Myth Lesson Plans

Learners define myths and explain why mythic figures are used in movies. After reading an article, they discover the myth surrounding the lost city of Atlantis. They read and examine myths from ancient civilizations and identify similarities among characters, themes and plots. They create a children's book based on myths of different civilizations.

Have your middle schoolers role play the Korean creation myth as they become familiar with Korean religion and culture. They will be able to recognize historical facts and influences, as well as examine how the mythic message continues to unite Koreans. This would be an excellent way to demonstrate how myths become part of a culture's identity.

Srtudents explore the folktale and folklore genres as well as the world of myths. They read myths and folktales to increase knowledge of world cultures and traditions and follow the writing process to create writing in different genres.

Students discover myths. In this myths instructional activity, students gain understanding of the origin of myths. Students use graphic organizers to examine new vocabulary and organize information. Students determine if stories they read are a myth or not.

Fourth graders read a Cherokee myth about the origin of strawberries. After reading the story, they add another chapter to it and read their additions to the class. Or, as a group activity, they each write a few sentences and then pass it on to the next student to add to it.

Students relate the myth genre to history and culture.  In this myths lesson, students compare culture in the past and present.  Students answer critical thinking questions  and discuss the unique characteristics of the myths. Students recognize characteristics of myths and present and original folktale.

Students read and study myths, folktales, folklore, and fairy tales of different cultures through history. They use web tools to conduct research about different cultures and to write and publish an original folktale. they share their folktale with class members using appropriate fluency skills

Students discover folk lore.  In this creative writing lesson, students investigate the myths and traditions of several cultures compare them to modern myths.  Students utilize the Internet to write their own versions of classic tales.

Compare and contrast characteristics of folktales, myths, and legends. Distinguishing the differences between each, the lesson plan prompts young readers to study various passages and write their own folktale. Resource links could be helpful in studying the ways myths and folklore is passed down from generation to generation, and retold in modern fiction.

Middle schoolers identify elements of myths, fables, and legends as they read an example of each.  After reading an example of each type of story, they list elements from each.  They compare and contrast these features by completing a graphic organizer on the differences.