Myth Unit: Creating Your Own Myth
One key insight that creating your own myth provides is understanding and engaging with human psychology. Throughout the writing process, it was important to consider how narratives play a role in shaping identity, allowing me to observe how myths are often times a reflection of culture. This gave me a deeper appreciation for how myths may serve as a portal of cultural identity, explaining the natural and social reality through the use of symbolic narratives.
I think this experience underscores the power of experiental learning, something I will take with me into my teching endeavors. Encouraging students to tap into their creative minds can help them understand narrative, structure, and symbolism in a way that they can deeply engage with. At the same time, it nurtures creativity and critical thinking skills, valuable in both academic and everyday contexts. Moreover, this process can help students see the relevance of myth through modern storytelling as well.
This experience overall highlights the importance of storytelling and how it shapes our understanding of the world. Being able to partcipate in something like this encourages individuals to make sense of experiences and preserve cultural/personal identities through crafting narratives.
Thank you for reading this blog post, I hope you enjoyed it. See you on the next Rio-lutionary Writing post!
Feel free to preview my myth website here
Hi Rio,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that you mentioned that myth-writing is a process that helps us examine and question motives and cultural beliefs and values. I remember studying Greek mythology in my sixth grade ELA class, but I don’t recall ever being assigned a project that tapped me into my creativity. Having students write their own myth definitely engages them in higher-order thinking and is a culturally relevant activity that can inspire students to incorporate their own backgrounds into their storytelling. Teachers can help students think critically about the world we live in through analyzing myths using critical lenses, just as we did in this class. Giving students agency to come up with their own myth using what they have learned in the process of analyzing myths provides them with the necessary tools to challenge old narratives by creating new ones that are more in alignment with the social and political changes we want to see that would benefit us all.
Hi Rio, I really like how you emphasized the connection between myth-making and understanding human psychology. It’s true that myths often reflect deeper cultural values and identity, which makes creating one such a meaningful experience. I also agree that experiential learning is a powerful tool because it’s one thing to analyze myths, but actually writing one makes you engage with the mechanics on a whole new level. I think it’s awesome that you plan to bring this approach into your teaching. Letting students tap into their creativity while exploring narrative structure and symbolism will definitely make the learning process more engaging and memorable. Plus, your point about myths influencing modern storytelling is so relevant as many movies, books, and shows still draw from ancient myths which makes them feel timeless.
ReplyDelete