One of the many reasons I am excited each year to teach this Greek mythology activity is because this is where it all began for me. I made my transition from middle to high school in January. When I first started, this unit is where I began.
How I Planned the Greek Mythology Activity
For me, my classroom space is really important — specifically how it appears to students. So to start my Greek literature unit, I like to beautify the space with these graphic art posters.
When I teach a comprehensive unit, like my unit on Greek literature, I find it most beneficial to situate students in the time period. For this unit, that means an engaging Greek mythology activity to help students better understand the cultural context of the texts we read.
Our culminating assessment this unit is an analytical essay that evaluates the role of a particular motif across our Greek texts. Students’ options include hubris; fate versus free will; and the tragic hero.
It would be pretty difficult for students to understand the magnitude of, say, the devastating consequences of hubris if they don’t first understand the hierarchy between gods and mortals.
At the same time, this unit isn’t entirely about Greek mythology; it primarily encompasses selected texts from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Homer’s Iliad, and Sophocles Oedipus Rex. I knew I couldn’t devote more than a day or two to background information. So I devised this Greek mythology activity to introduce the core tenets.
Activating Strategy Ideas for Greek Mythology Activity
When lesson planning, I often find myself subconsciously categorizing my lessons based on the activator and activity. For example, if I know I have a rock-solid, memorable activator to really capture students’ attention, my activity tends to be shorter. The opposite is true as well. If my activity is a knock-out, I don’t spend as much time on the activator.
For this Greek mythology activity, I recommend a shorter activating strategy. My school runs on block scheduling, so we have approximately 84 minutes for each class period. For me, I spend no more than about ten or fifteen minutes on the activator.
One suggestion would be to show students the movie trailer for Disney’s Hercules. You know the one I’m talking about – the 1997 version complete with Phil and Meg and Hades. The nostalgia of watching the trailer can be beneficial in pulling in your students for the Greek mythology activity.
Another suggestion is to show a longer introductory clip. Check out YouTube for some ideas. There are a lot of options that give a quick but comprehensive overview of the origin of different gods and goddesses in Greek mythology. Depending on your class, you could have them complete a half-sheet of questions to discuss after the video wraps up.
the Heart of the Greek Mythology Activity
The star of the show for this lesson, however, is the Greek mythology activity. Here’s an overview of what I have my students do.
Informational Articles
Working in pairs, I have my students first read a one-page informational article about their assigned god or goddess. Sometimes I assign the mythological figure; other times, students choose either randomly or intentionally. You could incentivize their choice based on performance or behavior.
For my Greek mythological activity, there are 15 mythological figures included:
Apollo and Daphne
Athena and Arachne
Eros and Psyche
Hercules
Jason and the Argonauts
King Midas
Medusa and Perseus
The Minotaur and Theseus
Narcissus and Echo
Odysseus
Pandora
Prometheus
Sisyphus
The Three Sisters of Fate
The Trojan War
For the visual learners like myself, check out what this portion of the activity looks like.
Students work together to first read and annotate their article. Then they complete the comprehension tasks on the back of their worksheet.
I find it really important that worksheets and activities are visually-appealing for my students. In a lot of ways, I think teachers are like sales people: it’s all about getting our learners to buy into what we’re selling.
So I take a lot of pride in both the creation and presentation of my educational materials. This Greek mythology activity is no different.
Each article is approximately the same length, so students won’t think there is a huge difference in workload from article to article. Now, between you and me, some articles are definitely more reachable or easy-to-comprehend; those are perfect for learning support accommodations.
I also take a lot of pride in the graphics I choose and the layout I present. My students should feel like they’re working with professional, carefully-constructed content, not just something I threw together at the last minute.
It’s also valuable to customize the comprehension tasks. If you just slap the same questions for each article, students will pick up on that. So I take the time to customize each article’s comprehension tasks to make it more personal and rigorous for my students.
I do, however, use the same general format for each. I list between four and six comprehension questions drawn from the article to ensure students read the article carefully. This is where the customization really comes into play.
But for this Greek mythology activity, I also encourage students to do a little extra (informal) research with their devices. There is additional space on the back of each article for students to see what other facts they can find about their mythological figure.
At my school, there is no official policy banning student cell phone use. I have strict expectations on their use in my classroom, but if I shut them down entirely, I think I’d be on the wrong end of a losing battle. So I like to sneak in positive, educational opportunities for students to use their phones. It empowers my learners while increasing their knowledge.
When finished, students must show me their completed annotations and questions. Depending on the group, I might count these for a small amount of points or just a checkpoint.
Demonstrating their understanding in creative ways
The informational articles are meant to serve as the foundation for knowledge. The next part of the Greek mythology activity is really where students’ creativity can soar. I offer two options for how to proceed, and I’ll share with you which classes I run each variation.
Biography Posters
- The first option for the next part of the Greek mythology activity is biography posters for each god and goddess.
Sticking with the same god or goddess they read about and researched, students then complete their biography poster. The biography poster features a ready-to-color image of the mythological figure as well as other comprehension tasks. Those include:
A summary of the god or goddess’s story
Characteristics
The moral or lesson to be learned
Students first fill in the information based on what they learned in their article. Then they set to coloring in their poster and making it really stand out.
At the end of the Greek mythology activity, I have each pair briefly share their poster. Oftentimes, I’ll supplement information as needed. Then I display the posters in my classroom or in the hallway.
I think this activity option works best for my academic classes. I teach sophomore World Literature to both academic and advanced levels. The biography posters often works the best with my academic classes because it helps to not only increase knowledge but also foster collaboration skills.
Here’s a quick link to the biography poster project I use in my classroom.
Class Presentation
Another variation of the Greek mythology activity is more technologically-based. Again, you proceed the same way with the informational articles. But instead of the biography posters, this option fosters accountability in a digital way. Here’s what I mean.
First, you would give everyone in the class access to the presentation. Note: if you have multiple sections of a particular course, be sure to make copies of your master template. We use Schoology, which is easy enough to post a link for students.
Then, each student (or partner group) is assigned a particular slide; that would correspond with their Greek god or goddess. Set a firm tone and high expectations in terms of quality and interaction with other slides.
Expect students to first start with the educational content. I give my students the challenge of summarizing their article in just three to five sentences. I find this really encourages students to paraphrase and select the most critical content only.
Encourage students to move onto the more creative side of things once the content is written. That can involve graphics, fonts, color schemes, etc.
Promote citizenship by making it clear that students are to edit their slide only (remember: if you use Google Slides, you have complete access to the editing history, so you can easily see if anyone did not follow this rule)
Once our presentation is finished (or time is up), you could present the slideshow or expect each group to briefly share their slide.
I usually reserve this Greek mythology activity for my advanced class. On the one hand, those students tend to do a little better with the responsibility factor (i.e. not messing with anyone else’s slide). But, the real reason is timing. This task takes less time than the biography poster project. Given the nature of my Greek literature unit, I have to move my advanced class a bit faster.
In all, we’ll spend about two class periods with the academic classes (the biography posters) and one class with my advanced group (the digital presentation).
Here’s the link to the teacher copy of the presentation that can be easily modified, duplicated, etc.
English language learners and the greek mythology activity
Something I take a lot of pride in is my ability to make appropriate accommodations not only for my learning support students, but my English language learners as well. For me, this year at least, my ELLs are Spanish-speaking.
I love this Greek mythology activity for a lot of reasons, and one of them includes how easy it is to accommodate for ELLs.
The language accommodations for this task come in the first stage – the informational articles. Of the fifteen mythological stories, I took the four that I felt were the most literal or reachable for English language learners. Those include:
King Midas
Prometheus
Sisyphus
The Three Sisters of Fate
First, I adapted the content to be a lower reading level (my learners are at a second or third grade level) and translated that to Spanish.
Then, instead of comprehension questions, my ELLs have a fill-in-the-blank task in English complete with word bank.
I still have my ELLs check their work with me before moving on. They can then easily participate in the poster project or digital presentation.
Summarizer for the greek mythology activity
When wrapping up this Greek mythology activity, you have a lot of options. Like the activator, I often spend no more than ten or fifteen minutes on the summarizer. Here are some ideas for what you can do in your classroom.
Grade the Presentation
If you have your students present their poster or slide, you can assess the quality of their work and/or their presentation to the class.
Quiz
You could create a quick quiz for students to demonstrate what they learned. This could be specifically for their assigned figure or all fifteen. Some modifications might include fill-in-the-blanks; matching; or multiple choice.
Concluding Thoughts
I might be biased given my enthusiasm for this time period, but I love this Greek mythology activity for so many reasons. First, it’s so universal. You can use it in an English or Social Studies classroom without a problem. I also love that it fosters close reading and a deep understanding of an engaging topic.
I also love all the creative possibilities for this Greek mythology activity. No matter how old they get, there’s something about coloring that students simply enjoy. So the biography poster project is ideal.
Speaking of coloring, there’s also this Greek mythology coloring book your students might love. And you might love it as a quiet, calming activity on those crazy days!
But you also know the world we live in, so the digital presentation option is great for boosting technological skills or for distance learning.
No matter what, you can’t go wrong with this Greek mythology activity. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
And if you’re totally sold on this entire activity, check out all the resources conveniently grouped and priced as a bundle.
