Origins of Media - Student
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Origins of Media - Student Version
What You’ll Learn
In this lesson, you’ll explore where familiar stories come from, how they evolve over time, and why it’s important to understand their origins. You’ll investigate common story tropes and trace their history across cultures and centuries.
What to Expect
- Duration: 2-3 days
- Activities: Class discussion, story comparison, trope research, project creation
Step-by-Step Guide
Start With a Prompt
- Look at an image, video, or sound clip.
- Write a short story imagining what’s happening just beyond the edge of what you see or hear.
Submit Your Media Choice
- Pick a story-based film, book (fiction), or video game you enjoy.
- Share your choice with your teacher through Google Classroom.
What Are Story Tropes?
- A trope is a recurring theme or character type — like the “Final Girl” in horror or the “Rags to Riches” story (think Cinderella).
- Tropes appear in books, movies, plays, games, and music.
Discover Where Stories Come From
- Learn how many stories are built on older ones, passed down or adapted over time.
- Example: Disney’s Cinderella comes from a French story by Charles Perrault, which was influenced by an even older Chinese tale (Yeh-Shen), and even earlier by an Ancient Greek story (Rhodopis).
- Stories shift over time, often reflecting the culture and values of the people telling them.
Compare and Reflect
- Read Yeh-Shen and Perrault’s Cinderella.
Use a Venn diagram or short essay to compare them:
- What’s similar about the plots, characters, and themes?
- How do cultural and time period differences show up in the stories?
Research the Origins of Your Story
- Look for the story tropes in your chosen media.
- Use tools like TV Tropes to identify which tropes are present.
Choose 1–2 main tropes and trace them back as far as you can:
- Where do those ideas appear earlier in history?
- How have they changed?
- What’s the oldest known version?
Create a Timeline Project
- Build a timeline starting with the oldest version of your trope.
- Include a few major versions leading up to your chosen book/movie/game.
- Present your research in a format approved by your teacher (poster, slides, written report, video, etc.).
Why This Matters
Understanding where stories come from helps you think critically about how culture, history, and creativity shape storytelling. You’ll see how powerful stories travel across time, adapt, and grow — just like people do.
Outcome: What You Will Create
- A research project tracing the origin of tropes in your selected media
- A visual timeline or creative presentation
- A short written reflection on what you learned
Bonus Exploration
- Can a story’s meaning change when it’s retold in a new culture or time period?
- What happens when stories are passed down orally vs. written or filmed?
Dive into the past to see how today’s stories were born!