Creation Stories and Mythology
Lesson One:
Lesson Two:
Lesson Three:
Lesson Four:
Lesson Five:
- Student Challenge: in groups with a large white board/pen record as many myths and gods/goddesses that you know.
- What is mythology? Why do we make myths? Why do we study myths?
- Two clips from Greek Myths" Kid who would be king and Aquaman,
- All of our hero and hero qualities come from Greek Myths, so does the structure for our stories, many of our monsters, symbols and explanations for how the world is the way it is.
- 3 Main Types of Myths
- Creation Myth - how something was created or came to by
- Battle Myth - clash between good and evil, or two opposing groups, result of original evil being let out into the world (Pandora, Garden of Eden)
- Journey Myth - Hero sets out to fix something wrong in his world, must leave home to fix the problem, always learns something in the process
- Look at some creation myths: Australian Aborigine, Ainu (Japanese). Myths about Aurora and Freya. (second)
- List of Gods, Myths and Allusions.
Lesson Two:
- Trojan Horse allusion video. Cartoon of Trump. What do you recognize/already know?
- Read (a short version) Trojan War.
- Watch a few highlights of the story. Shipping coming to the beach. Paris vs Menelaus. Sacking of Troy.
Lesson Three:
- Handout: Listen to the song “Big Eyed Fish" by Dave Matthews Band. What do they think the theme of the song is? Discuss and link their ideas to the Greek idea of hubris (excessive pride or self confidence)
- Tell them when viewing a video they also need to engage in reading strategies to help them understand what they are viewing. For this video we will be practicing picking out the main events of plot, and the main ideas (theme) and supporting ideas.
- Go over what they need to watch for in the video and begin playing the movie.
- Watch the film. Part One. Part Two. Part Three.
- After the movie, in groups of 4 they must come up with 2 themes and represent the key plot ideas in a whiteboard comic. When they are done they will present to me.
- Key Themes:
-Operate within in the bounds and rules of society or you will perish
-Limitations of humans and resulting hubris (you can’t do exactly what you want)
-Some dreams are doomed
-Ambition can ruin your life
-love your child for who they are
-No peace in vengeance, no rest in revenge
Lesson Four:
- Handout: Ask them if anyone knows the difference between a myth and a legend.
- Myth: Story to teach or explain. Legend: story based on history but greatly exaggerated.
- Ask them what they know about knight and the King Arthur tales. What was it like to be a knight?
- -Show clip that illustrates what people think fighting like a knight would be like, (King Arthur battle scenes)
-show last scene in Macbeth to show what it is really like (slow and cumbersome)
- -Show clip that illustrates what people think fighting like a knight would be like, (King Arthur battle scenes)
- Ask if anyone thinks that they could be a knight (very heavy equipment) get them to stand at front holding 2 text books with arms up (simulate weight of sword and shield) and see how long they last.
- Have a small jousting tournament with student pigging backing each other and hitting them with the foam swords
- Background: The figure of King Arthur was probably based upon a Celtic king or chieftain who lived in southwestern England during the 6th century and led his warriors against invading armies of Saxons. Explain who Merlin was and the background before Arthur was born. Show the summary cartoons of the King Arthur Legends
- Read The Coming of King Arthur.
Lesson Five:
- Re-cap the Coming of King Arthur.
- Show The Sword in the Stone clip
- Explain the story of Excalibur
- Read the Knights of the Round Table and discuss the symbol of the table, Excalibur, the cup and Camelot.
- Talk about the death of Arthur
- Discuss the rules of Chivalry and examples of modern knights. Codes for our society.
- Essay:
- Discuss their examples of modern Knight from their sheet on the King Arthur myths
- Introduce the Essay and fill in a paragraph on the outline together.
- Look at a sample intro/conclusion.
- Use editing checklist.
- Sample Famous People.