The Hero's Journey Stories in English 10

For the past few weeks, CHAH 10th Graders have been working on and completing a project in English Class called “The Hero’s Journey”. Due in large part to the ELA Regents Exam being canceled this month, students were able to do a fun, collaborative project!

First, students learned about Joseph Campbell’s mono-myth, “The Hero’s Journey” and watched the film Moana. “Sophisticated stories like Moana follow a similar pattern,” Fidel Ovalle noticed. Watching the film helped students identify the various steps of “The Hero’s Journey” story. 

Then, students wrote their own version of a hero’s journey. They created their own heroic characters, the special world the hero enters, and challenges the hero faces. “We got to make up our own stories, which was neat,” Tayra de los Santos said. These projects were completed on Google Slides.

Next, the students shared their “Hero’s Journey” stories in small groups. “The small groups were helpful because we got a lot of feedback from our classmates,” Jeremiah Saez-Champaigne said. “It was more fun than Regents Prep because we got to be creative,” Jared Ramirez added. 

Lastly, the students presented their “Hero’s Journey” stories to the entire class. This official presentation for the entire class was the culmination of the project. “Movies follow a similar template, so we learned what to expect whenever we go to the movies or watch something on Netflix,” Kimberly Vacacela said.

“The point of the project,” according to teacher Mr. Dickhudt, “was to do something fun that the kids could take and relate to their own lives.” He added, “Overall, the project was a lot better than doing a month of test prep. It worked really well!”

10th Grade student Alan Tejeda, who standing nearby chimed in, “The project showed us that anyone can be a hero.”