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Subject

English Language Arts (2005)

Objectives

• Students will take notes to identify the characteristics of a myth using videos from United Streaming and assigned websites.
• Students will work with a partner to select a myth of their choice and identify the characteristics that make this story a myth.
• Students will create a web using Inspiration software that shows the characteristics that make their selected story a myth and support them with details from the story.

Description

For this lesson created specifically to integrate the use of the SMART Board, students will view a variety of animated myths in order to create a web that identifies the characteristics of a myth. Then students will choose a myth from selected internet sites in order to create a web (using class model) with Inspiration software that identifies the characteristics and supporting details that makes this story a myth.

Website(s)

Encyclopedia Mythica
In Search of Myths and Heroes
The Big Myth
Scholastic: Myths From Around the World
United Streaming
First People: "How Coyote Stole Fire"
First People: Image of Fire Beings
Inspiration (Free Download)

Duration

Three 45-minute periods

Materials

Teacher: SMART Board with internet access, United Streaming account with videos listed in the Playlist, Inspiration software, class set of computers, pens/pencils

 

Students: computers with internet access and Inspiration software, notebooks, pens/pencils

Procedure

Day 1

• Using the SMART Board, the teacher will display animated myths from the United Streaming videos Myth and Legends of Ancient Rome and/or Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece.
• Students will independently listen to take notes that define a myth and identify its characteristics.
• Using computers, students will access the websites  Encyclopedia Mythica, and In Search of Myths and Heroes to add to their notes by defining a myth and including additional characteristics.
• After viewing the videos and websites, students will work with a partner to share their notes and create a joint list showing the common characteristics of a myth.
• Using the software "Inspiration" displayed on the SMART Board, the teacher will create a web with student input, entitled "Characteristics of a Myth."
• Students will copy the web into the Reading Section of their notebooks.

Days 2-3

• Using laptop computers, the class will read an online version of the Native American myth “How Coyote Stole Fire."
• After reading the story, the teacher will use Inspiration software to create a web with student input showing why “How Coyote Stole Fire” is a myth using supporting details from the story.
• Students will copy the web into the Reading Section of their notebooks.
• Students will work with a partner to view myths from the websites Scholastic Myths From Around the World and The Big Myth to select a myth of their choice to read and identify its characteristics.
• Students will create a web with Inspiration software that identifies the characteristics that make their story a myth following the model created in class. (Which ancient culture created this myth? Is there a hero? Who? What is the purpose? How do you know?)
• Students will support the characteristics with details from the story following the model created in class for the myth “How Coyote Stole Fire.”
• Teacher will circulate the room to assist students.

 

(You must download the free "Inspiration" software listed under "Websites" before you will be able to open the attachments below.)

• Characteristics of a Myth
• "How Coyote Stole Fire" Web

 

Assessment

Student created Inspiration web will be assessed with the attached rubric.

Rubric: Inspiration Myth Web

Extension Activity

Students may work independently or with a partner to write and illustrate an original myth using Scholastic: Myths Writing Workshop and Scholastic: Myths Brainstorming Machine.

Related Academic Standards

New York State

6R7 Compare and contrast how different formats, including print and digital media, contribute to the understanding of a subject. (RI&RL)

6R9 Use established criteria in order to evaluate the quality of texts. Make connections to other texts, ideas, cultural perspectives, eras, and personal experiences. (RI&RL)

RL.6.7 Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text, including contrasting what they "see" and "hear" when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.

RL.6.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

RL.6.11 Recognize, interpret, and make connections in narratives, poetry, and drama, ethically and artistically to other texts, ideas, cultural perspectives, eras, personal events, and situations.

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