ELA 12 Students turn CPA into Movie Casting Call
Students in ELA 12 at DGF Rota MHS recently completed an assignment to research the lives of a wide array of monarchs—from the political savvy of Isabella of Aragon to the empire-building of Charlemagne and then write a short narrative using the Hero’s Journey format. Instead of a traditional essay, the prompt was designed as a narrative deep dive.
Students were asked to "think of a moment in your chosen monarch’s life when their personal values clashed with outside expectations." Their task was to write a story capturing this single, high-stakes moment, complete with "vivid sensory details, dialogue, and internal thoughts."
The unit began with the guiding questions: What makes a true hero? How does our concept of a hero change over time? How do the personal values and decisions of leaders/Heroes impact their reigns and legacies? We read a variety of stories comparing heroes portrayed in different time periods. The enduring understandings were to identify the components of the Hero’s Journey in a plot, and to understand that the "hero" at its center is not a fixed concept. The very definition of heroism, including the character's psychological traits, is a product of its specific time and culture.
By transforming a narrative assessment into a creative movie pitch, the students were forced to do more than analyze; they had to empathize. They had to climb inside their monarch's head and ask: What did this feel like? What was the "why" behind the "what"?
This project proved to be one of the most effective of the year. The students didn't just learn about monarchs' personal values and decisions; they inhabited them. They understood that history isn't just a series of dates and facts, but a collection of high-stakes human stories, each one worthy of the big screen.
