Literature Circles

When we began reading The Lightning Thief, we began utilizing literature circles. This was a great way to push the thinking of my students; they had grown accustomed to being able to spit out answers to simple comprehension questions. The four roles of the literature circles really pushes their thinking and makes them dive into the literature each day with a new drive. It also majorly increased the quality of conversations they are having.

This is what the desks look like for this unit (at the end of each day, everything is a little less tidy as you can see). I have them placed in groups of four to make each of the roles clear. The students have taken on the responsibility of changing the places of the cards each day, and keeping their books and response folders organized.

Mythology Anchor Charts

This is the first anchor chart that my students saw when they walked in the morning we began mythology! The week prior to the unit, we discussed legends and watched Hercules after testing one afternoon. This was the perfect connection to have going into a unit surrounding myths. We still refer back to this chart throughout our reading/activities - I recommend having something similar to this in your classroom when you teach Greek Mythology or read The Lightning Thief!

As Percy's journey continued, my class began to realize that Percy faces a new challenge almost every chapter. In one of the chapters, we came across the word "quest." What an awesome stopping discussion - what is Percy's quest in this chapter? What is his ultimate quest? How does his journey on the quest change him? The students had a great time recalling the challenges that Percy had faced up to the point where we were in the book, and it was a great way to check for understanding on whether they truly knew the meaning of the word.

I made this anchor chart AFTER my class developed a definition together so that the knowledge was student-made!

Myths Anchor Chart

Looking back over my mythology unit this morning as we begin preparing for the unit assessments and realized I never shared one of the very first anchor charts we made as a class! We first compared a myth to a legend (I will post that picture later in the day), and then we really honed in on myths, since that would be a major focus of this unit.

Following the big focus on myths, we moved onto "the quest" and what significance it played on the plot and development of the characters!

Writing Opinions with Mythology

After writing out two simple stories about Athena and Zeus, my class read them both and I informed them that they had each been accepted to a new elementary school that had just opened - Mt. Olympus Elementary School. Because it is just starting out, the school has not yet chosen a mascot. The students had to choose either Athena or Zeus as their mascot and write an opinion piece giving reasons and examples to explain themselves.

We stopped and shared along the way with turn and talks and group reads. It was hilarious to watch the students have intense conversations about why one or the other would not be a strong choice for a mascot. Having the background stories written on anchor charts seemed to help the process go smoothly!

Introduction of the "BIG TWELVE" gods/goddesses of Mt. Olympus

Meet "the big twelve" gods/goddesses that are represented in each of the cabins at Camp Half Blood with this introductory video! (Great video to play along when reading chapter 6 of The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan)

Content Vodcast - The BIG TWELVE

Greek Mythology Websites

In prepping for another week of mythology, I have been exploring some different websites for my students to research different gods and goddesses! I found some pretty cool sites and wanted to share them!

• Winged Sandals: This interactive site includes both online and printable activities that help kids learn about Greek mythology.

 

• Odyssey Online: Kids can explore this site to learn more about the mythology (and more) of Egypt, Greece, Rome, and other ancient cultures.  Features items are virtual museum objects, with detailed information about each item that help kids assemble a holistic picture of each culture.

• Encyclopedia Mythica: This reference site provides extensive information about mythology from cultures around the world, including an image gallery. 

• Mythweb: Kids who are interested in Greek mythology can explore this site to learn about gods, goddesses, and heroes.

• Theoi Greek Mythology: This site provides an extensive array of examples of Greek mythology in classical art and literature.

• Living Myths: Celtic, Greek, Native American, and Chinese myths are the focus of this storytelling site.

• Myth Man: This site features a Greek “myth of the month.”

Storybook

After working on improving/revising/publishing some of our old narrative pieces, I gave the extension activity at stations one day to develop a "movie" depicting the students' narratives. Many of my students took this opportunity to extend their stories. The program we used was iMovie, and was very easy to utilize, but still required some teacher assistance throughout the process!

Rick Riordan Bio and Lightning Thief Book Review

Our Greek Mythology unit is smoothly progressing! Of all of the units we have done this year, my students are more engaged with this text than them all. I have been so blown away by The Lightning Thief that I looked into more books that Rick Riordan has written, and loved his writing style! As I began to read more about him, I found the back story of how he began writing for children fascinating. His son's love for Greek Mythology and desire to hear a fresh new bedtime story inspired Riordan to invent this first story line! Attached is a biographical presentation about Rick Riordan - the last slide includes a vodcast book review of The Lightning Thief.

Rick Riordan Bio and Lightning Thief Book Review