I cannot believe that it is already a new semester and that I am one step closer to becoming a teacher! Last semester we were asked to create a lesson plan that incorporated issues centered around the B.Y.O.D. (bring-your-own-device) movement in the classroom. My group created a lesson centered around the physics of electromagnetic radiation of cellphones and I thought that it was such a fun experience. In this post I am going to discuss another group's lesson plan that centers on "understanding the historical context of the Odyssey."
See lesson plan (with all links included):
https://docs.google.com/a/umich.edu/document/d/1CqeCcO4j2VQ5AntoIVXzwNao1GDh6ZDZHRRwGHgl-zY/edit?pli=1
This group of humanities teaching interns creatively intertwined both Greek history and the text of the Odyssey. I think that this is such an interesting topic and that my fellow interns took advantage of a great teaching tool, Blendspace, that we learned in our Teaching with Technology course. The authors incorporated. They also allowed students to use their own personal cellphones to stream the Blendspace, where they are guided through a presentation, YouTube videos, and a short assessment at the end of the mini-lesson. After the mini-lesson and quiz, there is a work period where students are asked to use a map of Odysseus' travels and to determine the modern cities on his path home from Troy. Then they are asked to use Google maps to determine how far Odysseus traveled in his long journey home. After the work period the students are assessed through individual exit tickets that are to be completed through Google drive and shared with the teacher. In this exit ticket they are prompted with the question "What is one way in which the overall culture of Ancient Greece influenced Odysseus' actions?"
I think that this overall lesson plan is a good supplement to reading the Odyssey and that would help students gain understanding of the time period of the piece. The variety of media in this mini-lesson has the potential to excite students about the subject matter and be incredibly educational. In addition, allowing students to physically use their own technology in the classroom will create excitement about their own tools to discovery, in addition to solving the problem of technology constraints in the classroom. This mini-lesson does not overwhelm students with PowerPoint based lectures and provides interesting videos and images to promote learning of students that have different learning styles.
The group, made up of interns in both English and Social Studies content areas, created an interactive mini-lesson that covered many different and important aspects of the historical context of the Odyssey. As a science teacher I am not extremely familiar with the content area but this lesson does help me to reflect on my own experiences in Social Studies, English, and Latin classrooms throughout my secondary education. I had varying levels of interactivity in these different classrooms, in which I discussed either Greek culture and/or literature. I hope to make my future classrooms very interactive and transdisciplinary, something that this group was especially strong at doing. I believe that this helps students make connections to their previous knowledge and perspectives meanwhile enjoying learning. I was somewhat hesitant at first about using Blendspace in the classroom but this lesson plan and example has made me feel more confident in using this tool in the classroom.
I have to say that I learned quite a bit, both about the Odyssey and technology in the classroom, from this mini-lesson. Great job team!
