Goals

 

Details

Duration: N/A

Assessments: Student reflections/journals, Student discussions, Student writing

 

Description

Allow roughly four weeks for the reading of the epic. Plan to use significant chunks of classtime to read important sections aloud in class. (A sample reading schedule attached.)

Students keep a nightly reading journal while moving through The Odyssey. See attached resource for details on this assignment.

Socratic seminar is a perfect forum for the discussion questions students are asked to generate for every entry in their reading journal.

The pattern of the "hero journey" is a useful content theme to guide analysis of the epic. (See attached JPEG file for a visual diagram of this, as well as books by Joseph Campbell.)

Early in the reading, introduce the students to the conventions of epic storytelling (see attached resource), and challenge the students to notice these features in the Odyssey as they proceed through the epic.

Conventions of Epic
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Diagram of the Hero's Journey
A conceptual map of the epic hero's journey....
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Odyssey Bookmarks
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Reading Journal Assignment
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Sample Reading Schedule
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Author Reflections

The first half of this project is dominated by guiding the students through the reading. For many 9th and 10th graders, this is the longest, most challenging piece of text they have ever attempted to tackle. The reading schedule demands the Goldilocks principle: not too fast, because the students need lots of support; but not too slow, because if it drags, you will lose student engagement. Lots of in-class oral reading as a whole class and in small groups helps.

The attached reading schedule probably errs on the side of being too fast. We had to rush things because we started the project close to the end of the year.

I handed out bookmarks to the students with the reading schedule printed on them: this worked out great. Not only practical but made the students feel supported.