Anthropomorphism Day 2: Myth, Morality and Origin

Anansi by Gerald McDermottAnansi by Gerard McDermott

Purpose:
This 90 minute lesson is the second day of the Intro to Anthropomorphism Unit. It covers the Coyote Myths, Anasi Myths, and the ways in which myth use anthropomorphism to reach deeper truths about human nature.

Objective:

Students will be able to compare/contrast anthropomorphism between fable, myth and literature.

Materials:

Required materials are normal text, recommended but not required materials are italicized

Essential Question(s):

How does anthropomorphism allow stories to get at bigger themes?

Inquiry Exercise:

(10 Minutes)
Yesterday, we looked at fables and defined anthropomorphism and allegory. Today, we’ll be hearing two stories from different cultures and taking a closer look at cultural myths and how humans are represented by animals.

Today’s journal entry is a creative piece: You’re walking along and your eyes meet those of an animal. Staring at it, you feel this deep connection in a tense moment. Suddenly, it breaks and disappears, leaving you with this incredible sense of connection. What sort of animal was it? How did the connection feel? About what and why did you feel such a deep connection?

Introduction to New Material:

(15 Minutes)
Every culture has incredible tales involving supernatural creatures and gods in human or animal form. Today, we’ve invited a professional storyteller, one who’s well versed in the African tales of Anansi, the spider and the Native American tales of Coyote of the Navajo. I could easily read these stories to you, but in order to treat the story and culture respectfully, I felt it was important to have an expert who can answer your questions.

Have the storyteller tell one Coyote tale and one Anansi tale. After each story, have a brief Q&A session with the storyteller as described in Guided Practice.

Guided Practice:

(15 Minutes)
For the remainder of today, we’ll be looking at these myths and trying to decipher why and how they work. Where does their meaning come from? To do so, we’re going to try to become experts just like our storyteller guest. Let’s turn to our expert and see what he has to say about the myth we just heard. Encourage students to ask some of the following questions:

  • Why was the story told like that?
  • Where does Anansi/Coyote come from?
  • Was the story inspired by true events?
  • What does the story tell us about the culture it comes from?
  • What do you think this myth is trying to tell us?
  • How does the story use anthropomorphism?

Today, we’re going to breaking into groups again and doing a jigsaw. For those of you who don’t remember or haven’t done a jigsaw before, each group will have a different Coyote or Anansi myth to read, think about and report on back to the group. In addition to a summary, I want you to think about what we discussed: fables, myth, allegory, anthropomorphism.

As we move forward and look at myths, consider our Q&As we just had and some of the answers you heard. You’ll want to be able to answer the same or similar questions about your myth.

Independent Practice:

(45 Minutes)
Groups will take 30-35 minutes reading their myth, discussing it, and getting ready to present. If the *STORYTELLER* wants to float around and assist, great. Key questions: What current event might you be able to relate this to? What about in the community or your life? Does it reflect something you feel in yourself?

As groups present, follow up with the question about how these myths are the same or different from the stories we looked at yesterday and the chapter of the Grapes of Wrath.

Assessment/Closing:

(10 Minutes)
Thank you for staying so focused. I hope you enjoyed our guest today. Seriously.

You should have heard me mention it yesterday, but we’ve finally gotten to our big project for the week: each of you will be writing a short story that draws a parallel to something important. We’ve looked at a bunch of myths and stories, discussed their historical and cultural implications, seen how allegory and anthropomorphism allows us to talk about things without directly accusing people. Tomorrow, we’ll have a chance to start working on our stories if you haven’t already. If you’d like to work with a friend, you can, but I expect a more in depth story and interview if you do.

On Friday, whether or not the story is done, we’ll be recording interviews. You’ll have the chance to interview a classmate about their story, record it, and have them explain how their story uses allegory and anthropomorphism to address their issue or event. Over the weekend, you will finish your story and record a reading of it, possibly with your classmates voicing different characters. Remember the recording will need to be a minimum of 2 minutes long per person.

Take this last section of time to hop on a chromebook and do a little research on an event you’d like to see reflected. Consider the different views and our discussion of respect from Monday in relation to the Uncle Remus story. When you have a topic or two you’re interested in, you can use this time to start writing or chat with me about how you’re going to do it. Tomorrow, I’ll show you my story and you may ask me about it so you have a better example, and we’ll have tomorrow to work on our stories, our questions, and prepare for friday’s recording session.

Continue to Anthropomorphism Day 3: Big Bad Wolf & Villainy
Return to Intro to Anthropomorphism Unit

Anthropomorphism Day 1: Fables and Folktales

Anthropomorphism has been popular since Aesop's time as a way to make human traits universal and easier to digest. Stories like the Uncle Remus stories have further this with racial and ethnic identities.

Purpose:
This 90 minute lesson is the first day of the Intro to Anthropomorphism Unit. It covers the Toirtoise and the Hare, Br’er Rabbit, Chapter 3 of The Grapes of Wrath, and the definition of anthropomorphism.

Objective:

Students will be able to define and identify allegory, fable, moral and anthropomorphism by reading and annotating “The Tortoise & the Hare,” “Mr. Rabbit Meets His Match,” and Grapes of Wrath Chapter 3, co-creating a definition after each.

Materials:

Required materials are normal text, recommended but not required materials are italicized

Essential Question(s):

How do stories connect the traits of animals and humans to get at deeper ideas?

What makes a fable?

Inquiry Exercise:

(15 Minutes)
Opening journal entry: What is a fable? How is this different from a myth, a folktale, or just a story?

Small group discussion of their answers. Key in on moral, key in on animals, key in on universality. Hopefully tie to human nature.

  • What is the purpose of a fable?
  • Why do fables use animals to tell their story?
  • Do you connect to fables?

Introduction to New Material:

(5 Minutes)
Today we’re going to be looking at 4 texts. We’ll be starting with one of Aesop’s fables, “The Tortoise and the Hare.” We’ve already begun discussing what a fable is and what it does. We’re going to be looking at how fables create the meaning they do and how we connect to them. In other words, what makes a fable effective.

We’ll be introducing two key terms today that will relate to the short pieces we read: anthropomorphism and allegory. I know that first one seems daunting, so let me break it down for you really quickly: the prefix, anthro, relates to humans or people; the root, morph, you probably recognize as a way of saying to change. The second one is a literary term you may have run across. You’ll have the opportunity at the end of class to look up actual definitions, but for now, we’ll be building our own definitions in the same way we constructed our class norms at the beginning of the year.

Kindly collect this unit’s annotation guide and a copy of “The Tortoise and the Hare.” You’ll notice the annotation guide has two new symbols on it: a smiley face and two side by side triangles. The smiley face will be used when you find something you think relates to human nature, while the two triangles (I like to think of them as fangs) will be used when you find something related to animal nature.

Guided Practice:

(15-20 Minutes)
Students will read, briefly the tortoise and the hare, annotating as we go. Annotations will be matched on the dot projector with a brief discussion of what annotations were made by the teacher and what annotations were made by students and why. The story will then be read a second time (since it’s so short) to see if we missed anything or see anything new.

(10-15 Minutes)
Alright, now that we have the story annotated, we’re going to split into small groups to come up with our definitions.
Groups will be divided by a poll of prior knowledge of the term, trying to make sure every group has someone who thinks they know what anthropomorphism and allegory mean. Groups will be provided large sheets with which to list ideas and create a word web, with a space for a rough definition at the bottom. This practice should be established withe the class prior to this, otherwise, it will take an entire class to introduce them to co-definition. If it’s been established beforehand, it shouldn’t be hard to let them work in groups before coming back together and sharing their definitions to come up with a class definition.

(15 Minutes)
I’m going to leave this definition up on the projector/board. Turn the page to “Mr. Rabbit Meets His Match.” In your group, I want you to work together to read this story and and figure out what happens, how it’s different or the same from the previous one. We’ll come back together to discuss what we find and how it relates to our two terms after. Do the same annotation we did before.

After students have completed annotating and reading, which may take time due to the language, we’ll talk about how they felt about the piece, some historical racial connotations will be provided, and, once a group points out the tortoise cheated, we’ll show the classic Bugs Bunny cartoon “Tortoise Beats Hare” (10 minutes) to make sure everyone gets it.

Is this a fable? Are these allegories? What human traits to the animals show? Are they positive or negative or both? How do you know? Does this change our definition of anthropomorphism?

Independent Practice:

(20 Minutes)
We’ve worked as a class and in groups on these two stories, and you got to watch a cartoon. Pretty good day. We’re going to shift gears just a bit and read my favorite chapter of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. I want you to read it and annotate it on your own, just like we did as a class and in groups. If you really need to work with a partner, you can work with your tablemate.

When you are done, pull out your journal and rewrite, in your own words, definitions of fable, allegory, anthropomorphism, and moral. I’d also like a sentence or two about how they connect to each other.

Assessment/Closing:

(5 Minutes)

We’ll be spending this week, and some of the upcoming weeks, examining allegory, anthropomorphism, fable and myth, building on what we did today. If you didn’t finish annotating Chapter 3 of the Grapes of Wrath, please do for homework. I will post photos of our class definitions to the Terms page on our website if you need them. Check in with your tablemates before you leave, as you’re responsible for helping your community members and you know our expectations of support. Support is a pre-established class norm that makes tablemates responsible for assisting assigned partners, informing them of missed information, and working together to make up for deficiencies.

This week, we’ll be writing a story using anthropomorphism and allegory to address something important to you. On Friday, whether or not the story is done, we’ll be recording interviews. You’ll have the chance to interview a classmate about their story, record it, and have them explain how their story uses allegory and anthropomorphism to address their issue or event. If you haven’t finished it by then, you will finish your story over the weekend and record a reading of it, possibly with your classmates voicing different characters. The recording will need to be a minimum of 2 minutes long per person and we’ll attach the Q&A to the end.

Tomorrow, we’ll have a special guest coming in to help us for the day. Think about what we talked about today and be ready to ask our guest questions in relation to those topics.

Continue to Anthropomorphism Day 2: Myth, Morality and Origin
Return to Intro to Anthropomorphism Unit