Black Cats, Broken Mirrors and Others – Let’s Talk About Superstitions (LS-PL-244)
The learning scenario entitled Black cats, broken mirrors and others – let’s talk about superstitions is associated with superstitions, amulets, talismans and other beliefs. It is designed for two age groups.
Different age group – different book
The first one (students aged 10-15) focuses on superstitions found in Mark Twain’s book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The other one (16-19) focuses on a series of books about Harry Potter by JK Rowling, The Witcher by A. Sapkowski, or The Lord of the rings by J.R.R Tolkien. Both groups fill in the table in the Google document which is divided into some categories: animals, things, activities, dreams and symbols, talismans, amulets, literature, etc. Students work simultaneously, thanks to that the teacher sees the progress of their work. An additional value is the fact that students learn to provide sources of their information.
Summary
The workshop ends with games, e.g. charades, dramas, quizzes, etc. (a younger group of students) or a discussion (an older group) during which students share their opinions about modern amulets, belief in superstitions and horoscopes.
The aim of the lesson is to show that some human behaviours are the result of attempting to control life. Superstitions allow people to have an illusory impression of control over their own fate, or quite the opposite, allow them not to take responsibility for their own actions.
The end is just a beginning
The learning scenario is just a beginning for many other actions and discussions. For younger groups of students, the workshop is very attractive because it correlates with magical and mysterious matters. For older groups, it is interesting because it shows the mechanism of human action.
This lesson scenario focuses on different types of superstitions, but each deserves a separate class.
Students like comparing different cultures and learning new information about the magical world, so, in my opinion, this subject is worth exploring (e.g. amulets in book series by Sapkowski, JK Rowling or Tolkien).
Would you like to know more about this learning scenario? You can download it below:
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CC BY-SA 4.0: The featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana Collections and has been provided by Fondazione Biblioteca Europea di Informazione e Cultura (BEIC).