Week one:
We started our first lesson with an introduction to Greek history and culture. We gave the pupils name tags, giving them a chance to write their name in Greek and introduced them to the Greek alphabet while also learning their names.
We asked the pupils what they knew of Greek History and Culture already. This proved to be a good way of getting them to engage with the information we had prepared. It also helped us determine a baseline of their background knowledge. We then tested that knowledge through a group task - an unorganised cut out Greek timeline. Most pupils used logical thinking to guess the order, which was just as nice to see as them knowing the order through historical knowledge. This would have been a perfect lesson, if we had remembered to take note of their name tags, whoops!
We started our first lesson with an introduction to Greek history and culture. We gave the pupils name tags, giving them a chance to write their name in Greek and introduced them to the Greek alphabet while also learning their names.
We asked the pupils what they knew of Greek History and Culture already. This proved to be a good way of getting them to engage with the information we had prepared. It also helped us determine a baseline of their background knowledge. We then tested that knowledge through a group task - an unorganised cut out Greek timeline. Most pupils used logical thinking to guess the order, which was just as nice to see as them knowing the order through historical knowledge. This would have been a perfect lesson, if we had remembered to take note of their name tags, whoops!
Week Four:
This week I had the opportunity to use the lesson plan and resources I had made for my assignment. The theme of the lesson was Greek theatre. The pupils got to appreciate the plot of two plays by Sophocles - Oedipus and Antigone. They were shown Greek words and terminology in context, to explain the role and significance of theatre within Greek society. They also received an etymology activity to look outside of class to help them expand their word power and derivative knowledge.
The pupils made their own masks as is seen below – (which they enjoyed doing just as much as I had the night before). They then used their masks to read out Greek and English lines from an Antigone text focusing more on the emphasis on words rather than their pronunciation, something that they had been struggling with.
This week I had the opportunity to use the lesson plan and resources I had made for my assignment. The theme of the lesson was Greek theatre. The pupils got to appreciate the plot of two plays by Sophocles - Oedipus and Antigone. They were shown Greek words and terminology in context, to explain the role and significance of theatre within Greek society. They also received an etymology activity to look outside of class to help them expand their word power and derivative knowledge.
The pupils made their own masks as is seen below – (which they enjoyed doing just as much as I had the night before). They then used their masks to read out Greek and English lines from an Antigone text focusing more on the emphasis on words rather than their pronunciation, something that they had been struggling with.
Week Ten:
This week’s lesson contained a 25 minute exam (which was very enjoyable to create after teaching the content) and a play to act out at the end with heroes and mythical creatures that they themselves had imagined as a group. Greek vocabulary that they had seen throughout the ten weeks was added and voila! One of the student teachers in our group made fantastic props that helped them get into character, making the small classroom space we had available into our very own skene.
I have already begun to miss the pupils from our lunch time Greek classes, they were all excellent in their own right and what I loved the most was finding out what each of them liked the most in Greek culture and history – knowing that a passion for history ignited at any age, especially ancient history, never really ends!
This week’s lesson contained a 25 minute exam (which was very enjoyable to create after teaching the content) and a play to act out at the end with heroes and mythical creatures that they themselves had imagined as a group. Greek vocabulary that they had seen throughout the ten weeks was added and voila! One of the student teachers in our group made fantastic props that helped them get into character, making the small classroom space we had available into our very own skene.
I have already begun to miss the pupils from our lunch time Greek classes, they were all excellent in their own right and what I loved the most was finding out what each of them liked the most in Greek culture and history – knowing that a passion for history ignited at any age, especially ancient history, never really ends!
Written by Kath D'Urzo