Heroes Are Made of This: Studying the Character of Heroes

What makes heroes and villains? A six-part unit plan asks young scholars to explore the concept of heroism and the characteristics they consider heroic and unheroic. Groups create character maps that focus on how characters are shaped by appearance, actions, reputation, and cultural norms. Then look at the heroic and unheroic characteristics of a character in a text they are reading. The unit ends with class members creating a Venn diagram that compares characters with each other and/or a text's heroic ideal.