You may be thinking about creating a culturally-responsive world mythology unit. At the same time, you might wonder about finding (and funding!) resources. For sure, the idea of recreating lessons every time your demographic changes might seem intimidating. However, it’s not necessary to recreate the wheel to be culturally-responsive.
I want to reassure you that you don’t have to have extensive knowledge about world mythology – you just have to be brave enough to sometimes let your students teach you and keep yourself curious! You are still in control as the facilitator and coach, but students can use inquiry learning to explore and extend everyone’s thinking. The ideas on this page can be adapted to most ages and contexts to create a culturally-responsive world mythology unit.
More Than Anansi Bedtime Stories
My parents read me bedtime stories, including ones about the trickster Anansi. However, my father’s culture and ethnicity were completely invisible – and inaccessible – in my own education. I had no opportunity to share that part of me with my peers, and I want to ensure that my students avoid that experience. I also want to promote the likelihood that when students venture out into the world, they have a greater awareness of how people from different backgrounds think, value and behave. I feel schools are becoming more sensitive to this idea with recent movements such as Black Lives Matter and We Need Diverse Books, so I’m optimistic that we – as a profession – are doing better in this respect every day.
Teaching in an international school with over 65 different nationalities and cross-cultural kids, I have to be mindful of the content I choose to center in the classroom. I want to honour my students’ diverse identities; therefore, I knew I couldn’t just provide one culture’s mythology and be done. I had to find a way to create a culturally-responsive world mythology unit that all my students would connect to.
Starting With The Usual
My starting point was the existing Greek mythology unit for Grade 7 (12-year-olds), based on Gareth Hind’s graphic novel of The Odyssey). It’s a great read and students generally enjoy it, but we needed to expand beyond the scope of Western cultural roots and ideas.
Activating Students' Prior Knowledge
If we accept that our students do not arrive as blank slates, we can also accept that they come with a wealth of knowledge and experience we can tap into. By finding ways for them to share what they already have in their toolkit, they can feel empowered in their learning as well as having a space to use their voices.
I had to come up with a way to get students into the topic of mythology quickly and simultaneously have them reflect on what they were bringing to it.
The first activity I used was Alphabet Activator. For each letter of the alphabet, students simply wrote 1 or more concepts related to mythology.
Adapt To Your Students
Depending on the class, I adapt the activity to ensure everyone has an easy access point. Here are some ideas you might try:
💫 Try this!
Students complete the graphic with all they know in 1 colour. Perhaps they will only know about one culture’s mythology, but that’s fine! As you progress through the unit, they add ideas in another colour so their learning progress is as clear as the shades they use. At the very least, do this at the end of the unit so they have a clear visual of all they have achieved.
💫 Try this!
Students complete the graphic in pairs or small groups. This way, they start learning from each other immediately. You are almost guaranteed that the inquiry will start right there as students ask for explanations for the terms that are unfamiliar to them. If they don’t do this naturally, have some prompts on the board to encourage them! You could display the question grid below.
💫 Try this!
Allow students to use languages other than English. This is particularly helpful for EAL learners whose first languages use the alphabet, but may take some creativity for other scripts such as Chinese, Japanese, etc.
💫 Try this!
Create pairs or trios of students who share their graphics with each other. Allow them some time in class (maybe 15 minutes or so) to ask questions about each other’s graphics. Tell them that the next day they will quiz each other. This could be as simple as each student taking turns to ask their partner(s) to define a word on their graphics or you could take it up a level and have them create an online game. Options here would include free or freemium apps such as Quizizz, Kahoot, Quizlet and Gimkit – all of these games can be hosted online too!
My Reflections
Here, I’ve shared just my first baby step into a culturally-responsive world mythology unit. I’m happy to report that the entire unit was a huge success. Not only did students express their appreciation for being able to bring their prior knowledge and family cultures into the classroom, they also loved learning about mythologies they’d never even heard of. From my point-of-view, I learned as much as the students because they were empowered to be experts in their fields. The pride they took in exploring and sharing their cultures’ most enduring stories was an experience I want to repeat again and again. I also want to share this journey with you, brave teacher, so look out for future posts that will take you through the process step-by-step.
If you’d like to download a PDF version of the Alphabet Activator, enter your email below. You can also access a digital version here. If you’d rather create your own, contact me and I’ll help you out. I want to make sure there are no obstacles to your success in creating a culturally-responsive classroom.
These are just some ideas to get you started. Be brave – give it a go! Have other ideas on how to adapt this activity? Brave enough to let others know how it went for you? Do share!
Culturally-responsive world mythology where we learn alongside our students?
We’ve got this!
