Our comprehensive guide to teaching the hero’s journey incorporates literature, film, writing,
art, presentations, and personal reflection.
Read More
Order
The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life has became a part of programs for schools and organizations in 47 states and eighteen foreign countries.
Why do teachers find teaching the hero’s journey valuable? The answer is simple: the hero’s journey is a metaphor for the pattern of human experience, so it underlies virtually all literature and film. When students understand the journey pattern, they better understand the films they watch, the literature they read and the lives they are living.
Our teacher’s guide to the hero’s journey contains 10 chapters and 12 units to introduce the journey pattern and help students understand and use it. Three of those units―Ritual and Rite of Passage, The Hero’s Journey, and The Call Refused― present the basic pattern of the journey and the journey refused. The remaining units expand on the basic pattern, applying it to a variety of subjects, including myth, film, writing, symbolism and personal growth.
Rich in applications and possibilities
As a teacher, you can use the material in many ways. You can teach the basic pattern with specific projects such Odysseus’ journey in The Odyssey or the multiple journeys in To Kill a Mockingbird. You can go beyond the journey’s basic pattern and use it as a foundation for analyzing and comparing literature. For example, Hamlet’s convoluted quest for revenge becomes the journey of a tragic hero and can be compared, using the journey model, with symbolism of the labyrinth in the story of Minos and the minotaur (which is included in the guide).
You can delve even deeper into the journey by exploring the complex interrelationships of its stages. For example, you could look at how refusing the call to adventure sends a character on a “shadow” journey to escape from his or her own self deceptions, a journey that could end tragically, as it does in Death of a Salesman. You can also explore the complex connections between the journeys of a several characters in one novel, such as interlinking stories within The Great Gatsby.
But perhaps the most important use for the journey is as a bridge between literature and life. When students understand how the journey pattern works in literature, they can connect literary themes to their own experience. The literature becomes not just something to be analyzed, but a rich source of learning material for one’s own life.
So the hero’s journey pattern works on two powerful levels:
-
As a schema, the pattern helps students better comprehend, analyze, and compare mythology, literature and film. It enables them to understand plot, characterization and motivation more easily and thoroughly. It provides a common framework for comparing different works, even different genres. It provides a virtually unlimited resource of ideas for writing and discussion.
-
Once students fully understand the journey and the relationships between its stages, they will see the pattern in their own experience. They will be able to apply the lessons of literature and film to their own lives, opening new ways of seeing and being, new potentials for improved relationships, individual growth and personal transformation.
Depth, flexibility and universality
Developed over years of classroom use, The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life emphasizes writing and collaborative learning through character analysis, short story writing, group presentations and a reflective essay. It is both powerful and flexible:
-
It can be adapted for students at any level, from grades 8 to college, from novice to graduate, from at-risk to honors.
-
It incorporates literature, film, art and speech under a unified theme with a logical, progressive structure.
-
It will merge easily with your existing reading list and curriculum.
Take a closer look
ORDER NOW
(Follow the Fox) |
There’s a lot to The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life. It can be a tremendous asset in your language arts classroom. Take a minute to explore it:
-
Curriculum outline: comprehensive outline of the curriculum,
-
Philosophy: the guiding philosophy behind the hero’s journey curriculum and suggestions for teaching it,
-
Reading Room for ideas related to this powerful approach and how it can be used in the classroom.
Use this link to order the curriculum.
Harris Communications
Our comprehensive guide to teaching the hero’s journey incorporates literature, film, writing,
art, presentations, and personal reflection.
Read More
Order
The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life has became a part of programs for schools and organizations in 47 states and eighteen foreign countries.
Why do teachers find teaching the hero’s journey valuable? The answer is simple: the hero’s journey is a metaphor for the pattern of human experience, so it underlies virtually all literature and film. When students understand the journey pattern, they better understand the films they watch, the literature they read and the lives they are living.
Our teacher’s guide to the hero’s journey contains 10 chapters and 12 units to introduce the journey pattern and help students understand and use it. Three of those units―Ritual and Rite of Passage, The Hero’s Journey, and The Call Refused― present the basic pattern of the journey and the journey refused. The remaining units expand on the basic pattern, applying it to a variety of subjects, including myth, film, writing, symbolism and personal growth.
Rich in applications and possibilities
As a teacher, you can use the material in many ways. You can teach the basic pattern with specific projects such Odysseus’ journey in The Odyssey or the multiple journeys in To Kill a Mockingbird. You can go beyond the journey’s basic pattern and use it as a foundation for analyzing and comparing literature. For example, Hamlet’s convoluted quest for revenge becomes the journey of a tragic hero and can be compared, using the journey model, with symbolism of the labyrinth in the story of Minos and the minotaur (which is included in the guide).
You can delve even deeper into the journey by exploring the complex interrelationships of its stages. For example, you could look at how refusing the call to adventure sends a character on a “shadow” journey to escape from his or her own self deceptions, a journey that could end tragically, as it does in Death of a Salesman. You can also explore the complex connections between the journeys of a several characters in one novel, such as interlinking stories within The Great Gatsby.
But perhaps the most important use for the journey is as a bridge between literature and life. When students understand how the journey pattern works in literature, they can connect literary themes to their own experience. The literature becomes not just something to be analyzed, but a rich source of learning material for one’s own life.
So the hero’s journey pattern works on two powerful levels:
As a schema, the pattern helps students better comprehend, analyze, and compare mythology, literature and film. It enables them to understand plot, characterization and motivation more easily and thoroughly. It provides a common framework for comparing different works, even different genres. It provides a virtually unlimited resource of ideas for writing and discussion.
Once students fully understand the journey and the relationships between its stages, they will see the pattern in their own experience. They will be able to apply the lessons of literature and film to their own lives, opening new ways of seeing and being, new potentials for improved relationships, individual growth and personal transformation.
Depth, flexibility and universality
Developed over years of classroom use, The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life emphasizes writing and collaborative learning through character analysis, short story writing, group presentations and a reflective essay. It is both powerful and flexible:
It can be adapted for students at any level, from grades 8 to college, from novice to graduate, from at-risk to honors.
It incorporates literature, film, art and speech under a unified theme with a logical, progressive structure.
It will merge easily with your existing reading list and curriculum.
Take a closer look
(Follow the Fox)
There’s a lot to The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life. It can be a tremendous asset in your language arts classroom. Take a minute to explore it:
Curriculum outline: comprehensive outline of the curriculum,
Philosophy: the guiding philosophy behind the hero’s journey curriculum and suggestions for teaching it,
Reading Room for ideas related to this powerful approach and how it can be used in the classroom.
Use this link to order the curriculum.