[CALIBK12] Hit: Mythology Unit

[Heather Gruenthal]

I pitched the trading card idea to my Reading
department for their Mythology research project.  They
liked the idea as a product, but are still married to
the traditional "oral presentations"  I came up with
some games to make it a bit more fun.  I'll report on
the results if anyone is interested.

Trading Card Distribution (4 total):
1.	Turn in to teacher for grading/posting on Greek
family tree
2.	Keep one for personal use
3.	Give away remaining two for trading card games

Presentation:
Student posts their trading card on the greek family
tree
Student presents their trading card “in character”

Trading Card Game:
Student presents trading card/story to class
Presenter asks question of class, correct answer gets
trading card
If the answer is wrong, someone else gets to guess.  
Objective:  See who can win the most trading cards

Trading Card Game option  2
Looking at the family tree, try to find characters
connected to yours in some way (character names should
be typed in BOLD on trading cards).  If you can find a
connection, you can take their card.  Once you take a
card, you can also take characters connected to that
card as well.  See who can collect the most cards.

Trading Card Game option 3
Find a character connected to yours.  Pretend you are
the characters meeting in person.  Talk about your
stories and discuss an alternate ending.  Trade cards.
 

You can see the full lesson/samples online at:

http://www.westernhs.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=15110&type=d&pREC_ID=35730&title=Library+Media+Center&un=ESD-LIB&rn=6638221

Here's the ideas I received from the group:

An English teacher at my school (Junior English) has
been having kids create MySpace/Facebook profiles for
characters in books they read, and then interact with
each other online, in character. Great fun for the
kids, something they can relate to, and after the
initial info it wanders away from the bird unit
approach. Depends on whether your school blocks social
networking sites though. 

Cathy 
-----------
Cathy Rettberg, MLIS
Head Librarian, Menlo School
Atherton, CA
crettberg at menloschool.org


I got this idea from a Davis school librarian at a
CSLA conference.  Hers was for 9th graders, and I
scaled it down for our 6th graders.  The kids do
research on a Greek god or goddess.  The emphasis is
on attributes and myths that illustrate those
qualities.  Then they create a modern day product or
service associated with that god or goddess, develop
packaging, a business proposal (letter), and
advertising campaign.  
 
I usually do the Norse god Thor as a notetaking
example and then show my product--the electric hammer
(a hammer with an electrical cord attached). Kids come
up with clever stuff such a Hera's secret monitoring
devices for tracking cheating husbands.  One teacher
has scaled the assignment (and the grading) by just
having her kids do a PowerPoint advertising campaign. 
I made a template that the kids just fill in during a
compute lab session and embellish.  It's fun,
effective, and the teacher is done with the grading at
the end of the oral presentation.
 
 
Randi Voorhies
Teacher-Librarian
Piedmont Middle School
740 Magnolia Avenue
Piedmont, CA 94611
E-mail: rvoorhies at piedmont.k12.ca.us

I think that you could really spice up a mythology
unit by asking kids to write resumes for the god or
goddess they are studying.  This would give them some
basics in resume writing as well as learning about a
particular god or goddess.  Then, I think it would be
enlightening for the gods who made the short list, to
be interviewed in front of the class to tell why s/he
should get the job.  The teacher would have to decide
what the job title is, but s/he could have the "Help
Wanted" ad on the board when the kids came in to
introduce the idea.
Mary P. Burch LMT
Lompoc High School Library







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