For this cycle’s class, we had two lessons that were both very discussion based.
3 RL SP Odyssey: Homer’s Invocation
Aim: How does Homer’s invocation establish tone for the beginning of the Odyssey.
Do Now: Class Discussion
“How do you become inspired? Where does it originate?”
As a class, we shared some things that we were able to draw inspiration from. Some of the answers included listening to music, hobbies, nature, and other surroundings. The point of this do now was to realize that inspiration comes from a variety of different places and things.
After this, we took time to discuss new team names with our assigned groups. The point masters and managers changed the old team names to the new ones in their respective class documents.
Lesson:
After changing our team names, we watched a video that taught us a little bit about the nine muses. The nine muses are goddesses of arts, literature, and sciences. Each muse inspired a different kind of art, writing, or science. People would pay respects to a muse for inspiration and success in their field. The nine muses were:
Clio: History
Calliope: Epic poetry
Erato: Love poetry
Thalia: Comedy
Melpomene: Tragedy
Euterpe: Lyrical arts
Terpsichore: Dance
Polymnia: Storytelling
Urania: Astronomy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORKCWfbrY8k
We also learned that invocation stems from the word invoke, which in this context meant to “call on a deity or spirit in prayer, as a witness, or for inspiration.” This relates to Homer and the Odyssey because in the beginning of his poem, he invokes the muses for their blessing so that he can deliver the story of Odysseus well. Homer’s invocation can be found in lines 1-17, which we read as a class. We then discussed some questions to help us dig deeper into the text. As a class we were able to add on to each other and formulate answers that are summarized below.
“What is your opinion of Odysseus so far after hearing Homer's invocation to the muses and learning about the Trojan War?”
He was probably selfless and brave because Homer says it is a great tale and he needs the muses blessing to do it justice. He also may have been somewhat careless because he let his crew offend the sun god.
How does Homer maintain the audience’s interest in the story, knowing that the audience is aware of the outcome from the very beginning?
He uses literary techniques like foreshadowing so we can predict what is going to happen and it builds some suspense. He also asks for the muse's blessing in order to tell the story well.
What does the invocation of the Muse in the opening lines clarify about Odysseus’ culpability (responsibility for a fault or wrong; blame) during his voyage home?
He clarifies that Odysseus was not part of the offence of the sun god, but since he was the crew’s leader, he was responsible for their actions and is not without blame.
We were then told to fill out and submit an anticipation guide, which was a google form that gave a bunch of statements relating to the Odyssey and asked us if we agreed, disagreed, or were not sure about the statements. The last question was to write a paragraph explaining why we picked a specific stance on one of the statements. Below is the statement I chose to write about and the paragraph I wrote to defend my opinion.
4 RL SP: Odyssey: Sailing From Troy & Lotus Eaters
Aim: How does “Sailing From Troy” and “The Lotus Eaters” (Book IX) establish Odysseus’ role as a leader?
Do Now: Team List
Some of the things we said we would miss the most are our families, the security and familiarity of our homes, and pets. Mrs. Peterson pointed out that because we would miss all of these, we have sayings like the ones in the pictures she attached to the slide.
We then talked about characterization and two types of characterization. CHaracterization is the method by which an author creates the personality and appearance of their character. Direct characterization is when they tell you directly what they want you to know about their character While indirect characterization is when they show what the character is like through indirect means like thoughts, feelings, choices, and dialogue. For identifying indirect characterization, Mrs. Peterson also provided a resource called the STEAL method which stands for speech, thoughts, effect on others toward the character, actions, and looks.
She also provided a link for us to use if we wanted further clarification on the STEAL method
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZnD0AGqQ7I
After this, we read “Sailing from Troy” which was lines 18-69. After reading, we talked about how he feels about his home in Ithaca. We said that he cares about it very much and desperately wants to return home as shown in lines 35-37 where it says “Where shall a man find sweetness to surpass his own home and his parents? In far lands he shall not, though he find a house of gold.” We moved on to the story of the Lotus Eaters which can be found in lines 70-105. The lotus Eaters lived a very carefree life in a paradise. Odysseus does not like the place because it was very addictive and no one wanted to leave, which meant that they would not go home, a place that he cherishes. His leadership skills in this excerpt change my perspective of him because before, he seemed careless and like he did not pay attention to the crew, but through this excerpt we can see that he does care and wants them to get home too. It was also mentioned that the famous series Percy Jackson and the Olympians alludes to this part of the poem when it mentions the Lotus Casino which is also a paradise that the characters did not want to leave.
Reflection:
This lesson has taught me a lot about Greek Mythology. I was especially interested to hear about the muses and what they had to do with the Odyssey. Homer paid respects to the muses so that his poem would do well. We learned this because it shows us a little bit about Greek culture and the role the Gods played in their lives. Usually only the Olympians and sometimes the titans are mentioned in school, but hearing about some of the other goddesses was interesting. I also learned a little bit more about Odysseus’ journey. I learned that his crew was very foolish and despite Odysseus being a hero, he was still flawed. In the beginning, he did not watch over his crew and they ended up offending Helios, the god of the sun. But during the Lotus Eater excerpt, he looks after his crew and does whatever it takes to get them all back on the ship and en route home. We learned this because it helped us spot how authors can use different strategies to show or tell us what their characters are like. I think that I can definitely use these lessons in the future because knowing how to identify characters and their traits is extremely important to understanding a text. If I make a more conscious effort to understand characters and see them the way the author wants me to see them, I can understand stories from a newer and more in depth perspective. Being able to characterize the people the author is writing about can also help other reading skills like understanding motives and identifying relationships or connections between the characters.
No comments:
Post a Comment