heroes journey lesson plan

The Hero's Journey

After exploring mythology and the concept of the monomyth, students will create an eBook identifying and explaining the events in the hero's journey in a text they are reading.

App: Wixie ™ or Share ™

You may have heard the story of the twelve trials of Hercules (Herakles) and maybe even the journey of Odysseus. You may have read or watched Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone or read comics like Superman or Spiderman. What do stories about ancient Greek heroes, wizards, muggles, and super heroes have in common?

While these tales may seem different, author Joseph Campbell claims they are all variations of the same story! In his 1949 book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell outlines the monomyth, or archetypal journey, that all of these stories follow. In this project, you will learn the stages of the archetypal hero’s journey and decide for yourself if a story you are reading follows this cycle.

Begin this project by asking your students to brainstorm a list of heroes. Let them know that comic book superheroes, movie heroes, and famous people from history are acceptable options. Have students give a brief summary for each hero so that students who aren't familiar with this person or character have some information and background.

Discuss the qualities of a hero. What makes them heroic? Their character traits? The things that happen to them? How they respond to those events? All of the above? Ask students if they can identify similarities between different heroes on the list.

Introduce the idea of Joseph Campbell's monomyth, or hero's cycle, to your students. Campbell claims that most great heroes have taken the path of this hero's journey. Campbell's stages fall into three main areas of departure, initiation, and return, which are further broken down into 17 stages. Discuss the stages you want to use, such as:

• Call to Adventure
• Refusal of Call
• Supernatural Aid/Mentor
• Crossing the Threshold
• Road of Trials
• Death of Mentor
• Battle with the Brother
• Refusal to Return
• Ultimate Reward
• Master of Two Worlds

The hero cycle is prominent in Greek mythology. Choose a hero like Hercules, Jason, Odysseus, Perseus, or Theseus and walk students through the journey they took, identifying the various stages. Many of these heroes are referenced in popular literature and entertainment. As you explore the cycle, ask students to reflect on these modern connections.

Share Matthew Winkler's great TED-Ed video, What makes a hero?

Then, watch a modern movie and work as a class to determine how it follows the monomyth. You can take your inspiration from completed analyses of movies like Shrek , or start from scratch.

Here are some popular choices for a variety of ages and backgrounds.

• Harry Potter
• The Lion King
• The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
• Wreck-it Ralph
• The Wizard of Oz
• The Princess Bride

Introduce the first part of the cycle and have the students identify the major areas of the story that show the cycle. You may want to model strategies for close reading as you explore a written myth or sample together.

Now it's time for students to practice close reading and identify the hero's journey in a different story.

Give students a list of books they can read to analyze for the use of the monomyth. Assign individual students a story, depending on their reading and maturity level. Here are a few examples at different reading levels, and you can find more titles with an online search like "hero's journey book list."

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Dragon Wings by Laurence Yep
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
• Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O'Brien
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Princess Bride by William Goldman
• The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

If you are using Wixie , students can use the Hero's Journey template to define each stage and identify it using examples from the text. They can add photos, images, and drawings to illustrate the event and record audio to summarize events. In addition to having conversations as they are working, have students turn in the first draft as a formative assessment you can use to gauge understanding and monitor progress.

If several students are reading the same book, have them share their work in small literature circles and discuss how they identified the stages. Allow students to revise and edit their work before turning in a second draft.

To create an opportunity to build comprehension and narrative writing skills, ask students make a new file in Share and write journal entries from the hero's perspective at each stage of the cycle. Encourage them to draw a scene of the event, including simple path animation if desired, and then record their voice as they share details of the events.

Have students publish their journal as an ePub file and share it using a service like iTunes or Dropbox. If you don’t have ready access to eReaders, you can also export work to PDF for easy sharing.

Have students present their findings to the rest of the class or with a partner. You might also have them present their work to another class to teach other students about the hero’s journey.

Begin by evaluating student ideas as you work to list heroes and identify similarities between them.

Examine students' analyses of a hero's journey to determine their comprehension of the big ideas as well as their skill at close reading of a text. Have they been able to identify a scene or passage specific to each stage in the cycle? If not, have they made an argument why a stage isn't evident?

Their journal entries will also help you assess comprehension and narrative writing.

Joseph Campbell. The Hero with a Thousand Faces ISBN: 1577315936

Christopher Vogler. The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers ISBN: 193290736X

Myth Web: Heroes

Heroes of History: Thinkquest

What makes a hero? Matthew Winkler - TED-Ed

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts - Grade 6

Reading: Literature

Key Ideas and Details

1. Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

3. Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

5. Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.

Speaking and Listening

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

5. Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, images, music, sound) and visual displays in presentations to clarify information.

Text Types and Purposes

3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

Production and Distribution of Writing

6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.

ISTE NETS for Students 2016:

6. Creative Communicator Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals. Students:

a. choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.

b. create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.

c. communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations.

d. publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.

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Teaching the Hero’s Journey

To introduce the Hero’s Journey, I first teach my students about the Hero’s Journey. Then, I show the Ted Ed video “What Makes a Hero?” by Matthew Winkler. This video is spectacular for a couple reasons. First, I love how it presents the Hero’s Journey in relation to a clock and a cycle. This visual sticks with the students. I also like how this video relates to the notion of the Hero’s Journey to students in their everyday lives.

Once we go over the video, we then read a short story and track the protagonist’s journey as a hero. Together, we identify each element of the Hero’s Journey cycle as outlined in the video and then discuss the qualities that make the character a hero. This helps me gauge whether or not my students are ready for the Hero’s Journey project. I have a graphic organizer in my Sticky Note Literary Analysis Unit.

The Hero’s Journey poster project is one of my favorite projects of the year. Students form groups of 2-3 and select a movie or book that they feel is a quintessential representation of the Hero’s Journey. Together, they discuss the movie and create a poster that represents all of the elements of the Hero’s Journey. I provide my students with a tabloid size piece of paper (affiliate link) for the project so they have more space to create.

To conclude the assignment, I have students present their findings to the class so that they can practice their presentation and public speaking skills.

I usually give my students 2-3 days of class time to work in their groups.

Teaching the Hero’s Journey: the 12 Stages

Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey is a narrative structure that describes the typical stages that a hero undergoes in a story. Following along with the arch, these are the 12 stages of the hero’s journey.

• The Ordinary World: The hero begins in a normal, mundane world, often unaware of the adventure that awaits.
• The Call to Adventure: The hero receives a call to leave their ordinary world and embark on a journey.
• Refusal of the Call: The hero initially hesitates or refuses the call, often due to fear or a sense of inadequacy.
• Meeting the Mentor: The hero encounters a mentor or guide who provides guidance, advice, or tools for the journey.
• Crossing the First Threshold: The hero commits to the adventure and crosses into the unknown, leaving their ordinary world behind.
• Tests, Allies, and Enemies: The hero faces a series of challenges, makes new friends, and encounters adversaries on the journey.
• Approach to the Inmost Cave: The hero approaches a critical point in the journey, often facing their greatest fear or confronting a powerful enemy.
• Ordeal: The hero undergoes a significant trial or ordeal that tests their abilities and resolve.
• Reward (Seizing the Sword): After overcoming the ordeal, the hero earns a reward or gains a valuable insight that propels them forward.
• The Road Back: The hero begins the journey back to their ordinary world, often pursued by enemies or facing additional challenges.
• Resurrection: The hero faces a final, often life-threatening challenge that transforms them and solidifies their hero status.
• Return with the Elixir: The hero returns to their ordinary world with newfound knowledge, a treasure, or a boon that benefits themselves and others.

This is the first of two blog posts that outlines how I teach the Hero’s Journey. The next post will be about short stories and poems that you can use in your classroom when teaching the Hero’s Journey.

12 Comments

I love the idea of this project. Students are making connections between their favorite movies or tv shows and the concept they are learning. I want to revisit this blog post once I am a teacher and see if I can create something similar based on my curriculum.

Hi Angel, Thank you for reading.

Hi! This is great!

What were the texts (poems and short stories) that you would use to teach the hero's journey?

Hi Yinka, Thank you for reading. I will be publishing a blog post this weekend about the literature I use when teaching hero's journey.

I did a long unit with my high school students where we watched the cartoon mini Series Over the Garden Wall then plotted the moments of the Hero’s Journey together.

This comment has been removed by the author.

I love this project. I would like to try it with my grade 11 ESL students.

I forget to ask: Which short story do you use with your graphic organizer?

One of my favorite stories to use is Contents of a Dead Man's Pockets.

I so love this project. Will the project guidelines and rubric be available for purchase on your TPT store? Thanks so much for sharing this great idea!

I don't have a rubric for this assignment right now. It is one that I give mostly full credit on as long as students mostly get the concept.

I have been tinkering with adjusting my units for next year so that there is a cohesive, year-long focus. I never thought about teaching The Hero's Journey first thing, but I like the sound of this! Coincidentally, my first short story is "Thank You, M'am" which you mentioned in the second post. Thanks yet again for making me a better teacher!

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Teaching Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey

Joseph Campbell, an American mythological researcher, wrote a famous book entitled  The Hero with a Thousand Faces .  In his lifelong research Campbell discovered many common patterns running through hero myths and stories from around the world.  Years of research lead Campbell to discover several basic stages that almost every hero-quest goes through (no matter what culture the myth is a part of).  He calls this common structure “the monomyth.” It is commonly referred to as "The Hero's Journey."

George Lucas, the creator of  Star Wars , claims that Campbell’s monomyth was the inspiration for his groundbreaking films.  Lucas also believes that Star Wars is such a popular saga because it taps into a timeless story-structure which has existed for thousands of years.

The Hero's Journey is a great technique for analyzing all kinds of stories--whether they be myths, legends, films, novels, short stories, plays, or even comic books.  Educating students about the Hero's Journey encourages them to think about plot structure, character motivation, and theme. It also leads them to consider what qualities they associate with heroes. Are heroes born or are they made? Are there heroes in real-life or must they be larger-than-life? Who are the heroes in our society. Listed below are some resources that I have found successful in my own classroom for teaching the Hero's Journey:

THE HERO'S JOURNEY (PDF)    This worksheet gives an overview of the Hero's Journey, as outlined by Joseph Campbell and others.  Each step is listed, along with examples from film and literature.

SAMPLE HERO'S JOURNEY UNIT (PDF) This outline provides a suggested unit using this site's resources.

WHY YOUNG PEOPLE NEED HERO STORIES NOW MORE THAN EVER (ARTICLE)  This article explains the numerous real-life applications of the Hero's Journey, a message of hope that young people need to hear! 

DETAILED PRESENTATION ON THE STAGES OF THE HERO'S JOURNEY WITH LIFE-APPLICATION (SALE ITEM)   This in-depth presentation covers the stages of the Hero's Journey, using visual examples from   Star Wars   and   The Lion King.  Each stage also has a "My Journey" section that gives each stage a real-life application. Also comes with a note-taking sheet with student use.

DESIGN-A-QUEST: CREATIVE GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS FOR MAKING YOUR OWN HERO'S JOURNEY (SALE ITEM)  Want to give your students some practice writing their own Hero's Journey? This set of graphic organizers is perfect for young writers who want to invent some heroes of their own. Using your choice of written-response only or a creative, comic-book-style combination of artwork and written responses, these graphic organizers allow students to create their own hero story. This item also includes a sample Hero's Journey using Disney's  Aladdin  as an example.

How to Teach the Hero’s Journey: Engaging Students with the Monomyth Story Structure

Looking for advice on how to teach the Hero’s Journey in your secondary ELA class? Between a unit outline, a list of teachable titles, and engaging activities, this post is just what you need to get started.

What defines a hero?

That’s the simple question I love to open with when teaching the Hero’s Journey in secondary ELA. The best part? As students partake in an engaging discussion about their favorite heroes and the qualities that make them so great, they are unknowingly laying the foundation for your lesson. Because what your students might not realize is that all heroes, no matter who they are, where they come from, or what heroic quest they complete, all have something in common.

And that, my teacher friend, is the essence of the Hero’s Journey.

Keep reading to learn more about teaching the Hero’s Journey and my best tips for making it an engaging voyage for your students.

What Is the Hero’s Journey and Why Is It Important?

The Hero’s Journey is a classic narrative pattern that traces the transformative trek of a protagonist from their ordinary world into the unknown. During this journey, the character sets out on some form of adventure, meets mentors along the way, faces various obstacles, and overcomes challenges. In the end, they return home a hero equipped with newfound knowledge, perspective, or a physical object for the greater good.

This archetypal structure is as old as time and can be found in myths, legends, and stories throughout history. However, it’s widely used in modern literature and cinema as well. Luke Skywalker? Hero. Katniss Everdeen? Hero. The same can be said for characters ranging from Harry Potter to Spiderman. The Hero’s Journey can be traced throughout movies like Finding Nemo , The Lion King , The Wizard of Oz , Moana , Frozen , and even Shrek . I mean the list goes on and on.

Why Teach the Hero’s Journey?

By exploring this archetypal pattern, students can recognize and analyze the deeper meaning behind a wide variety of narratives, fostering critical thinking, empathy, and a deeper appreciation for storytelling. However, the importance of The Hero’s Journey extends beyond literature—and that’s really why it’s important.

The Hero’s Journey is a reflection of a universal human experience of growth and self-discovery. (What teenager can’t relate to that?) Therefore, students can apply the monomyth to their own lives. They can take what they learned and use it to see their inner hero as they answer their own calls to adventures, face challenges, conquer their fears, and come out on the other side with newfound insights and knowledge.

It’s this real-life connection that gives the Hero’s Journey its true power and explains why the literary framework has stood the test of time.

What Are the 12 Stages of the Hero’s Journey?

The Hero’s Journey can be broken down into 12 main phases. While not all heroes experience every stage in the same way, it goes a little something like this:

• The Ordinary World:  An introduction to the protagonist’s everyday life, relationships, and any challenges or limitations they face are first introduced.
• The Call to Adventure:  The protagonist receives a compelling invitation or challenge that initiates the on the heroic journey.
• Refusal of the Call:  The protagonist resists the call to adventure due to fear, doubt, or a sense of inadequacy.
• Meeting the Mentor:  The protagonist encounters a mentor figure who provides guidance, advice, and assistance needed for the journey.
• Crossing the Threshold:  The protagonist leaves the familiar and ordinary world behind and enters the unknown.
• Tests, Allies, and Enemies:  The protagonist encounters various obstacles,enemies, and allies that test their will, determination and character.
• Approach to the Inmost Cave:  The protagonist prepares for a significant challenge or confrontation, symbolizing their innermost fears, doubts, or weaknesses.
• Ordeal:  The protagonist is pushed to their limits when faced with their greatest challenge, undergoing a transformative experience.
• Reward:  After overcoming the ordeal, the protagonist is rewarded with something, often knowledge, that empowers them to continue their journey.
• The Road Back:  The protagonist begins a journey back to the ordinary world.
• Resurrection:  They face a final challenge, where they must apply everything they have learned and experienced.
• Return with the Elixir:  The protagonist returns and is reunited with the ordinary world, having been transformed by “the elixir”—an object, knowledge, or insight—for the greater good.

How to Teach the Hero’s Journey

Want to maintain student engagement throughout the trek of teaching the Hero’s Journey? Read through the steps below for an easy-to-follow outline to bring the narrative pattern to life in your classroom.

Step 1: Begin with a Conversation

Before formally introducing the concept, get students thinking (and engaged) with a simple conversation. Consider your essential questions for the unit and let them guide your initial discussion. Have students reflect on the heroes in their lives, asking them to work together to define what makes a hero in the first place. Here are a few questions you can use to get started:

• What does it mean to be a hero?
• Who do you consider as heroes in your life?
• Do all heroes share certain traits?
• Are heroes born or made?
• How can an individual change by taking heroic action?
• Do heroes have responsibilities to themselves? To others? To Society?
• What draws us to stories about heroes, real or fiction?

Step 2: Introduce the Concept

Next, provide students with a clear definition of the Hero’s Journey and explain its 12 stages. It’s helpful to use visual aids such as diagrams or infographics to help students visualize the structure as a full circle and transformative journey. Additionally, you can incorporate brief videos, like this TED-Ed , to provide an overview of the journey, too.

Step 3: Start with Low-Stakes Application

Once students understand what the Hero’s Journey is, have them work together to think of relevant examples of characters or plotlines that follow the pattern. As a class, create a list of familiar characters in popular movies and books that they believe represent the Hero’s Journey. This is a low-stakes way to get them to start applying the concept. Note: You do not need to dive into deep analysis here. Don’t worry, that comes next.

Step 3: Analyze Examples

Before diving into a more complex text, check for understanding using examples from well-known stories or films. Analyze a popular movie plot, working as a class to identify each stage of the Hero’s Journey. Pause to discuss the significance of key moments and check for comprehension. Encourage students to share their observations and interpretations of the Hero’s Journey along the way.

Strive to incorporate modern examples of the Hero’s Journey that resonate with your students’ interests and experiences. This will heighten student engagement and help them see the relevance of the Hero’s Journey in their own lives.

Step 4: Bring in the Literature

Whether you decide to teach the Hero’s Journey using short stories or a novel, select texts that provide clear examples of the narrative pattern. If this is the first time your students are working with the Hero’s Journey, analyze the selected literature together to ensure understanding along the way. Scaffold the analysis by using a mix of read-alouds, turn and talks, group work, class discussions, comprehension questions, and quick writes. Additionally, have students track the progress of the Hero’s journey in their notes or using a graphic organizer.

Step 5: Apply Student Knowledge

Provide students with various opportunities to apply their knowledge of the Hero’s Journey through writing assignments, creative projects , or group presentations. Start with simple tasks, such as identifying the stages in a short story, and gradually move towards more complex projects, like crafting their own Hero’s Journey narratives or writing a literary analysis essay .

What to Read When Teaching the Hero’s Journey?

Whether you’re looking to pull excerpts or to dive into full-length texts, here are some engaging titles you can use in your secondary classroom when teaching the Hero’s Journey:

● The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien ● Life of Pi by Yann Martel ● To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ● The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain ● Lord of the Flies by William Golding ● The Odyssey by Homer ● The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho ● The Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum ● The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins ● The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan ● Holes by Louis Sachar ● Divergent by Veronica Roth ● Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling

On the other hand, if you’re looking for short stories for teaching the Hero’s Journey, read this post here.  

Exciting Activities to Engage Students with the Hero’s Journey

Whether you’re looking for formative check-ins or summative assessments, here are some engaging activities that give your students an opportunity to shine as the Hero in their learning journey:

• Hero’s Journey Roadmap: Play up the “adventure” element by encouraging students to design a creative roadmap to express the various stages of the Hero’s Journey. Adapt this activity to reflect the 12 stages or the narrative structure in general or map out a specific character’s experience. Either way, encourage students to use images, quotes, and symbols to enhance this visual representation.
• Everyday Heroes: While we associate the term “hero” with characters from comic books and movies, there are plenty of heroes among us. Therefore, this activity encourages students to take a closer look at the essential question, “What makes a hero?” Have students identify real-life heroes and present what their real-life version of this journey looks like. These figures can include historical figures, athletes, changemakers, activists, or even everyday people in their own community.
• Hero’s Journey Comparative Analysis: Assign students two texts, characters, or films that follow the Hero’s Journey. The twist? The plotlines should differ in genre, time period, or cultural context. Ask students to write a comparative analysis essay, exploring how the stages are portrayed in each text while highlighting that heroes come in all different shapes and sizes. To set students up for success, encourage them to start with a simple Venn diagram before translating the information into more thorough writing.
• Hero’s Journey in the Twitterverse : Students these days document everything on social media. So, why not document their learning? After reading a text, have students represent the character’s Hero’s Journey through a series of Tweets (or Instagram posts). Each post should highlight a specific stage in the journey. By the end, students should present 12 posts that showcase the character’s heroic transformation from start to finish. You can have students create dummy accounts or complete the activity using social media post templates.
• A Multigenre Monomyth: Rather than completing a classic character analysis, challenge students to create a multi-genre representation of a character’s Hero’s Journey. Whether students analyze a hero from a classroom text or from pop culture, have them explore said character’s journey through various genres. Each stage of the Hero’s Journey should be represented and analyzed through a different genre. In the end, they’ll have a multigenre representation of how the character undergoes transformation and overcomes challenges throughout the story.

Examples of genres include poetry, journal entries, abstract recipes, formal analysis, song lyrics, artwork, comic strips, maps, news articles, and more.

• Create Your Own Hero’s Journey: Encourage students to write their own Hero’s Journey stories. They can create original characters, outline the stages, and craft a compelling narrative that follows the pattern. Students can share their stories with the class or in small groups. As an alternative, have your students create the outline or story map for a short story that would follow the hero’s journey.

The activities above provide diverse ways for students to showcase their understanding of this narrative structure. Whichever activities you choose, your students are sure to showcase creativity, critical thinking, and engagement.

Final Thoughts on Teaching the Hero’s Journey

Before you begin your own heroic journey of teaching this beloved narrative pattern, remember that the Hero’s Journey is about much more than literature itself. Use the Hero’s Journey to engage students in the power of storytelling and self-discovery. Talk about real-world application!

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Preparing for the Journey: An Introduction to the Hero Myth

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

Through class discussion and reading picture books, students explore the literary concept of a hero and the elements of a hero's journey.  Unsing an online tool, students will identify the central elements of a hero's journey in a simple text. After analyzing the picture books and presenting their findings to the class, students are encouraged to embark on the study of a more substantial text.

Featured Resources

• The Hero's Journey : This interactive tool gives students the information they need to take a closer look at an epic hero or create a hero of their own.

From Theory to Practice

In With Rigor For All: Teaching the Classics to Contemporary Students , Carol Jago notes that one of the roadblocks to cultivating genuine student response to challenging texts is students' lack of knowledge about story structure, and that teachers' "withholding information about how a story works may make it impossible for some students to have any response at all" (39). Jago goes on to observe that while some story structures, such as the pattern of the hero's journey, "may be so familiar to an English teacher that they hardly bear commenting on, this is not the case for many high school readers" and that "it is unrealistic to assume that ... they will figure out the structure themselves" (39-40). This lesson prepares students for a challenging text by providing multiple exposures to activities and texts that promote an understanding of the hero's journey structure. Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

Materials and Technology

• Internet-connected computers for each group
• Copies of books from the Introducing the Hero's Journey through Picture Books list

Preparation

• Though this lesson can stand alone as a basic introduction to the hero's journey, it is designed as preparation for reading or viewing a more substantial work. Select the hero's journey text that students will eventually read or view and keep it in mind as students complete this introductory activity.
• Obtain copies of books from the Introducing the Hero's Journey through Picture Books list.
• Test The Hero's Journey tool and familiarize yourself with its content and layout. Ensure that you have the proper Flash plug-ins installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page .
• Bookmark The Hero's Journey tool and reserve computers for student use in the necessary sessions.

Student Objectives

Students will:

• gain exposure to the central elements of the hero's journey monomyth .
• apply the elements of the hero's journey to a simple text.
• summarize the elements of the hero's journey in preparation for reading a more advanced text.

Session One

• Harry Potter
• Lord of the Rings
• Allow for brief discussion within groups before letting students share their ideas.
• Encourage students as they make connections (such as the presence of a central character who takes a journey, a series of adventures, magical elements, and so forth), but do not feel compelled to start labeling or guiding observations too directly at this point.
• Ask students to continue thinking about those connections as they read a picture book within their groups.
• Give each group a copy of one of the books from the Introducing the Hero's Journey through Picture Books list.
• Have each group read the assigned book and discuss it briefly, noting any connections to the conversation at the beginning of the session.
• Collect the picture books for use in the next session.

Session Two

• Have groups from the previous session gather around a computer. Return the book they read previously to them for use during this session.
• Direct students to The Hero's Journey tool and have them enter a name for their group and the title of their picture book.
• Read through the introductory text with students and inform them that they will be applying the information from the tool to their book.
• Briefly demonstrate how the tool works and give students time to apply the tool to their book.
• Point out that not every book will contain all the elements, but ask students to note those absences in the tool rather than simply leaving the elements blank. Also ask students to take note of any ways they see their story deviating from the pattern in the tool.
• Give students time to complete the tool for their book. Remind them that printing is the only way to save their work. Collect a printout for each group at the end of the session.

Session Three

• Explain to students that they will be using the printouts from The Hero's Journey tool to present their picture books as examples of hero's journey.
• Give groups a few minutes to meet before they make their brief, informal presentation.
• Remind students to listen attentively as the groups present their books as hero's journeys.
• Close the session by clarifying the elements of the hero's journey and previewing the more substantial hero's journey the class will be studying next.
• Consider using the ReadWriteThink lesson plan Heroes Are Made of This: Studying the Character of Heroes to enhance the study of the literary hero.
• Have student groups use the Profile Publisher to create a profile for a hero at the various stages of his or her journey.
• Monomyth : Part of UC Berkeley's History Through Literature Project, this site provides another visual representation of the hero's journey as well as application and activities for three world hero myths.
• The Monomyth Cycle : This site uses images from popular film to illustrate the elements of the hero's journey.
• Heroes of History : This site provides an overview of the hero's journey monomyth, as well as examples from Norse, Celtic, Greek, and American culture.
• Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason : A follow-up Website to the work Bill Moyers did with Joseph Campbell, this page provides text, audio, and video perspectives on the power of myths.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Review groups’ analyses of the picture books for clarity and depth of understanding.
• At the end of the last session, further assess students’ understanding by asking each student to put the elements of the hero’s journey into their own words.
• Calendar Activities
• Student Interactives

Students compare the film versions of The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's novels. Students then imagine how a scene in a current novel that they are reading would be filmed.

Students can use this tool to learn about the elements of the hero's journey, analyze a text that follows the hero's journey pattern, or start creating a hero story of their own.

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