As part of the European Storias project, Les Apprimeurs ran a series of workshops with the fourth-year class at Léo Lagrange school in Trignac.
As the pupils had been working on Greek mythology with Le Feuilleton d’Hermès in their daily reading since the beginning of the year, they were already familiar with the story of Theseus, Ariadne and the Minotaur.
At the first workshop on 6 November 2023, the pupils were given an opportunity to discover the story of the Minotaur before re-enacting it in their own way, using their own vocabulary.
Following this, the pupils were able to discover the story through the Storias activity book ‘Theseus, Ariadne and the Minotaur – Telling, reading, creating’ illustrated by Barbara Lachi and Ayumi Makita (Italian partners in the project). Using the activities in this booklet and a visual aid of pictograms prepared in class beforehand, the pupils practised telling the story in groups of 3, in front of their classmates.
The Minotaur reinvented by pupils
After mastering and retelling the original story in front of their classmates, the students began to create their own version of the story. Using their understanding of the text and their imagination, they invented new characters and explored different narrative directions.
They then presented their ideas to the class, combining them to form a coherent and original story. Writing and illustrating this reinvented version of the myth strengthened their commitment and pride.
Pupils as protagonists and transmitters of the story
Élodie, the class teacher, explains that her pupils can find it really difficult to understand a text because they lack vocabulary, understand causal links and implicit meanings, but also because they have difficulty forming mental representations of the texts they read. Starting by telling them the story in a theatrical way helped to introduce vocabulary and facilitate understanding through gestures and movement. By using humour and surprise to set the scene for the story from the very first reading, we were also able to play on the motivational aspect.
‘Discovering the text only afterwards was interesting because the vocabulary didn’t bother them any more, they already knew the story and there was a clear distinction between oral and written language,’ says Élodie.
They found the illustrations particularly amusing, as they had had time beforehand to create their own representations by drawing the main characters, such as the Minotaur. They have created a common culture that they have been able to share with each other and share their history with their parents and other pupils. This has enabled them to change their position and become vehicles of transmission and knowledge.
At the end of this series of workshops, Élodie points out that ‘Experiences of this kind are extremely enriching for pupils, especially in the REP. This enabled all the students to get involved, whether they were students with academic difficulties or those with behavioural problems.”
Find out more about Storias resources: www.storias.eu
