Week 6 Syllabus: February 13
LAST WEEK I COLLECTED YOUR HAROUN ANNOTATIONS and we shifted into Greek mythology. We watched a History Channel documentary, “The Greek Gods” and collected your in-class notes. Scholars read an overview of the main characters of Homer’s Odyssey. We had a lecture on the creation myth of ancient Greece, how all creation myths move from chaos to order, from nature based, uncontrollable gods toward (more) civilized gods who establish social rules and (often) create humanity. This week, we will formally begin reading the epic poem, Homer’s “Odyssey.”
TUESDAY, February 13
Returning annotations of Haroun and discussing the importance of writing as a form of thinking. (write AS you read—it matters)
Importance of questions (wrong question=wrong answer(s)).
We’re reading through the second half of book 1, modeling annotation technique focused on questions. We will start on page 8 and will focus on Athena’s advice to Telemachus. Speaking of which, below is a clip we will watch about Athena.
HW: Finish the reading guide to book 1. We will collect it on Thursday!
THURSDAY, February 15
SSR.
After, we will collect the line-by-line reading guide to book one.
We will then turn our attention to book four. We will listen to the abridged audio while reading the text, pausing it as needed to answer questions.
Link to the audio is here.
Link to the book four guide is here.
HW: First, if your class did NOT finish reading book four and the guide, finish both.
Then, review you annotations of book four. Make sure you have circled vocabulary. Go back through your annotations, and number the questions you’ve written out. Finally, add notes to “The Old Man of the Sea” story, specifically hero-journey notes. Where is the call to adventure? What threshold is crossed? How do the heroes go “into the unknown” world? Who is the mentor/helper, and how to they aid the hero of the story? What does the hero gain by accomplishing his journey? All these notes need to be handwritten into book 4 for class next Wednesday.