Origin Stories
​ By:  Eric Wilkinson

Project at a Glance :

As part of the Big Read, creative writing students will read Circe by Madeline Miller. We’ll discuss the Hero’s Journey and perspective. Students will create a visual solution to demonstrate their answer to the driving question based on Circe and supplementary readings/research.
       
Driving Question:

How does society determine its heroes and its villains?             

Standards:

• Recognize and utilize story structure (R11-12.3, 5, 7)
• ​Use multiple media to communicate a theme (W11-12.3)
• Retell stories in new forms (W11-12.4, 5
• ​Conduct research to answer a question (W11-12.7, 8, 9)

Team / Culture Building:

• Use an Enneagram tests (or other personality profiles) to build heterogeneous groups. Students will discuss daily this-or-that questions to get to know each other. Creating a visual map of their hopes and dreams will also build their mini-community.​​

​Entry Event:

• Watch Ms. Marvel and other origin stories from the Marvel Universe.

Stakeholders:

• Folks who participate in The Big Read and attend the final exhibition of learning. These folks include book clubs and local students. One of the themes is the diminution of women’s voices, so women could be key stakeholders.

Empathy Building:

• Customer Profile
• Empathy Maps
• Finding voices from the #MeToo movement, looking for news stories that tell multiple points-of-view

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• 5 Whys: Why do we need to know our heroes?
• Artifact Analysis: Comics and Hero’s Journey stories
• QFT for Exhibition of LearningStakeholder Map (ask Deb to talk about Exhibition of Learning)Top-10 List: What makes a hero?
• Journey Map: Match a hero’s journey to the Hero’s Journey (fictional and real life)​.

• ​Touchstone Tour
• Jigsaw & Story Share and Capture: Book Club w/ Circe.

Incubation:

• Amazing Analogies
• Visual Glossary and Prototyping
• Idea Quota w/ Categorize, Name, and Combine
• Tell it to me like a six-year ol
• Mindmapping (MindMeister tool)​

​ Checking in:

• Students will need to Elevator Pitch their prototype to an audience in order to proceed. They’ll do this after narrowing their selections using the NUF Test and voting via Bracketology.
• Students will also reflectively journal about their choices.
  
• The rubrics require students to reflect after their investigation and throughout the solution (and validation) stages. Informal check-ins with groups will also occur.

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Solution Building:

• Combin-ide-ology strategy to sort-and-group solution ideas.
  
• Filtering Objectives Protocol. Checklist w/ NUF Test and considering stakeholders and empathy map.

Critique and Revision: 

• Top-8 list into bracketology. 
  
• Create a prototype (or storyboard) of your solution. Create an elevator pitch selling your idea to another team. 
  
• Critical Friends provide feedback via various colored sticky notes (red: details need, green: consider stakeholder, blue: things they liked, etc)

Authentic Audience:

• Middle School Principals and Counselors

Final Presentation:

• Groups will choose the best way to artistically answer the driving question. Their voices will be heard in their artists’ statements.​​

• Students individually and as classes show their artwork. Some pieces may be chosen to be displayed in Van BragtPark near the Unity Bridge in Holland. An artist’s statement may be included with the art.

Click here for teacher's full plan.

​Reflection and Feedback:

• Attach a QR code that links to a Google Form to get feedback from our community audience. It would be cool to hear stories of their real-life heroes and have them respond to our art.
• Adapt this validation rubric to fit the student's project expectations.
• The validation rubric requires fairly specific reflection questions. Ask students what traits true heroes possess and how their thinking has changed. After hearing feedback from stakeholders and viewing the art created by other groups, asks students  how they’d like to revise their own projects. Finally, students will reflect on their own contributions to the project relative to their teammates’ contributions.
• This reflection may be written or recorded on FlipGrid.

Click here for the teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet . . .

Meet the Educator:
Eric Wilkinson teaches English (and sometimes Math) at West Ottawa High School in Holland, MI. 
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     "PBL gives students agency and purpose. They care more about their work because it affects their real world."