Teaching Mythology and Folklore

1. Teaching Mythology and Folklore By Janet Dawson

2. My Question • How can I teach mythology and folklore to help students better understand themselves, the society in which they live, and the literature society has produced?

3. Teaching Mythology through translations of Original Greek and Roman Texts • Oral Reading • Exposure to multiple translations • Grammar in the context of reading

4. The Monomyth: Teaching Multicultural Mythology through Archetypes • Expose students to the mythologies of many cultures to give students a broad perspective of mythology • Use the concept of the monomyth and archetypes such as the hero’s journey, the mentor, the temptress, the earth mother, and the devil to help students to make sense of these myths.

5. Writing to Understand Mythology and Folklore and Writing with Mythology and Folklore to Understand the self • Modern myths • Fairy tale retellings • Community heroes • Personal Cinderella stories

6. Writing to Understand Mythology and Folklore and Writing with Mythology and Folklore to Understand the self Now why, I asked myself, couldn’t they do that when I assigned a whole variety of topics on The Crucible? The answer was obvious. The folklore had belonged to the kids from the beginning: the experiences they were recreating were theirs; the results they tabulated followed from the data they collected; the reflection on what this all meant came from them. My Crucible topics (“Choose one of the following:”) were mine; good as they were, they didn’t come from the kids, and so the writing was, at best, okay. -Jane Juska