princess Fiona from the castle guarded by the dragon.

Test, Allies, and Enemies Cars—Lightening McQueen slowly makes friends in the little town where he is stranded.

The Lion King—Simba meets Timon and Pumba, eventually Nolla finds him and is on his side, along with all of the

lionesses.Approach the Inmost Cave Star Wars—Their ship is sucked into the Death Star.

Ordeal The Natural—In his final chance to play major league baseball, his bat shatters and he is injured, and still finds a way

to hit a homerun and win the game.The Wizard of Oz—Dorothy confronts the witch and kills her.

Reward or Seizing the Sword The Wizard of Oz—Dorothy turns in the broom of the witch to the Wizard, only to learn he is a shapeshifter. But he has rewards from everyone of her allies, and a way to get her

home.The Road Back The Wizard’s balloon leaves without Dorothy in The Wizard

of OzResurrection The Natural—bat is symbolic of person and childhood and

dreamsThe Wizard of Oz—Dorothy wakes up as if she were sleeping

Return The Wizard of Oz—Dorothy says there’s no place like home and she thinks she’ll stay

Thoughts:Harry Potter (the first one)—Show Harry living with family and receiving the call.Wizard of Oz—Show the end of the movie from when Dorothy is in the witch’s castle all the way to the end.The Natural—Show the beginning when he meets the Temptress, and then the very end when he hits the homerun.The Lion King has all these stages but is WAAAAYYYY out of order. It might be worth it to the students to show them a huge chunk (not the whole movie) of the movie so that they can really visualize how out-of-order these stages can appear!

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The Hero’s Journey Through Movies We Know

Directions: Work in your small group to think of movies that have heroes that follow the hero’s journey. Choose a clip from these movies and describe the scene that matches the stage of the hero’s journey. You do not have to use the same movie for all of these stages. Make sure to describe the scene, don’t just write the movie title.

Stage of the Hero’s Journey Movie name and description of scene

Ordinary World

Call to Adventure

Refusal or Reluctance to the Call

Meeting the Mentor

Crossing the Threshold

Test, Allies, and Enemies

Approach the Inmost Cave

Ordeal

Reward or Seizing the Sword

The Road Back

Resurrection

Return

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MatchingSituationalArchetypes

activity

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Shrek—A Hero’s JourneyRough Draft

Stories that follow the monomyth:Contemporary Novels Classic Literature Children’s Stories MoviesThe Golden CompassThe HobbitHitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Cry, the Beloved CountryBeowulfThe OdysseyThe IliadThe Epic of GilgameshThe Once & Future KingTo Kill a MockingbirdThe Lion, the Witch, & the WardrobeDante’s Inferno

The Frog PrinceThe Raven

StarwarsLord of the RingsHarry PotterThe MatrixPan’s LabyrinthThe Princess BrideThe Golden CompassPirates of the CaribbeanField of DreamsThe NaturalThe OutsidersTroyKing ArthurThe Wizard of OzBack to the FutureBraveheartGladiatorDances With WolvesMillion Dollar BabyA Christmas CarolCitizen Kane

Disney:HerculesFinding NemoShrekAladdinThe Lion KingBeauty & the BeastThe Sword & the Stone

Superheroes:SupermanBatmanSpiderman

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