6th Graders Get Heroic

On Friday, October 24th, Northwest Academy’s 6th grade English class dressed up as superheroes to learn about the Hero’s Journey, in its first Superhero Day.

“Up until three years ago, I wasn’t happy with the way that I was teaching the Fundamental Folktale and Mythology unit,” David Berkson, middle and high school theater teacher and 6th grade English teacher, said. “The students were reading lots of interesting stories, but I wasn’t providing them with compelling or unifying ideas to help them understand themes and narrative patterns.”

Berkson said he was told by his 6th graders to read Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, which partially inspired him to teach the students about mythological influences and the Hero’s Journey in a new way.

“Wow, look at all of the mythological influences in a book that about half of my students are reading or have already read,” Berkson said. “We could use this book as a way to teach Joseph Campbell’s ideas about the Hero’s Journey and the monomyth.”

Berkson said the philosopher Campbell’s Hero’s Journey applies to virtually every narrative the class encounters such as the Exodus, The Odyssey, Harry Potter, Community and more. Creating a superhero origin story and costume, according to Berkson, seemed like the next logical step for the class.

“We just did a comparative study of Spider-Man and Moses,” Berkson said. “Virtually every superhero origin story follows the model of the Hero’s Journey, but just studying these things isn’t enough: the school’s philosophy is that there’s a creative, artistic component to everything that we do.”

Last year’s Esprit gave Berkson the idea to do Superhero Day.

“Erin Shannon and Sharon Weir were my inspirations,” Berkson said. “I saw Erin’s superhero choreography at Esprit last year and thought it was brilliant, and I’d already been thinking that the mythology unit of the English class needed a superhero origin story.”

Berkson said the transition from 5th to 6th grade is tough and students should have some fun while learning or it will means nothing.

“Well, for starters, I hope they have fun and for enders…well, I hope they have fun,” Berkson said. “That’s the essential ingredient to learning.”

Kaelan Swinmurn, a 6th grader, believes that dressing up and learning about the Hero’s Journey by stepping in the shoes of a superhero is a great idea.

“I think that it will be really fun having to dress up and show everybody our superheroes,” Swinmurn said. “This is a big change from my old school because we had a very strict dress code so I think I will enjoy getting to have fun with what I wear.”

Swinmurn said she thinks this hands-on project benefits the 6th grade class by allowing the class to better understand the role the hero plays.

“I think the benefit of dressing up as a superhero is to be able to visually explain our character to others, show how our characters look and to have fun,” Swinmurn said. “I like how we didn’t have to do an artistic response, but we still got to use our creativity to make something to share with the class.”

Rachael Torchia, photography, middle school learning lab and middle school coordinator, agrees with Swinmurn that dressing up as superheroes encourages creativity.

“Whenever we take time to have fun and celebrate each others creativity, there is an opportunity for bonding,” Torchia said. “I think projects like the Superhero Day, artistic responses and festivals offer students the chance to connect through shared experiences and appreciate each others talents.”

Swinmurn believes dressing up as superheroes allows students to fully dive in and understand their characters in an interesting fashion rather than just explaining it.

“The only way this can fail is if nobody puts on a costume,” Berkson said. “We are so doing this again next year, and the only thing that can stop me now is kryptonite.”