Creating Your Own Heros Journey.

Alisha Gullion
Standards
1. Composing literary and narrative texts that incorporate a range of stylistic
devices demonstrates knowledge of genre features
a. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events
using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and wellstructured event sequences. (CCSS: W.7.3
iii. Use a range of appropriate genre features (engaging plot,
dialogue, stanza breaks) to develop and organize texts
vi. Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and
point of view and introducing a narrator and/or characters;
organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.
(CCSS: W.7.3a)
vii. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and
description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
(CCSS: W.7.3b)

Essential Questions
What can myths tell us about the culture from which they originated?
How are ancient myths relevant to our own lives?
Learning Targets
I can structure my myth in a script format.
Since the script needs to be formatted a certain way, a good first step for
students is to set up their papers in the correct format. I can easily assess this
target by walking around and checking that each student has formatted their
papers correctly. If I see that several students are making the same mistake, I can
pull the whole class together and go do a quick check in.
I can produce a list of characters for my myth with a short description of each
character, and I can use dialogue among my characters, and the use of a narrator,
to tell my myth.
(Instructional strategy I am working on is out of the book Teach Like a Champion by
Doug Lemov. The technique is called the 4ms, and it has to do with writing learning
targets. Lemov talks about creating learning targets that are manageable,
measurable, made first, and most important. I am hoping that this strategy will give
me a new way to think about learning targets, and help me connect my activity,
objective, and assessment together.)

Lesson Breakdown

1. Students will begin by coming into class and getting started on the Do
Now posted on the board.
For their Do Now, students will need to get out their planning
materials for their Heros Journey writing. They will need to tell
someone at their table the most exciting part of their journey.
This helps students get ideas from one another and it ensures
that students have the required materials for the day.
2. When the teacher finishes taking role, she will get students to focus
back at the front and ask them to share any good ideas they heard
from a peer. She will then let them guess on the idiomatic expression
for a wonderful prize.
3. The teacher will then explain that we are going to the computer lab for
the majority of the class period to work on our Heros Journey scripts.
She will explain that the class should be finished with their planning
and have begun typing up their scripts. Students need to ensure that
their myths are correctly formatted in script writing form. The teacher
will bring up some student examples from some of the other classes to
discuss the formatting with this class.
Instructional strategy: The teacher will pull the scripts up onto
the smartboard and ask students to silently look over the scripts
on their own. Then they will turn to their table mates and share
what they notice about the formatting and how the student used
dialogue in their story. She will let students know that she is
going to call on number twos to share out with the whole class.
This way the teacher is doing a form of think-pair-share and
taking advantage of the Kagan groupings.
4. Once students go through discussing the various example from other
students, the teacher will go over computer lab expectations with the
class. She will first remind the class that we have been working on
being respectful of others in the class, and she will ask them how they
can be respectful to each other in the lab. She will then use the
instruction strategies from Lemov of setting clear expectations and
using positive framing. She will tell them clearly what good lab
behavior looks like and will explain that by the end of the period they
are expected to have their papers formatted correctly and at least two
pages completed to be on track.
5. The teacher will then lead students into the lab for work time. During
this time she will go around and check in with students and ensure that
they are formatted their papers correctly.
6. At the end of the period the teacher will ask students to show her on
their fingers how many pages they completed.
Assessment

The teacher will conduct two forms of assessment. The first will be to check
in with each student to make sure they understand and are formatting their
papers correctly. She will also check that each student has a list of characters
and is using only dialogue and a narrator to tell his or her story. The point of
this assessment is to ensure students dont get too far into their stories and
have to go back and change their formatting. Also, the teacher will use this
observational data to see if she needs to do a quick mini lesson or not.
The second assessment will come at the end of class when the teacher does
a quick check in to see where students are at. This information will be used
to see how many students might need more time when they come back from
break to finish up their scripts.

Differentiation