Same question, insert "fiction"

I got more out of the writing about fiction than the other “writing about” assignments. This was the first time I approached a piece of literature from the point of view of one specific critical theory. In keeping my critical focus, I disallowed myself the freedom to wander off topic and discuss all my thoughts and feelings about the story. This helped enormously in keeping my paper short enough. When it comes to critical writing, the most difficult aspect for me has always been knowing, or rather choosing, what to leave out. I doubt I’ll be working with critical theory in junior high, so, while it helped me with my writing; this assignment probably won’t come up in my work as a teacher.
The creative writing we did was, as usual, not a learning experience for me. I don’t like parameters. If I’m going to be creative, let me be creative. Don’t tell me to be creative in exactly this way. As a high-school or junior-high teacher, using prompts like those we were given may come in handy. Children function better when they know exactly what is expected of them. Not all students are creative and not all of them are self-starters. Not everyone is comfortable to just get in the car and go. A lot of people don’t feel safe without a map in hand. For some young writers, being told to follow the yellow-brick road may be the only way to get them to the Emerald City.

Writing a myth

Writing a myth is obviously different from studying myths, in that we are creating something new, as opposed to just looking at what someone else has done. It enhanced the studying of the myths by forcing us to put into practice what we'd learned. Reading about the elements necessary for a particular myth to fit into a given category or genre is dry and borderline boring. Using those elements in the writing of our own myths gives them color and purpose.
Myths are generally pretty interesting reading material. They get somewhat bizarre and take us to places we wouldn't normally go (and often don't want to go). Writing something like that allows for enormous creativity and can be quite therapeutic. I was quite angry when I wrote mine, so producing something as vile as the deer scene (those of you who read it know to what I refer) was a harmless way for me to vent that.
As far as using this for my future teaching career goes, I probably will. I think that, if the students are allowed to write their own myths and vent some of their craziness, they will be more open to studying existing myths and the craziness of others. Teenagers like to be gross (especially the boys) and they live to shock people. A lot of myths are both gross and shocking to modern-day readers. They'll probably get a kick out of studying a story that focuses on feces for a page and a half (a trickster tale I remember) or reading along as Zeus changes himself into a farm animal to seduce someone else's wife.