Students in Mr. Tieger’s sixth grade humanities class were tasked with producing and performing 3-5 minute stories of their own creation. Use the vocabulary of the Greek gods, goddesses, and heroes they’ve been studying, and inspired by the ancient orators of the Bronze Age, they used non-writing methods to create their stories.
 
“After we read Percy Jackson The Lightning Thief, we each had to write our own myths,” writes Paisley, a sixth grade student. “It could be about whatever we wanted, however we wanted, but there was a catch. We could not write, OR type, them. We had to remember it all. We could use pictures, or comics, or a slide show, whatever would help us remember. I picked rhyming.”


“I like to write poems in my free time, so this was just a longer, more complex, magical, mythical, misleading poem that we recorded.”


Over the past several weeks, students acquired skills in storytelling, editing, performance art, audio editing, music production, collaboration, and memorization. (To name a few.) 


Of the depth and creativity of their final productions, Mr. Tieger shared, “Though they all admitted to being nervous in front of the microphone and class, each story felt unique. The details and shape of each story were all their own. This carried over into the editing process where the musical choices unscored the zanier choices or spontaneous brilliance.”
 
Next time, Mr. Tieger hopes to encourage students to perform their myths in front of a live audience first, and then record, edit, and score them. He says, “I think the feedback with a crowd will help them see how brilliant they all are a bit sooner.”

VIEW PHOTOS and stay tuned for audio recordings from Mr. Tieger’s class!