Instructor’s Guide

Overall:

  • Have students google new vocab learned from the book and find sentences of how it is used. They can give a short presentation about their findings.

Unit 1

1. Mini-research about a Greek mythological named business:

  • Students can do research about basic things about the following businesses–what do they sell, when were they established, why they are named after a Greek god, etc.
    • Athena Water
    • Nike
    • Apollo Theater
    • Atlas Van Lines
    • Mercury car brand
    • Olympus camera
    • Venus razors
    • FTD (logo)

2. Have students present about a myth or story from their country. Below are some interesting examples:

3. Have students create and plan their own business named after a Greek god studied so far. What would their business sell / what would their service be? They could also make logos for their company and create a kind of advertisement for it. They could create a video or present a Pecha-Kucha about their product using ethos, logos, and pathos to persuade the audience to buy their product.

4. Assign each student an Olympian god and give them an article from the additional resources page (or another link!) to present what they learned about that god.

5. Have students research and find pictures of any building or architecture from their country that is about a famous myth or story. Explain the story and show pictures of any art or architecture from the building that is about the story.

6. Have students find examples of neoclassical architecture in the city that they are in, if possible. Have them explain to the class the features that represent neoclassical styles and why that building might represent ideas behind American neoclassicism. For example, many downtown areas of cities in America often have some state or federal buildings that exhibit neoclassical architecture.

7. Students could design their own “World’s Fair” about their country or hometown. They could showcase the following using a PPT or poster project:

  • Special culture
  • Technology, inventions
  • Statues, art representative of the country / culture
  • Special food, clothing

Unit 2

  1. With a group / partner, students can design their own product (bonus points if it’s Greek mythology related!) and create a commercial / advertisement for it. They could choose just one type of persuasion or all three to put in their video. Using a PowerPoint presentation with narration may be the easiest way to create the video advertisement.
  2. Have students do mini-presentations about who is a good example of a modern Prometheus and explain why. I had students choose their topic and then they have to explain some background information about the person and why they are a Prometheus, including their punishment. Below are some example topics and presentations:
  3. Have students brainstorm some topics that might open “Pandora’s Box” and have a debate.
  4. Have students bring in an advertisement (in English) and the audience has to discuss if the ad is using pathos, logos, or ethos, or a combination.

Unit 3

  1. Research about the following constellations and the Greek mythology behind them–have them show pictures of the constellation and information about when it can be seen: click here for a list of constellations. You can use one from this unit or new ones.
  2. Maybe more research than presentation, but, find out why we call them the “dog days of summer”. Do students have a similar phrase in their language?
  3. Another more research than presenting project: If you read the chapter about Cadmus and Europa, at the end of the story it mentions an interesting necklace given to Cadmus’ wife, Harmonia. Do some research about the necklace of Harmonia, where it came from, and what mystical power it has.
  4. Have students do presentations about constellations in their country. This would be especially good if you have Chinese students.
  5. Have students present on a real-life hero using the steps of the hero’s journey. Below are details of the assignment and example presentations:
  6. Have students read the article about the Ulysses’ Pact and then present on what they would say is theirs. Below are details of the assignment and example presentations:
  7. Any of the writing tasks for this unit can be converted into a presentation.

Unit 4

  1. It might take some time, but you could have your class do a rendition of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex play! I had my students read this version–the shortest and easiest to read one I could find–although it’s still difficult, so you may want to adapt it. Then I had them create their OWN script using more understandable language. They agreed in their parts, practiced their lines, and then performed them! It was great and they seemed to enjoy it. You could also have them act out the version in the book to save time.
  2. Have students present about hubris and nemesis. Below are details of the assignment and example presentations:

Unit 5

  1. There are 2 writing options for this unit–one being a sort of final exam essay. You may want to then use the first writing option as a presentation instead.
  2. Have students visit this website and choose one art piece of their choice to describe and explain the significance of in a short presentation.

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It’s All Greek to Me! Copyright © 2018 by Charity Davenport is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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