That's the literature-of-the-moment in my sophomore class. I used to teach it in conjunction with the Odyssey in the freshman year. Had a curriculum that I'd developed then that really worked. But one can teach that age-level for only so long and after twenty years, I asked to be moved. Now that curriculum isn't taught much by the new 9th grade teachers and so the Ramayana has been relegated to the untaught pile.
Why? Because the curriculum already contains one ancient epic and most teachers barely want to teach the Odyssey. They'd rather bring more modern literature into the classroom and I totally understand that. But for me, tossing ALL the classics would be equivalent to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There needs to be a balance...and so I'm determined to bring that to my sophomore students. Hence, I tell the story of the Ramayana.
Yes, you read that right. The epic is a great story and one that has been expounded upon for generations. In fact, expounding on the basic outline and making the story your own is a part of the tradition. So I stand before the class and tell them a story. A long story. A really, really long story. Takes me several days (all told, about 3 hrs worth) to give just the basic plot. And I leave out a lot! Whole sections.
And I never tell it the same way twice. That's the beauty of storytelling. It encompasses the audience, plays with and on them. As they are bored with a section, I skip over it or embellish with enough detail to engage them again. Or if they're really excited about a part, I'll dwell on it...drag it out a little and give them more of what they want to hear about the characters or the setting at that point in the story. We have fun and they think they aren't working.
Of course, they are. They have to listen. And I give them a character and place name cheat sheet so they can write down who is who and where is where as we go along. So they're taking directed notes as they listen. And believe me, it's active listening. I describe Shoorpanaka's ugliness after Ram gets through with her and they all make faces. Or we get to the point where the monkeys have all picked up Sita's jewlery and they all want to yell at the monkeys.
After they've heard the story, I give them a short written version (you can find it here) and they read that one on their own. Invariably I get the "but this isn't what you told us in class!" complaint and it gives me a chance to explain again the Hindu proverb: There are as many Ramayanas as there are grains of sand on the seashore." Larry T's work is different from mine, because he is different from me. His purpose is different, his audience is wider.
And that leads me into their own expoundings. I have them choose a VERY small piece of the story to retell in their own words. VERY small. The descriptions can get out of hand very quickly (I once had a student write two typed, double-spaced pages on the description of Ayodyha). So keep the plot point tiny. This is a great exercise in getting them to write descriptively, whether describing Laksman getting hit with Ravena's arrow or Sita's reunion with Ram or the appearance of Ravena's palace. Each of those are plot points or locations, but their details? That's up to each reader/expounder to decide (click here to learn more about this idea).
So...teaching techniques discussed today? Using storytelling to improve listening skills. Reinforcing plot points by showing differing versions of the same story (I often begin this unit by having them tell me the story of the Three Little Pigs...in as many permutations as I can get out of them. Then ask, "which one is the right one?" They begin to understand that ALL versions are "right"). And writing descriptively by creating an expounding of their own.
Have fun!
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