Some Teaching Help Please?

In my English class in New York, we reached the Indian Mythology Section in the textbooks and I decided to start with the Ramayan (since it is a little easier for Americans to understand Ramayan more than Mahabharat). But how in the world do I teach 15 year old American students, who don't know anything about our mythology, Ramayan? I only have two weeks to teach Indian mythology before we move on to Greek Mythology, and in those two weeks, five days are Ramayan!😕 How in the world do I do it? There are sooo many points to cover and personally, I don't want to leave out anything! Can anyone please help me out here?

Originally posted by: coolpurvi

lalitha di keep it simpler. covering so many things is few days might create confusion n make it boring for an 15 yers old american student.

It is important to keep in mind what your aim is in teaching about Ramayan. I mean that what do you want the students to gain from it.

Originally posted by: akhl

It is important to keep in mind what your aim is in teaching about Ramayan. I mean that what do you want the students to gain from it.

I feel that if students gain the teachings from Ramayan, then that will be very good. You should tell the story in such a way that the story is interesting and also, they learn something from it.

Ramayan has lots of things to teach. Whole lifetime also may not be sufficient to uncover all its teachings. But you have only 5 days.

Therefore start by saying that Ravan was a very strong king but very evil. You do not need to tell them the details of Ravan. Do not tell how Ravan was born, who his parents were etc. There is no need to explain all those. Just say that he was very strong, had defeated many kings and was torturing everybody.

Then jump to the birth of Ram and his three brothers. Again, there is no need to explain about putrakameshti yagna and all that. Because that will confuse the American students.

Then talk about how much love the brothers have among themselves. Tell how great Ram was, how much he was loved by all.

Tell about Vishwamitra taking Ram and Laxman with them. Let students know that the princes gave lots of respect to Vishwamitra.

After that talk about Kaikeyi's demands. Let students know that Ram could easily acquire the kingdom forcefully but he had no greed. He accepted to go on exile. Tell how devoted Sita and Laxman were that they could have easily enjoyed in palace but they went with Ram.

Tell that in jungle, Ram and Laxman killed many evil people. No need of describing all the battles. Just saying that Ram and Laxman killed many evil people is sufficient.

Then talk about Sita's kidnap, devotion of Hanuman, war and killing of Ravan. Finish by summarizing that morales of Ramayan.