What's important to teach in the first six books?

That last post was a doozy to read, huh?  Well, it felt like a doozy to type, if that makes you feel any better.  So, now onto teaching the first six books.

It's important for students to acquire some background knowledge of Ancient Greece.  There's a plethora of websites you can find that will tell you all about the gods and goddesses.  This can really be helpful in establishing some common ground for the students to know before they dive into the text.

As students read these first few books, it's important for them to make connections (like I said last week about Gilgamesh).  One of the strategies I would use would be to question the text.  Questioning can happen before, during, and after reading.  Questioning is important because it helps clarify meaning of text and allows for students to have a deeper understanding of the text.  When questioning, coding can be helpful for students as they read.  Coding can be done in various ways, but the following link gives some guidelines and suggestions of how to help students code a text as they read:  Coding Summary and Strategies.  This story can get pretty confusing at times with so many characters and so much backstory. 

Questioning can be really beneficial.  Before reading, you can discuss why a culture might have made up the pantheon of gods and goddess.  Why did the Ancient Greeks have these tales?  Do we use anything that resembles epics to explain things in our own lives?  Students will surprise you with the connections they make.  In the first book, you could have a Socratic seminar over questions of the text.  Should Achilles give Briseis back?  Does Agamemnon deserve Briseis?  Are either of them over-reacting?  This could spur some good discussion in the classroom.  It's easy to do this throughout the rest of the books, discussing main themes like glory or even character analysis with Zeus or Diomedes for example.  For questioning strategies and help, click the following link:  Questioning Toolkit.  Seriously, that previous link gives some good ideas about "thin" and "thick" questions, question forms, and more.  Click on it.

Questioning the text can happen throughout the poem, the aforementioned questions are an example of how you can teach things such as honor, glory, war, and anger through asking questions.  This provides students with a connection to their own lives. 

I made this post nice and short so your eyes don't fall out after reading so much today.  Tomorrow, I'll attempt to make the post about Books VII-XII shorter. 

Until then,

Cassy