Overview:

            Students seem to respond the best to literature that they can connect to their own lives. I have found that some of the most important stories we can study do in fact relate and thus the students become more interested and intrigued by the reading of that story.
            I have ninth grade students, and there are a few major pieces of literature that we are supposed to hit in the ninth grade. One of these is the epic poem, The Odyssey. The story of a hero and the journey that they embark on is a classic story throughout the history of literature, and is a constant in popular media. The themes that appear in the story are themes that the students are very used to, and we are going to explore them.
            As familiar with some the themes the students will be, I think that some of the history of Ancient Greece could be an obstacle. For that reason, before we start reading about Odysseus, we are going to research Greek mythology. The more background we have, the more successful our reading will be. The students are doing multi-genre projects and other activities, so we can learn together about the important figures of Greek mythology.
            After we complete reading The Odyssey, I feel that the students will be quite prepared to do some creative work with The Odyssey. I feel that the type of writing we are going to do will allow the students to use what they learn about The Odyssey more then a test or more objective assessment will. The students are approaching the end of their 9th grade year, which is a pivotal year, and a hero’s journey within its own right. For that reason, the students are going to put everything together to write their own hero’s journey through the 9th grade.
            Finally, we are going to incorporate film, after our reading, because the story lives on today. The students will be watching parts of O’ Brother Where Art Thou’. We will discuss how it was influenced by The Odyssey afterwards. The goal of this unit is to introduce students to a classic piece of literature, by relating it to students’ lives, and modern society.