Emily, Kyle, Tess, and Vance

1. After listening to the myth “The rape of Proserpine ”, take mental notes of characters, images, action, themes, relevant plot points. 2. In groups of two, make inferences from noted points and create a dialogue between two characters to expand the plot/character interaction. 3. The purpose of the dialogue is to add depth to the myth and flesh out your interpretation by giving a voice to the characters. One paragraph is sufficient. Exemplar: Demeter: “Have you eaten anything from the underworld?” Proserpine: “Argh! When mother isn't watching over me, my husband is! I'm always being watched! Why me?”

 The Myth of Persephone and Hades in  Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book V)   Once upon a time, while Hades was riding in his chariot, he saw beautiful Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Because of Persephone’s charm and beauty, he fell in love with her.  One day, when she was collecting flowers on the plain of Enna, the earth suddenly opened and Hades rose up in his chariot and abducted her. None but Zeus, and the all-seeing sun, Helios, had noticed it.  Broken-hearted, Demeter wandered the earth, looking for her daughter until Helios revealed what had happened. Demeter was so angry that she withdrew herself in loneliness, and the earth ceased to be fertile. Knowing this could not continue much longer, Zeus sent Hermes down to Hades to make him release Persephone. Hades grudgingly agreed to release her, but before she went back he gave Persephone a pomegranate (or the seeds of a pomegranate, according to some sources). When she later ate of it, she was bound to the underworld forever and had to stay there one- third of the year. The other months she stayed with her mother. When Persephone was in Hades, Demeter refused to let anything grow and winter began.

 Our assessment tool agrees with Pirie’s claim, author of Mindforged Manacles, that peer collaboration encourages students to see different point views when they are asked to compose for a real audience.  “It is an opportunity to learn something by coming to understand how someone else thinks” It also forces a student to extend their idea “for the benefit of an eminently tangible audience” (Pirie, J., 1997, p. 86).  This assignment also reflects on Rosenblatt’s discussion of literacy as a transactional experience. This means there exists a unique relationship between the reader and text.  “[For] meaning is not an objective entity that is out there waiting to be uncovered, but rather is located in human practices […], it is a human construction based on communication, cooperative action, and community relations” (Connell, J. M., 2008, p. 109).

 How are myths culturally specific?  The Big Idea: How do authors use strategies to imbue value and meaning in narratives?  The importance of deep character dialogue