Introduction and general comment: This Heroism unit grew out of a study of the Sumerian civilization and the myth of Gilgamesh by fifth graders, who start the year with the Fertile Crescent and other river valley civilizations.  The first hero we studied was Gilgamesh, starting with a summary of the myth.  We quickly added the 6-8th graders to the learning group.  This particular group was male, but it could just as easily be done with a coed or all female class as well.  The sixth grade is studying ancient history starting with the Greek and Romans, so we included Hercules, Hector and Achilles in our discussion of heroes.  The seventh and eight grade are studying American History (up to the Civil War for the 7^th grade and Civil War and beyond for the 8^th grade).  Therefore, we included Shane, a movie about the post-Civil War West.  The eighth graders were able to bring their knowledge of the Homesteading Act and the range wars to the discussion of that movie. The discussion about Fahrenheit 451 was enhanced by the seventh grade understanding of the basic American values embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  This fits with the first and second standard.  The students will be asked to discuss heroes appropriate to their social studies unit when they do their individual presentations.

Social Studies

Standard 1: History of the United States and New York

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

Comment: Students are being asked to bring these understandings to their discussion of heroism. Where they need to, they are doing research to improve their knowledge of the context in which the heroes operate.

Standard 2: World History

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.

Comment: Students are being asked to bring these understandings to their discussion of heroism. Where they need to, they are doing research to improve their knowledge of the context in which the heroes operate.

Standard 3: Geography

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface.

Comment: From Gilgamesh to Montag, heroes operate within their environment, including the geography of the place they live.  Also, they are created by people who live in a certain world.  The Sumerian myths are formed by the annual floods, Hector and Achilles by the geopolitics that bring them into conflict with each other.  As we continue to study, we will explore this further, looking at a globe to see the settings of the hero stories.

Standard 4: Economics

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the

United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the United States and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms.

Comment: Shane, Twelve Angry Men, Fahrenheit 451 and Pride of the Yankees each show the economic pressures that create and or influence the conflicts in the stories.  The students have been especially astute in their understanding of these issues and have been able to relate them to current economic conditions.  We will be discussing this further, especially as the students start to create their own hero tales.

Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation. 

Comment: The type of government which people create for themselves speaks volumes about their ethos, and this is reflected in their mythology as well.  Before we finish the Heroism unit, we will be drawing these parallels more explicitly.

English Language Arts Standards

Standard 1: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts,

and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Comment: The students have been doing this unit since 2/6/06 (8 school days, not counting the snow day, the school trip and the 2 days I was out sick).  In that time, they have engaged in 6 extensive conversations about the nature of heroism.  They generated lists of heroes (real and imaginary, ancient and modern), characteristics of heroes, and movies about heroes.  They discussed in class and with their parents (presumably, since the parents had to indicate movies of which they approved) what movies were and were not appropriate according to the criteria of decency, conformity to the topic, and entertainment value.  The students are also being taught how to analyze and produce expository and persuasive writing, note taking and outlining skills, and oral and written presentation skills.

Standard 2: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.

Students will read and listen to oral, written, and electronically produced texts and performances, relate texts and performances to their own lives, and develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions the texts and performances represent. As speakers and writers, students will use oral and written language for self-expression and artistic creation.

Comment: Students have discussed and started to write (developing PowerPoint presentations) about their ideas about heroism, including that of siblings fighting illness, parents and grandparents trying to make a living while raising a family, and people trying to improve their own behavior in the face of peer pressure to revert to old habits.

Standard 3: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation.

As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will present, in oral and written language and from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.

Comment: The students have watched four movies, comparing and contrasting their approach to heroism, the literary devices (plot, setting, characters, author intent, and imagery) and conformity or difference from normative hero literature.  We have compared actor’s performances.  We have discussed the social, historical and cultural contexts of the settings of the movies AND of the eras in which they were produced.

Standard 4: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for social interaction.

Students will use oral and written language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.

Comment: The students are developing the ability to participate in heated discussions about strongly held opinions while remaining respectful of others.  This is a hard skill to develop and will require more time to fully flourish.