Goals

 

Details

Duration: 120+ minutes

Assessments: Student reflections/journals, Student discussions, Student writing, Research, Group work

 

Description

In the 3 weeks prior to beginning the actual Mythology Mastery project, we attempted to build a foundational awareness and understanding of Ancient (and current) Greek culture, language, geography, beliefs, etc. This was the time during which we were trying to build anticipation and grab students' interest for the work to come.

Students did some exploration into current society to discover the influences of ancient Greek Mythology and society. They had to discover company names or advertising slogans that referenced mythological characters and bring in evidence. We looked at ancient maps and current maps of Greece, and students created their own maps. This culminated in a 2-day, hands-on investigation of all of these things that we called the "Station Rotation."

The Station Rotation was designed to allow pairs or small groups of students to truly get their hands on information and guide their own acquisition of knowledge from primary and secondary sources. Natalie and I went to the public libraries and loaded up on resources that contained information on ancient and contemporary Greece and Greek Mythology. Travel books, language books, encyclopedic books, mythology books, etc. made their way to our classrooms. We then created learning stations at which students had to complete a basic investigative task. They spent about 20-30 minutes at each station, and then moved on. The rotation was completed when we joined out two classes to watch a clip of a film about ancient Greece that explained gender roles, the role of the theater, the evolution of Athens, and the role of the gods. Students captured all of this exploration on the Station Rotation worksheet (see below).

After we felt that students had a very basic awareness of ancient Greece, we launched into reading the introductory myths in D'Aulaire's. This includes the creation myths of Gaea and Uranus, the Titans, Zeus, the 12 Olympians, and Pandora's Jar. We chose to include Pandora in the myths that we experienced together in class, as the concept of evil was integral to the Mythology Mastery project design.

It was only after all of these things happened during classtime that we introduced the Mythology Mastery project.

Station Rotation worksheet
Download (47K)

Author Reflections