The Iliad

Building upon prior lessons in the series, this reading and writing exercise requires pupils to look back at their own writing, track character development in the novel The Cay, and analyze how Phillip has changed. The reading focus is...

Create musical myths in this West African tales lesson. Middle schoolers read myths from African Myths and Legends as well as West African Trickster Tales. They note when music could be used to enhance the tales, and then write their own...

Ask your learners to dream up a myth set in modern day. These mythology writing prompts require individuals take on the role of an ancient Greek citizen who just woke up to a totally different world. Through this lens, class members...

Lensey Namioka’s Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear provides an opportunity for young readers to observe how writers bring their characters to life. Each class member selects a character to trace through the novel, recording...

Build reading fluency and classroom community with a Reader’s Theater activity. Class groups select a myth, or if part of a myth writing unit, select a group member’s myth, craft a script, and perform for the class. Directions for...

Investigate "respect" with your class. They will participate in a think/share activity in which they complete sentence starters about their personal experience with "respect." Then they view a video clip in which Holocaust survivors...

Complete studies of the memorable characters in Richard Peck's novel A Long Way from Chicago. The instructional activity describes three different activities to help your class better understand characters in the story, character...

How did the sun arrive in the sky? Learners watch a short film that describes the myth of Nanahuatl, a weak Aztec god who sacrificed himself to become the fifth sun for his people.

For this lesson created specifically to integrate the use of the SMART Board, Students view a variety of animated myths in order to create a web that identifies the characteristics of a myth. Then Students choose a myth from selected...