Origin Stories

Hi Jason Manning , adding Kimberly Milligan Laura Massa and Hajra Saeed to this conversation. They have done some great things with Origin Stories in the past and may be able to provide some ideas.

Jason Manning , I hear you exactly about some possible downfalls of a jigsaw. Even though there is a great worksheet to fill in from the various group's stories, I have found that students just want to copy down answers, not necessarily engage in a discussion or verbal exchange of the stories.

One thing that I have done in response is to have groups read several of the stories before they choose the one they want to do. That way groups are more fully exposed to the other stories even if they don't interact with each text. Part of the group share is to explain why they chose the story they did. That makes students have to personally clue in on at least an overview of several stories instead of just hearing about the stories second-hand. 

This method is still not perfect, but I found that it did help with the comprehension of details. 

Does anyone have a favorite way they get students to learn and share about origin stories?

Jason Manning I did something very similar, I had the students break into groups and each group had a story. They had a couple days to retell the story in anyway they wanted. I often has skits, videos with stop motion, fake news show, puppet shows and art pieces all retelling the stories. While I do still think the kids in their particular group would often know their story better, the more creative the groups were, the more memorable it was for the rest of class. I don't think there is anything wrong with them not being experts on all the stories. I would always end with a class discussion connecting themes from the stories throughout and they could see the connections. I think your goal is great, I hope you have a fantastic year! 

Hi Jason Manning I do basically the same as Kimberly Milligan does with her students. I let them choose an origin story, though I try to diversify the narratives and give them those that are unknown to them (Chinese, Iroquois, Mayan, Zulu, and Efik) because Judeo-Christian and Greek are or were covered in other courses. I give them ample variety of modalities as Kimberly mentioned. The one thing I request is that they bring a 3-D representation model of their origin story. It doesn't have to be time consuming. I encourage them to utilize materials available at home, apply their creativity, and bring props to better illustrate their story, something meaningful. Some students create dioramas, others bring a figure that symbolizes the creator of their origin story, and others who are experts in animation, create a story using an ad hoc software. I also ask them to guide their presentations with these ideas in mind:

• What is the source of the world? or What happened before creation?
• What or who created the world?
• How was the Earth created or formed?
• When was the Earth created?
• What life forms were created?
• How were humans formed or created?
• What was the relationship between humans and animals/plants? Were they powerful, independent, subservient? 
• Is there any moral in your story?
• How do people live or behave today according to this origin story? Explore if they perform rituals, build architecture, dance, etc. 

At the end of the presentations, which take no longer than 5 minutes each, we debrief and reflect upon them, realizing that there is neither logic nor scientific evidence. Then we compare their stories with the scientific origin story of Big History. My goal is that students realize that all origin stories try to make sense of a world prior to the scientific and chronometric revolution.

Hi Donnetta, thank you for the feedback.  Can I take a deeper dive into your methodology?  Do your students read multiple stories in class before choosing or is it something that you assign for homework?

HI Kimberly Milligan  that sounds amazing!  Can you tell me more about the fake news show or puppet show?  Is there a chance you have a video of one of these?  I would love to see it in action.  

That also reminds me that this could be an opportunity to ask the students to sketch their origin story or create a storyboard type of comic.  I guess it just comes down to how much time one is whiling to allocate to this activity.

Hello Laura Massa  I love your last question here about performing rituals and building architecture.  It is certainly something that I can come to as my class begins the story of human history.  

Sure thing

When I was in a traditional setting, I would put a few copies of different origin stories on student tables (I usually sat 3-4 at large square tables). They would pass the stories around and skim them until they each chose one.

Once students had the one they wanted, they would read and mark, and fill in their part of the question sheet. As soon as students were finished, they would begin sharing information from their chosen story, and others would fill in their respective sheets. If we ran out of time, I would allow a few minutes of sharing as part of another lesson in the next day or so.

In my current alternative setting, students work more independently. I post all of the stories in my Google Classroom. I ask students to survey four stories before they choose one or two stories to fill into a comparison sheet. Students will have previously read and responded to the Modern Scientific Origin Story, so they use this previous information to continue the comparisons. 

As I read over this, it sounds much more confusing than it really is. If I need to give more clarity on anything, just ask!

I printed out the origin story posters and placed them around my classroom and had my students do a gallery walk. Students then had to write one question or interesting point that they noticed about each of the stories and write it on a post it note. I then collected all the questions and created a Kahoot which we then did as a class. It can get a bit chaotic but the students do walk away with a reasonable understanding of the different origin stories.