Excellence Through Classics (ETC): More than Just a Name Change
by Susan Senechal, Cape Henry Collegiate School, VA, and Kris Tracy, Ricks Center for Gifted Children at the University of Denver
Activity Packets
I thought it might be a good idea to analyze the content of the packets to determine what types of activities were present and to determine the frequency of each type. This was much easier said than done. In the end Kris and I came up with four categories:
(1) Retellings of the material in either prose or dramatic format
(2) Hands-on activities such as puppet. songs, and crafts that are motivators — especially for the younger students -- but not necessarily instructive or aimed at the myth exam;
(3) Factual information activities, most of which are keyed to the myth exam; and
(4) Activities including cross-curricular projects, critical-thinking exercises, and annotated bibliographies for further research.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, many activities overlap the assigned categories above. Our methods of selecting the correct category might have been somewhat eclectic. However, the results of this analysis are probably fairly true.
As you can see, all four categories are realized in each packet, with the latter two categories providing most of the pages. These areas are, indeed, where we attempt to address the needs of the more advanced and middle school students. As a method of explanation, I would like to take you through example pages from our last packet, Theseus, and explain the rationale behind each selection.
Although the myth exam is based upon D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, the D’Aulaires’ accounts of specific myths are sometime too involved for the younger students. When this occurs, we might include a retelling or a play. At other times D’Aulaires’ accounts lack certain information that Kris and I deem to be important. This was the case when we began the Theseus packet. There was no mention of the delightful bandits he encountered on his way to Athens. Kris solved this by providing a retelling of her own. We knew no myth exam questions would be answered by the inclusion of this material, but we also knew that by it omission, the older and more advanced students would be deprived of wonderful knowledge such as the word Procrustean. We also decided to include some facts from the retelling in certain Theseus activities.
Hands-on activities such as puppets, songs, and crafts probably reflect the origins of ETC more than any other. Do activities in this category help answer myth exam questions? Probably not. Do activities in this category motivate and inspire students to learn more about mythology? Probably so. While this is especially true for the younger students, many older and more advanced students still enjoy, at times, “playing” with what they have learned, or learning about that with which they have played.
This simple labyrinth, for example, was one of the most memorable Theseus exercises for the fifth-graders at my school. Why? I do not know. But, even as ETC broadens its scope to include more middle-school involvement, rest assured that every packet will contain a few of these hands-on activities as well as a song or two.
The third category, factual information, is perhaps the one most closely linked to the myth exam. The challenge for Kris and me here has been to create activities which require knowledge of factual detail, but are still creative and fun for the students and allow varying degrees of difficulty from which teacher may select. I have chosen five out of the many factual activities in this particular packet to illustrate the point. Please note as I do so the highlighted items, each asking for the identical information. This first activity is an excellent way to have students highlight important facts that they have just read. It allows them to focus on details one might expect on the myth exam.
This second activity, Good Advice, is a pretty straight-forward review of the facts. Students enter details about Theseus and are rewarded at the end with a “special message.” Aside from helping with myth exam preparation, this activity also helps with the spelling of mythological names.
Again, recall is the objective with this selection. However, a teacher might wish to use this sheet as a springboard to having the students write rhyming couplets of their own. At this point, the degree of difficulty would escalate (and the activity would move into another category).
For younger students as well as for students with learning problems, oftentimes a hands-on experience needs to be coupled with factual detail. In this activity from the Odyssey section, students can work with sequencing of details through manipulation.
Finally, games are an excellent way to review, and middle-school students are especially competitive. As you can see, category three teems with diversity of approach while maintaining a single focus: myth exam preparation.
Beyond simple preparation for the myth exam, the fourth category contains a wide variety of materials whose commonality is that they all demand knowledge of the factual information gathered in the preceding category. Some are activities that demand critical thinking / problem-solving skills which are not to be tested, but are important to mental development. Knowledge of the mythology is necessary in these exercises, but it is not the goal.
Quite often these exercises also involve creative or written expression. The activity on the overhead is a example of such. Not only does it involve creative thought and expression, but it allows for classroom collaboration as well.
Another group of activities are cross-curricular in content. Their focus is to teach something else through the knowledge of mythology. These may appear as derivatives lists or as explanations relating scientific phenomena with a mythological characters or events. On a higher level, they can be used to instruct as in this example from the Aeneid section currently on the overhead. Other materials in this category include lists of cross-curricular projects which are knowledge-based and annotated bibliographies for further reading. It is in this section that most of the aforementioned enrichment activities can be placed.
