El Departamento vasco de Educación y los sindicatos alcanzaron un acuerdo que contempla reducir las ratios en las diferentes etapas educativas, la impartición de lengua inglesa desde los tres años o el aumento de los recursos asociados a las necesidades educativas especiales, entre otros contenidos. Aquí los acuerdos.
En el primer ciclo de Infantil se mantiene la ratio de 18 alumnos pero en su segundo ciclo pasará a 20, tres menos. En Primaria el tope 23, en Secundaria 25 y en Bachillerato 27.
Se establece una ratio de un docente para cada doce alumnos en las aulas de dos años y de 18 en Infantil. En Primaria y en Secundaria será de uno cada 20 y en Bachillerato de uno por cada 25. Tres idiomas desde el principio
La incorporación del inglés en la Educación Infantil a partir de los tres años busca «mejorar» la calidad de la enseñanza e irá acompañada con el incremento del profesorado necesario.
Más actividad física escolar
Se incrementará el número de horas lectivas que se dedican a las actividades deportivas dentro de la jornada lectiva y también se contratarán más profesores para cubrir la diferencia.
Refuerzo de educación especial
Se reforzarán los recursos vinculados a las necesidades educativas especiales, especialmente mediante la incorporación de personal docente y de apoyo a los alumnos que lo precisen.
Innovación más eficiente
La figura del profesor responsable de innovación asumirá en cada centro el desarrollo de proyectos novedosos, linguísticos y pedagógicos, y se le dotará de recursos para ello.
Gestión de la digitalización
Se crearán perfiles profesionales, «administrativos y de gestión de la digitalización», para descargar al profesor de todo lo que no sea una «función intrínseca» a su labor docente.
Consolidación de plazas
Se ha acordado la conversión de plazas no estructurales a plazas estables. Son puestos que se fueron creando para cubrir necesidades al margen de la plantilla oficial de cada centro.
I didn’t love reading at all when I was young. As a teacher, I loved it, and now as a reader, I love it. But I was put off the whole idea of words very early on.
Some years ago, I was made to do a key stage 2 (seven to 11 years old) English test. I don’t even want to tell you how I did, but it wasn’t good. I find expressions such as “fronted adverbials” and “subordinate conjunctions” extraordinarily abstract and difficult to get my head around. But we’re stuck in the Michael Gove era, in which children are trained in analysing language in a way that seems to me to restrict and inhibit, rather than to encourage creativity.
So I was glad to discover that someone has done some proper research on this part of Gove’s education reforms; UCL and University of York have found that this emphasis on grammar in primary school does not improve six- and seven-year-old children’s writing.
When I was a primary school teacher in the 1970s, in a village called Wickhambreaux, just outside Canterbury, we were free of such burdens. I was able to concentrate on encouraging children to find their own voices. That is what literacy is for – to express your thoughts, to discover the music in language, the joy of reading, and all the interest, knowledge and understanding we can gain through that. It is not the analysis of a sentence – that comes later.
As you read one story, they pick up a book by the same author or a similar book with a similar subject, and extend their reading on their own. And I extended their writing by saying to them: “Look, Roald Dahl was your age once. He sat down and wrote his first story.
Why don’t we go and write our stories?” I would never make them sit down with a blank sheet of paper, and then say: “Do it”, which is what happens time and time again in tests up and down the country to this day. It’s an impossible task to set a child. You have to inspire them; you have to go out and trigger it somehow.
We would go for long walks up to the nature reserve, look at herons standing in the reeds, and we would be quiet. Then we would go back and write down what we felt about what we had seen. Some children would be descriptive; most were very thoughtful. But each of them was beginning to find their voice as a writer. They weren’t cramped by anything I was trying to teach them.
This is the opposite of how I was taught, at St Matthias primary school in London, which was very punishment-driven. There was fear in the classroom, and grammar and punctuation were part of that. It is now a wonderful school, where kindness and creativity go hand in hand.
I came from quite a bookish family. I was read to every night by my mum, who was an actor. She was guided by the instinct that if she loved a poem or a story, she wanted to tell me that story, or read me that poem. So I was handed the love of stories by my mother, but then went off to primary school, where I learned that words were not for storytelling, or music or fun. They were about spelling and punctuation, and if you got things wrong, you were in trouble.
I didn’t want to go into detention, but I did spend an awful lot of time there because I found the more red marks I got, the more I was scared. And when you’re scared, you don’t do things very well at all. I knew I was pretty good at telling lies, but I didn’t know I could be a storyteller until much later, when I was a teacher.
On World Book Day this year, a pupil asked me: “Do you ever make mistakes?” Of course I make mistakes. When I’m working on my own books, I often slip into a slack way of saying things, which is too oral, if you like. I’m reminded about it fairly firmly by good editors, and that’s fine – it’s a way of improving what’s already there, and refining it.
My spelling isn’t that great, either; I’m quite ashamed of that sometimes. My grandson can spell things better than me. But that’s OK. It’s just a side of me that needs improvement. At 78, I’ve got plenty of time left.
I tell children to look at the manuscripts of writers far greater than I shall ever be, and the amount of crossings out that they do. Children are concerned about not getting it right, and that is part of the problem. But actually, it’s really good fun telling a story. I’ve been working on a new one this morning. I started the day thinking it was going to be one kind of a story.
I started the first three or four sentences, which didn’t seem to go that well, so I crossed them out. That’s what you do – you judder and judder until you find the right tone for the story and a path seems to open up through the undergrowth in front of you, and you find a way to go. But it’s not going to be helped by a constant worry that the sentence you have just written is not correct.
I grew up with people telling me: never, never start any sentence with “and”; I start huge numbers of sentences with “and”. I’m not just trying to get back at some English teacher I had when I was 10.
While I can see how you could overdo it, sometimes there’s a really good reason for doing it. And sometimes there’s a very good reason for having a comma rather than a full stop. It’s a matter of judgment, and not just rules. I think today’s rules are a misunderstanding of language.
Grammar, punctuation and spelling are guidelines about how we frame our language, and very important in terms of communication, for accurately reflecting what it is we wish to say and how to be understood. But they’re not supposed to tie us up in knots.
It is important to keep our focus on every child becoming a reader, and having the experience of falling in love with Philip Pullman and Jane Austen and Shakespeare. It is not about teaching something that’s then got to be tested. If you do that, what will happen – and what has always happened in our system – is that those who succeed at that level are fine and go on their way towards university.
And those who don’t succeed begin to feel that they’re failures and that language and books aren’t for them, because they’re not enjoyable, because they keep getting bad marks in tests. The problem with testing is that there are winners and losers and we have an education system that divides people very early on.
More and more, what has been lacking in our primary schools is space in the curriculum for creativity, for exploring the potential of children in terms of the way they use language.
I often get letters from teachers and children correcting the grammar in my books, and they are quite right. But people can be over-obsessed by it. If you look at some of our great writers and you start analysing sentences, the poetry is what counts, the sound, the meaning.
The grammar is supposed to be what serves that.
It’s not what you start out with in the first place.
Te invitamos a compartir tus experiencias pedagógicas en el próximo 7mo Seminario Internacional Expanding Opportunities a través de nuestra Poster Session. ¡Anímate a presentar tus iniciativas! Tienes desde el 09 de mayo al 20 de junio para hacerlo.
Estamos felices de encontrarnos en un nueva versión de nuestro seminario 2022. Pronto estaremos publicando información sobre el seminario, que se realizará en octubre de este año de manera virtual. Por ahora, te invitamos a explorar el sitio, revisar los videos de las presentaciones y los materiales que nos dejaron los expositores de la versión 2020, y volver a ver los posters seleccionados en nuestra 6ta edición.
Si deseas participar de nuestros próximos eventos, te invitamos a dejar tus datos para asegurarnos de que recibas tu invitación en el futuro.
La Facultad de Educación de la Universidad Alberto Hurtado invita a usted a la Inauguración del Año Académico 2022. En la instancia el Ministro de Educación, Marco Antonio Ávila Lavanal, dictará la Clase Magistral «Cambio de Paradigma Pedagógico» .
Con una Clase Magistral dictada por el Ministro de Educación, Marco Antonio Ávila, titulada: “Cambio de Paradigma Pedagógico”, se dio el vamos al año académico 2022 de nuestra Facultad de Educación.
💬“Nuestro sistema educacional no es justo, hoy hay establecimientos que hace años no ponen a un estudiante en la educación superior, centros de formación técnica sin maquinarias adecuadas y cientos de estudiantes fuera del sistema educativo (…) Hay que avanzar hacia el cambio de paradigma educativo, enfocado en la inclusión, la colaboración y participación que reconozca a niñas/os, jóvenes y adultos como sujetos de derecho”, detalló el Ministro Ávila.
El ministro de Educación, Marco Antonio Ávila, participó este viernes en una mesa de trabajo en La Moneda, junto a los ministros de Salud, de Interior, de la Mujer y Equidad de Género y Secretaría General de Gobierno, para abordar las demandas estudiantiles que han surgido en distintos liceos de Santiago que se han movilizado en los últimos días.
Plan de Reactivación de Aprendizajes
En la instancia, el ministro de Educación, Marco Antonio Ávila, anunció dos medidas enmarcadas en el Plan de Reactivación de Aprendizajes que está preparando el Ministerio de Educación para atender los problemas de infraestructura y de salud mental que las y los escolares han advertido en sus comunidades.
“Tenemos una coincidencia programática con muchas de las demandas de las y los estudiantes, entre esas la salud mental, el desarrollo de una educación sexual integral, la recuperación de la infraestructura y también la reparación en las brechas de aprendizaje que ha provocado la pandemia”, señaló la autoridad.
Como primera medida, el ministro Marco Antonio Ávila informó que se realizará una inversión de $10.000 millones para reparar y recuperar la infraestructura escolar en distintos establecimientos, presupuesto que es distinto a los $20.640 millones que el ministerio ya está disponiendo para los establecimientos a través de la Convocatoria de Conservaciones 2022.
En este sentido, señaló que “existe una deuda importante, que se podría estimar en años”, y explicó que, por ejemplo, el último catastro de infraestructura escolar disponible es del año 2012.
Programa de Habilidades para la Vida
Como segunda medida, se inyectarán $11.000 millones al Programa de Habilidades para la Vida, lo que será coordinado con el Ministerio de Salud, y que busca hacerse cargo de los problemas de salud mental de las comunidades.
El detalle de ambas iniciativas será entregado en los próximos días, cuando el ministerio presente el Plan de Reactivación de Aprendizajes.
Además, la autoridad señaló que el Ministerio de Educación está disponible para ser un puente de intermediación entre las y los estudiantes y los sostenedores, en el caso de los establecimientos municipales, para “ayudarles a resolver los conflictos que probablemente muchos de ellos tienen y que en muchos casos son heredados”.
Por su parte, la ministra secretaria general de Gobierno, Camila Vallejo, señaló que las autoridades saben que hay demandas urgentes en las comunidades escolares, pero que además “nuestro Ministerio de Educación está haciendo ese monitoreo del deterioro de la infraestructura de los establecimientos educacionales”.
La vocera de Gobierno también informó que el Ministerio del Interior creará una mesa de trabajo, con participación de Carabineros, de la Defensoría de la Niñez y de la Subsecretaría de Educación, para que los protocolos policiales tengan un resguardo especial de los niños, niñas y adolescentes.
The needs of English learners today have changed dramatically from those of ten or even five years ago. People are “globalising and mobilising” like never before and are using English as a means to do so.
As a result, the demand for English language learning is soaring with estimates as high as one in four people worldwide actively learning to communicate in English.
This represents 1.85 billion English learners in 2016 alone – and that number is growing year on year.
Not only have the volumes of English learners increased in recent years, the ways in which they can learn English have also multiplied. It used to be that if you wanted to learn English, you signed up for an English class and learned from an English teacher in a classroom setting.
But like many other industries, technology has transformed the way students learn English: from learning in a blended classroom and on-demand mobile apps to virtual private language schools and emerging services such as real-time translation.
Learners of English today are faced with a bewildering number of options for studying the language – but does this mean that they are able to learn more effectively and efficiently?
They are also more mobile than ever before – but do any of these technological advances enable learners to better understand how their proficiency compares with others globally?
A recent Pearson survey showed that 90% of ELT teachers around the world believe that standards of English need to be improved. And a fundamental part of this improvement relies on the ability to accurately describe what a learner can do at different levels of proficiency using a consistent language – or framework.
Are learners in a classroom in Brazil making the same progress as students learning virtually in China? Are teaching materials used in Poland comparable with those being studied in Turkey?
Experience suggests not – but how can this be quantified? Learners, teachers, governments and employers are starting to ask such questions – whether for academic, professional or migration purposes.
Everyone is seeking the same holy grail – the most effective and efficient way to learn English.
Introducing a global scale of measurement
And Pearson has long been asking the very same questions. We knew that in order to input into the debate on raising standards of English teaching and learning around the world, we needed a more sophisticated framework on which to base our hypotheses and research.
In 2014 we released the Global Scale of English (GSE) and its associated Learning Objectives for Adults learning General English, Academic English and Professional English.
In 2016, we added GSE Learning Objectives for Young Learners. The GSE and GSE Learning Objectives form the standardised framework that underpins our research into the learning and teaching of English in the 21st century.
The GSE extends the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to include more learning objectives (or Can Do statements) that support learning English at all levels of proficiency, across all skills and for different purposes.
These new learning objectives were developed in collaboration with thousands of teachers around the world and, like the CEFR, are open source and freely available for educators and institutions to use.
The ultimate goal for all publishers, teachers, institutions and ministries is to ensure that learners are given the support they need to acquire English as effectively and efficiently as possible.
For most people, learning English is a means to an end – they need it for their careers, for their education, for global mobility – and they want to be able to communicate with others around the world in English as quickly as possible so that they are not just learning a language, but actually using it to improve their lives.
In order to raise standards in English, we need to start challenging current practices and mindsets.
We believe – as do a growing number of practitioners around the world – that the GSE and the GSE ecosystem provide the starting point for conversations around the best ways to teach English, motivate learners and raise standards.
Since the initial launch of the GSE in 2014, we have spent the past two years further researching, refining and building not just the GSE Learning Objectives but a wider ecosystem that includes teaching and assessment materials, based on the GSE.
We have also developed a number of online resources and free tools for teachers to use in their course planning and assessments, such as the GSE Teacher Toolkit.
This “GSE ecosystem” is already being rolled out around the world to inform course design, motivate learners and impact teaching.
The report also looks in more detail at how the GSE was developed and the issues highlighted here.
This is the beginning of our journey into raising English Language Teaching standards around the world and we encourage teachers and educators to join the global conversation.
*My colleagues in our MA TEFL course at Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB, Santiago, Chile), Carola Villegas, Kathy Montoya, Paddy Odu, and myself, are proud to announce that our article on coursebook evaluation, “Coursebook Evaluation Using A Cluster Approach, was published recently in the inaugural edition of ELT Connections. This publication is a joint collaboration between Universidad Bernardo O´Higgins (UBO), TESOL Chile and IATEFL Chile. It is designed to give voice to educators in Chile and internationally to present their research about local and global topics of interest in the field of ELT. We thank all our teachers at the UNAB MA TEFL program for providing us with the motivation and the intellectual guidance necessary to achieve this publication.
Abstract
This article describes a coursebook evaluation instrument using a cluster approach. We propose this instrument for a pre-use evaluation. It makes good use of the limited time teachers have available. It aims to develop a group consensus about the merits of a coursebook. This is important because the perfect coursebook does not exist. Thus, the support of the group is vital to the successful implementation and use of the coursebook.
How to cite this article: Villegas, C., Montoya, K., Odu, P., & Baker, T. (2022). Coursebook Evaluation Using A Cluster Approach. ELT Connections, 1 (1), 30-33.
Some of the instruments produced within the Council of Europe have played a decisive role in the teaching of so-called “foreign” languages by promoting methodological innovations and new approaches to designing teaching programmes, notably the development of a communicative approach.
They have facilitated a fresh approach to communicating these teaching methods in a manner potentially more conducive to operational appropriation of unknown languages. By thus identifying language needs, they were able to pinpoint the knowledge and know-how required for attaining this communication “threshold.
The CEFR organises language proficiency in six levels, A1 to C2, which can be regrouped into three broad levels: Basic User, Independent User and Proficient User, and that can be further subdivided according to the needs of the local context. The levels are defined through ‘can-do’ descriptors. The levels did not suddenly appear from nowhere in 2001, but were a development over a period of time, as described below.
The CEFR: a turning point
The first specification of this “threshold level” was formulated for the English language (Threshold level, 1975), quickly followed by French (Un Niveau Seuil, 1976). These two instruments have been used de facto as models for the same type of reference instruments that were produced subsequently for other languages, but they were adapted to suit the peculiar features of each language.
In order to meet the teaching and certification requirements, the level concept as defined was extended to cover specification of levels lying immediately below and above the threshold level. In the light of the developments in this field, particularly as regards the CEFR, other levels were developed for a number of languages. These proficiency levels constitute one of the origins of the six-level scale of the CEFR.
Launched in 2001, the CEFR marked a major turning point as it can be adapted and used for multiple contexts and applied for all languages.
The CEFR is based on all these achievements and has developed a description of the process of mastering an unknown language by type of competence and sub-competence, using descriptors for each competence or sub-competence, on which we shall not go into further detail here. These descriptors were created without reference to any specific language, which guarantees their relevance and across-the-board applicability. The descriptors specify progressive mastery of each skill, which is graded on a six-level scale (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2).
However, for textbook authors, teachers and other professionals, the specification set out in the CEFR may appear excessively broad, particularly since individual languages are not addressed. The Reference Level Descriptions (RLD) for national and regional languages, which provide detailed content specifications for different CEFR levels, have been developed to address this issue.
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment (CEFR) was designed to provide a transparent, coherent and comprehensive basis for the elaboration of language syllabuses and curriculum guidelines, the design of teaching and learning materials, and the assessment of foreign language proficiency.
The Council of Europe is pleased to announce the publication of the definitive English version of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment – Companion Volume which updates the CEFR 2001.
The CEFR Companion volume can be downloaded as a PDF or ordered in paper format from the online bookshop. Translations to ten languages are underway, most of which will become available this year.
The CEFR Companion Volumebroadens the scope of language education, reflecting academic and societal developments since the CEFR publication in 2001. It presents the key aspects of the CEFR for teaching and learning in a user-friendly form and contains the complete set of extended CEFR descriptors, replacing the 2001 set. These now include descriptors for mediation, online interaction, plurilingual/pluricultural competence, and sign language competences. The illustrative descriptors have been adapted with modality-inclusive formulations for sign languages and all descriptors are now gender-neutral.
This publication marks a crucial step in the Council of Europe’s engagement with language education, which seeks to protect linguistic and cultural diversity, promote plurilingual and intercultural education, reinforce the right to quality education for all, and enhance intercultural dialogue, social inclusion and democracy.
The CEFR Companion Volume updates and extends the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment (CEFR) which was designed to provide a transparent, coherent and comprehensive basis for the elaboration of language syllabuses and curriculum guidelines, the design of teaching and learning materials, and the assessment of foreign language proficiency. The CEFR has been translated into over 40 languages and is used all over Europe and in other continents.
Both the CEFR and the CEFR Companion Volume are related to the work of the Education Department which is part of the Directorate of Democratic Participation within the Directorate General of Democracy (“DGII”) of the Council of Europe.
CEFR : three tables used to introduce the Common Reference Levels
The following three tables, which are used to introduce the Common Reference Levels, are summarised from the original bank of “illustrative descriptors” developed and validated for the CEFR in the Swiss National Research project described in Appendix B of the volume. These formulations have been mathematically scaled to these levels by analysing the way in which they have been interpreted in the assessment of large numbers of learners.
Table 1 (CEFR 3.3): Common Reference levels: Global scale It is desirable that the common reference points are presented in different ways for different purposes. For some purposes it will however be appropriate to summarise the set of proposed Common Reference Levels in a holistic summarized table. Such a simple ‘global’ representation will make it easier to communicate the system to non-specialist users and will provide teachers and curriculum planners with orientation points.
Table 2 (CECR 3.3): Common Reference levels – Self-assessment grid In order to orient learners, teachers and other users within the educational system for some practical purpose, a more detailed overview is necessary. Table 2 is a draft for a self-assessment orientation tool intended to help learners to profile their main language skills, and decide at which level they might look at a checklist of more detailed descriptors in order to self-assess their level of proficiency.
Council of Europe (2020), Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment – Companion volume, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, vailable at www.coe.int/lang-cefr
Joseph Campbell was an American mythologist, writer, and lecturer. His book The Hero with a Thousand Faces explores the common journey that heroes from different works of literature take. In this informational text, Jessica McBirney further discusses this common structure of storytelling that Campbell identified.
The hero’s journey, simply put, is a character’s evolution. It is their process of embarking on an adventure, facing a challenge, and overcoming it to become a better person—usually improving the greater good along the way too.
Everything from Disney classics to literary classics follows an archetype—or a set of narrative designs, motifs, character types, images, or elements that every story inherently follows. Whether it is Simba’s journey back to Pride Rock in The Lion King, or Harry’s quest to defeat Voldemort in the Harry Potter series, literary critics and readers alike can pinpoint certain elements of these stories and trace them back to ancient precedents.
These recurring features reflect universal, primitive, and elemental patterns, which are meant to evoke profound responses from the audience. Some of the most common archetypes include death/rebirth plots, the journey home, the search for family, and—you guessed it!—the hero’s journey.
This hero’s journey archetype has been studied in great detail for its complexities and simultaneous relatability to human life. American professor of comparative mythology and literary critic Joseph Campbell, best known for his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which deconstructs the hero’s journey, or the monomyth, and compares it to different religions, spent much of his career breaking down the archetypal hero’s journey.
Campbell devised an equation of sorts, a step-by-step guide delineating each of the characteristic parts, which allows us to identify elements of the hero’s journey in the world around us.
According to Campbell, there are three main stages, which consist of several steps: the Departure (or Separation), the Initiation, and the Return. During the Departure, the hero is introduced, as they are presented with and prepare for their journey. The Initiation stage is when the hero crosses the point of no return and overcomes transformative challenges. Lastly, the Return is the hero’s trip back to their regular world and a content ending.
The Hero’s Journey in Fairytales and Folklore
Because it is an archetypal plot with universally approachable themes, the hero’s journey is prominently used in fairytales and folklore, such as Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, and Cinderella. Fairytales and folklore alike are meant to be simple, lesson-teaching narratives for children and listeners to easily follow and comprehend—and the hero’s journey template makes it easy for them to do so.
What Are the Stages and Steps of the Hero’s Journey?
Departure or Separation Stage
Leaving Hobbiton (Jeff Hitchcock): Path where Gandalf and Frodo drive through in The Fellowship of the Ring and where Bilbo runs out through in An Unexpected Journey. moviemaps.org/locations/130
1. Call to Adventure
The call to adventure, also known as the call to action, can take many forms. Itl is an interruption to the hero’s daily life—a threat to his livelihood, his loved ones, or his community. The call to action is something the hero cannot refuse no matter how much he’d like to. It is a disruption to his ordinary world, a challenge that must be accepted.
Example
Frodo Baggins, the hero in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, is called to action by the wizard Gandalf. Gandalf asks Frodo to take the Ring and destroy it, in order to save all of Middle-Earth. Frodo accepts the adventure in order to save his loved ones, his community, and ultimately, the world as they know it.
2. Refusal
Scared to leave the comfort of everything he knows, the hero second-guesses accepting the call to action. The task seems daunting, and the outcome is unknown. It will completely remove the hero from all things familiar and comfortable. At this stage in the journey, he hesitates to accept the challenge. In some stories, this may result in a sort of suffering or punishment for the hero. The hero’s very human response to fear and the unknown makes him more relatable to the audience.
Example
Sherlock Holmes, for instance, is a renowned detective. However, he often initially refuses to accept cases. Rather than finding them too daunting, Holmes finds them beneath his skill set, that is, until a certain element is revealed and piques his interest.
3. Supernatural Aid
After the hero has accepted the call to action, his guide or magical helper comes to him. This supernatural aid will serve as a mentor figure and provide the hero with the physical or metaphorical tools needed to embark on the journey.
Example
In The Sandlot when “Benny the Jet” Rodriguez decides he must be the one to go over the Beast’s fence to retrieve the baseball signed by Babe Ruth, he is visited by a supernatural aid: an apparition of Babe Ruth himself. The legendary baseball player gives Benny the inspiration to accept this challenge and the metaphorical tools to conquer his fears.
4. The Crossing of the First Threshold
This is exactly what it sounds like—the moment when the hero officially begins her journey, the moment when she crosses the threshold into a world different than the one she knows. This step in the hero’s journey can invite danger and the unknown.
Example
Jane Eyre, the hero of the novel by the same name, crosses the threshold when she accepts a governess position at Thornfield Hall. When she moves into the home owned and run by Mr. Rochester, everything changes for Jane. She crosses the threshold, both literally and metaphorically, and changes the course of her life.
5. Belly of the Whale
This is the point of no return. After the hero has crossed the first threshold, she enters the belly of the whale—or the first real obstacle of the journey. This step symbolizes the final separation between the hero and the version of themself and the world they once knew.
Example
When Mulan accepts the call to war on behalf of her sick father, she enters the belly of the whale. The moment she steps foot on the field of the training camp, she will never be able to return to the person and world she once knew. During the musical number “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” in the Disney film, the audience sees Mulan change from an unsure, nervous girl to a strong, confident, self-assured woman.
Initiation Stage
6. The Road of Trials
In the first step of the initiation stage, the protagonist undergoes a series of challenges and tests that will kickstart his transformation into the true hero he is meant to become. It is common for the hero to fail a few of these tests before ultimately overcoming all of them. This builds his character, strengthens him, and establishes self-confidence.
Example
In Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne loses his parents, endures endless hours of gruesome training, and comes across decisively evil opponents. These hardships ultimately produce the greatest heroic form Batman can obtain.
7. The Meeting with the Goddess
This is the moment in the story where the hero befriends an ally or guide. The person or entity helps the hero continue through their journey.
Example
When Buddy the Elf leaves the North Pole for New York City, he is a fish out of water—or more literally an elf in the real world. No one in the human world believes him or his quest to find his dad and the place where he belongs. That is, until his half-brother, Michael, and coworker Jovie become his allies and help him fulfill his journey.
8. Woman as the Temptress
In this step, the hero is tempted to give up on her mission. Although classically portrayed as a woman because the original heroes were men tempted by lust, this stage does not have to be represented by a woman—the temptation can manifest in many forms.
Example
In Star Wars, Luke is tempted to abandon his quest by the beautiful Princess Leia and the power of the Force. His journey symbolizes the power of temptation and the willpower of a true hero.
9. Atonement with the Father
This step represents a major turning point in the plot. It is in this moment that the hero faces the true purpose of his journey. Everything he has endured thus far has led the hero to this moment of reckoning with the person or entity that holds the power that rules his life.
Example
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the protagonist, Harry, comes into direct contact with his archnemesis, Voldemort. Voldemort, who killed Harry’s family and accidentally left a piece of himself within Harry, devises a plan to get face-to-face with the “boy who lived.” Until this moment, Harry does not know how deeply connected the two are. He also learns the significant power Voldemort still holds over his life.
10. Apotheosis
As a result of their confrontation with the symbolic “father,” the hero becomes fully aware of their power, purpose, or skill during the apotheosis or climax. This newfound knowledge is the key to the hero’s ultimate success.
Example
During their meeting in Goblet of Fire, Harry learns of his deep connection with Voldemort. This new knowledge will ultimately enable Harry’s victory over the dark wizard.
11. The Ultimate Boon
This is the final step of the initiation stage. During this phase, the hero achieves her fulfillment, accomplishing the goal she set out to achieve. Everything the hero has endured has led her to this moment, to this victory. Oftentimes, this achievement is portrayed as the acquiring of some magical item, an item that grants the hero immortality or exemplary power.
Example
In the young adult novel A Wrinkle In Time, the protagonist, Meg, achieves what she set out to do: bring back her father. Mrs. Who’s magical glasses allow Meg to walk through the portal to save him.
Return Stage
12. Refusal of the Return
This is the beginning of the Return Stage of the hero’s journey. During this step, the hero is now reluctant about returning to the life they once knew. The journey has changed them and they are hesitant to go back to the world they once inhabited.
Example
The three Pevensie children in The Chronicles of Narnia are hesitant to return to the human riddled with war and the unknown after having helped rescue the magical world of Narnia from an evil queen.
13. The Magic Flight
Although the hero has completed their quest, some alternate powers may still chase or hunt them. This step is the hero’s chance to evade them and return from their journey.
Example
In Steven Spielberg’s 1982 horror film Poltergeist, the Freeling family achieves the goal of their journey: bringing their daughter back from an alternate realm of spirits. However, the poltergeists make one last attempt to abduct the little girl. During this final attempt, the Freeling parents escape from their imploding house and rescue their children from the evil spirits in one final flight from danger.
14. Rescue from Without
Just as the hero received help from the “goddess” during the Initiation Stage, they receive help from an ally or guide to safely return home.
Example
Moana, in the self-titled Disney film, is returned safely back to her home by the demigod Maui, who takes the shape of an eagle to guide her.
15. The Crossing of the Return Threshold
Once again, this one is exactly as it sounds—the hero crosses back over into the ordinary world they once left behind.
Example
In many of the X-Men comics and films, Wolverine typically leaves behind the other mutants and Professor X’s school to return to the mundane world of humans. It is where he grew up and where he learned to fend for himself. Therefore, after saving the world alongside his mutant friends, he often crosses the return threshold back into ordinary society.
16. Master of Two Worlds
The hero, having successfully completed their quest, is now a changed person. She can acclimate back into the world she once knew as well as thrive in this new sphere of challenge and adventure.
Example
In The Matrix, Neo nearly dies before being revived by Trinity’s kiss. Upon completing his journey, Neo gains power in the two worlds, meaning he can both observe and control the Matrix.
17. Freedom to Live
In this final step of the hero’s journey, the protagonist can finally live freely. In other words, the hero has completed their task, has escaped grave danger, evaded death, evolved into a better person, and has earned the freedom to live comfortably and peacefully.
Example
At the end of The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Will Turner is left to live happily ever after with his true love Elizabeth Swan after having defeated Captain Barbossa and his cursed crew.
Hero’s Journey Template
Campbell’s Monomyth is depicted as a circular story board in this hero’s journey chart.
How to Use the Hero’s Journey Yourself
Because of the monomyth’s universality and primitively recognizable themes, it can be easily adapted to one’s own creative writing, as well as applied to one’s own life and journey. Campbell devised a comprehensive, malleable set of guidelines for how to write a hero’s journey. Aspiring writers can adapt his steps to fit their needs, using it as a guide to craft a truly heroic story.
Campbell’s approach to the monomyth can also be metaphorically applied to someone’s spiritual, psychological, or physical journey. Being able to identify elements of the hero’s journey in your own life can help you see things in a new light, providing solace and guidance through a transformative period.
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