From the Teacher’s Guide
The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life: The introduction to our guide for teaching the hero’s journey, an award-winning curriculum used by schools in more than 30 states and a dozen foreign countries.
The Hero’s Journey: Life’s Great Adventure: This article from our teacher’s guide describes our eight-step model of the hero’s journey and explains each step and its significance to our growth and well-being.
The Hero’s Journey: A Myth to Live By: The introduction to our first edition (1995) outlines the philosophy behind our approach and the impact it can have on students.
A Tool for Understanding Literature and Life: The introduction to the 2007 edition explores the ubiquity of the journey pattern and how it can be used in the classroom.
Excerpts from the teacher’s guide: Excerpts from The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life: teacher’s resources, lesson plans and activities.
The Journey in the Classroom
The Hero’s Journey as a Learning Schema: Viewed as a learning schema, the hero’s journey pattern offers teachers four important benefits for classroom instruction.
Bet it’s not in the Simpsons (the Hero’s Journey): Each year I challenge my ninth graders to find a story (book, film, etc.) that does not contain elements of the journey pattern. When Jeff, a ninth grader in my class, heard the challenge, he shouted out, “I bet it’s not in the Simpsons.” Well, guess what!
The Essay as a Hero’s Journey: though it is not as evident, there is a strong connection between the Hero’s Journey pattern and the essay. In fact, looking at an essay as an “intellectual journey” of sorts can give fresh insights into the essay writing process.
Contemporary Themes in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451:
While most people remember Fahrenheit 451 for its censorship themes, the story explores other, perhaps more important themes for today’s world and our hope for taking our own journey.
Fly Away Home: A film with a female hero: This little film is a powerful statement both on our journeys and how our journeys are inextricably connected with the journeys of others. Best of all it has a female hero―and some heroic geese!
The Hermeneutic Loop: Hermeneutics is the philosophy of interpretation, but it is also the existential process that gives us the sense of “being in our world.”
Jurassic Park: Key themes: Jurassic Park focuses on the impact of science impact on human life, but behind the special effects is a story that explores important existential themes in our journeys and our relations with your world.
Using the film Legend to teach the Hero’s Journey: This early Tom Cruise film is a cult favorite and is excellent for teaching not just the hero’s journey, but different forms of the call to adventure, elements of the journey, the polar nature of the journey, and the call refused.
Teaching and illustrating the Journey concept: Over the years, we’ve tried many ways to describe the journey process. This is one of the best, depicting the journey not just as a circular process, but as a outward spiraling as our horizons grow and change.
Threshold Guardians test our readiness for the quest: This excerpt from our teaching guide discusses threshold guardians and their role in our journeys.
Teaching the Hero’s Journey
From the Teacher’s Guide
The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life: The introduction to our guide for teaching the hero’s journey, an award-winning curriculum used by schools in more than 30 states and a dozen foreign countries.
The Hero’s Journey: Life’s Great Adventure: This article from our teacher’s guide describes our eight-step model of the hero’s journey and explains each step and its significance to our growth and well-being.
The Hero’s Journey: A Myth to Live By: The introduction to our first edition (1995) outlines the philosophy behind our approach and the impact it can have on students.
A Tool for Understanding Literature and Life: The introduction to the 2007 edition explores the ubiquity of the journey pattern and how it can be used in the classroom.
Excerpts from the teacher’s guide: Excerpts from The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life: teacher’s resources, lesson plans and activities.
The Journey in the Classroom
The Hero’s Journey as a Learning Schema: Viewed as a learning schema, the hero’s journey pattern offers teachers four important benefits for classroom instruction.
Bet it’s not in the Simpsons (the Hero’s Journey): Each year I challenge my ninth graders to find a story (book, film, etc.) that does not contain elements of the journey pattern. When Jeff, a ninth grader in my class, heard the challenge, he shouted out, “I bet it’s not in the Simpsons.” Well, guess what!
The Essay as a Hero’s Journey: though it is not as evident, there is a strong connection between the Hero’s Journey pattern and the essay. In fact, looking at an essay as an “intellectual journey” of sorts can give fresh insights into the essay writing process.
Contemporary Themes in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451:
While most people remember Fahrenheit 451 for its censorship themes, the story explores other, perhaps more important themes for today’s world and our hope for taking our own journey.
Fly Away Home: A film with a female hero: This little film is a powerful statement both on our journeys and how our journeys are inextricably connected with the journeys of others. Best of all it has a female hero―and some heroic geese!
The Hermeneutic Loop: Hermeneutics is the philosophy of interpretation, but it is also the existential process that gives us the sense of “being in our world.”
Jurassic Park: Key themes: Jurassic Park focuses on the impact of science impact on human life, but behind the special effects is a story that explores important existential themes in our journeys and our relations with your world.
Using the film Legend to teach the Hero’s Journey: This early Tom Cruise film is a cult favorite and is excellent for teaching not just the hero’s journey, but different forms of the call to adventure, elements of the journey, the polar nature of the journey, and the call refused.
Teaching and illustrating the Journey concept: Over the years, we’ve tried many ways to describe the journey process. This is one of the best, depicting the journey not just as a circular process, but as a outward spiraling as our horizons grow and change.
Threshold Guardians test our readiness for the quest: This excerpt from our teaching guide discusses threshold guardians and their role in our journeys.