Education Technology


NCTE: Exploring a Hero?s Journey

Activity Overview

Students will prepare for an interview with an elder (parent, relative, person in the community) outside of the school environment using an outline of the Hero's Journey, a story that appears in the mythologies of most cultures.

Before the Activity

See the attached Activity PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity.

Print the appropriate pages from the Activity for your class.

Install the NoteFolio(tm) App on the students' graphing calculators following the attached instructions.

Assess and build the students' knowledge of the Hero's Journey story form. Place a transparency of the outline of the Hero's Journey on an overhead projector and have a class discussion in which participants explain how the elements of the Hero's Journey appear in a popular movie. There are dozens of movies you and your students could analyze: Malcolm X, The Matrix, Mulan (to name only a few).

During the Activity

  • Distribute the appropriate pages from the Activity to your class
  • Distribute the NoteFolio(tm) file(s) to your class using TI Connect(tm) and the appropriate TI Connectivity cable
  • Follow the procedures outlined in the Activity


  • Students will:
  • Formulate questions addressing issues or problems that can be answered through a well-defined and focused investigations.
  • Conduct interviews, taking notes or recording and transcribing oral information, then summarizing the results.
  • Present findings in oral and written reports, correctly citing sources.
  • Compose and publish analytic and reflective writing that conveys knowledge, experience, insights, and opinions to an intended audience.
  • After the Activity

    Ask students to share their questions with the class. One student may like another student's question and want to add it to his/her set of questions. Give the students a window of time to do the interviews. Use your discretion. Recommend giving students at least a seven-day window.