When most of us think of the Hero’s Journey, we think of Joseph Campbell and his monomyth. But the Hero’s Journey transcends mythology: it is the pattern of all human growth and experience. Thus, when you study the structure of any story—literature, film, fact or fiction–you will find the Hero’s Journey pattern or its elements within the framework for that story.
The universality of the Hero’s Journey is especially important to you as a teacher. When you teach students the journey process, you give them a tool that can help them better understand literature and film. But, more importantly, it will help them apply literary themes to their own lives so that the stories they study will help them navigate the journeys they live.
The Hero’s Journey in Five Days
The Hero’s Journey in Five Days will help you give your students this valuable tool. It follows a class three-stage learning process:
1. Activate and formalize students’ innate narrative schema (expressed in the Hero’s Journey pattern) through an engaging exploration and discussion of their favorite films;
2. Introduce the eight basic stages of the journey by reading, discussing and debating Gawain’s journey in the classic legend “Gawain and the Green Knight”, and and
3 Expand and deepen students’ understanding of the journey’s pattern and dynamics through a popular film, Star Wars IV: A New Hope. Students love finding and discussing the stages in Luke Skywalker’s Hero’s Journey. (You may use another film with a strong journey theme, if you prefer. If you need ideas, contact me.)
These lessons are clearly outlined and contain all of the materials, discussion questions and activities you need to present the material thoroughly. You can follow the unit as we present it or modify and expand it to suit your own needs and schedules. Finally, the unit is designed to be used with either Joseph Campbell’s mythologically-based monomyth or with with our psychologically-based “Path of Transformation,” which is based on Campbell’s sequence, but reformatted to be more easily taught and remembered.
See the slideshow above for a thorough description of this powerful unit.
Related
The Hero’s Journey in Five Days | The Hero's Journey: Life's Great Adventure
When most of us think of the Hero’s Journey, we think of Joseph Campbell and his monomyth. But the Hero’s Journey transcends mythology: it is the pattern of all human growth and experience. Thus, when you study the structure of any story—literature, film, fact or fiction–you will find the Hero’s Journey pattern or its elements within the framework for that story.
The universality of the Hero’s Journey is especially important to you as a teacher. When you teach students the journey process, you give them a tool that can help them better understand literature and film. But, more importantly, it will help them apply literary themes to their own lives so that the stories they study will help them navigate the journeys they live.
The Hero’s Journey in Five Days
The Hero’s Journey in Five Days will help you give your students this valuable tool. It follows a class three-stage learning process:
1. Activate and formalize students’ innate narrative schema (expressed in the Hero’s Journey pattern) through an engaging exploration and discussion of their favorite films;
2. Introduce the eight basic stages of the journey by reading, discussing and debating Gawain’s journey in the classic legend “Gawain and the Green Knight”, and and
3 Expand and deepen students’ understanding of the journey’s pattern and dynamics through a popular film, Star Wars IV: A New Hope. Students love finding and discussing the stages in Luke Skywalker’s Hero’s Journey. (You may use another film with a strong journey theme, if you prefer. If you need ideas, contact me.)
These lessons are clearly outlined and contain all of the materials, discussion questions and activities you need to present the material thoroughly. You can follow the unit as we present it or modify and expand it to suit your own needs and schedules. Finally, the unit is designed to be used with either Joseph Campbell’s mythologically-based monomyth or with with our psychologically-based “Path of Transformation,” which is based on Campbell’s sequence, but reformatted to be more easily taught and remembered.
See the slideshow above for a thorough description of this powerful unit.
Related