Rationale
This unit is designed to be flexible; it can be taught as a whole or in sections depending upon your classroom time and needs. I have envisioned pairing the pieces with common high school curriculum works such as The Odyssey, Beowulf, or Gilgamesh.
I love writing and teaching writing; therefore, this unit is heavily dependent on student writing through journals, role play writing, and assessments using only writing. My philosophy of writing aligns with Peter Elbow's in his seminal work, Writing Without Teachers, and Wendy Bishop's Teaching Lives: Essays and Stories. I especially want to encourage Bishop's belief that students need to see teachers writing, too. Writing along with your students can be difficult since you as a teacher must also provide direction, but it is an excellent way to maintain the skills you are trying to teach and to ensure that assignments are achieving the desired outcome.
Even though I may be an English teacher, I find it necessary to supply the history and geography of the literature I teach. This may be teaching literature from a Historical Criticism Perspective, but it also allows students to collect, collate, and correct all the loose ends of information. This teaching strategy has allowed me to hear from my students that, "Ahh!" of, "Yes, I understand how it all works now." In this vein, I have provided the background on what is a myth and brief histories of the Maya and Inca, as well as, literary analysis of the pieces and writing instruction.
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