The Odyssey is long and complex and full of unfamiliar words and places. When I heard I had to teach it to my 9th graders, I groaned. I hadn't enjoyed reading it in college, why was I going to enjoy teaching it now? I learned several things in my own personal odyssey teaching this poem that I'd like to share with you.
First of all, if you aren't familiar with The Odyssey, start reading it! Look at your Teacher's Edition and read the summaries or get the Cliff's Notes. You need to know what is going on so you can explain it to your students. In my very first year of teaching, I was so overwhelmed by grading and paperwork that I would have the students read aloud in class so I had a chance to refresh my own memory. A story like The Odyssey comes with a lot of questions from students. And you need to be prepared to answer them. So, prereading will help immensely.
If your students haven't had any mythology lessons, they need a crash course before they begin reading The Odyssey. At the very least they need to know why the Greeks and Trojans had a war and who the various gods and goddesses involved are. I accomplished this with a simple power point presentation of the important gods and goddesses and what their symbols were. I took the events of the Trojan War and presented them in a gossip style lecture that my students really enjoyed. Another teacher on my team used clips from the movie Troy to explain the events to his students. The DVD version also has a Meet the Characters section that can be helpful. Once your kids have the background information, things should go a little more smoothly as you begin to read The Odyssey.
Work together with your students to make timelines of the story, either individually or on a posterboard. Point out to students important events, like when Odysseus is imprisoned by Calypso, or when the ship lands on the island of the Lotus Eaters. This will help the students keep up with what is going on and help everyone keep things in order and remember who is who. If you have time, the students could make trading cards (on index cards or smaller) of the main characters and events. This could be an assignment, extra credit, or something they could eventually use on a test.
In 1997, NBC created a miniseries of The Odyssey that is actually quite good. Several sections are recreated from the poem and a few sections combine events from several sections. To break up some of the reading, I would show my students the section of the film we had just read about. It was great to hear them exclaim, "Oh, this is where Odysseus does..." or "I never thought the Centaur would look like that!" Kids today are so trained on TV and video that having that visual can really help some of them to "get it" in a way that they won't just from reading. And surprisingly, my students really enjoyed the movie.
For those kinesthetic learners in your classroom you can renact scenes from the play. Have the students write it into their own words or, have them act a scene out without speaking and let the other students guess what section of the poem they are acting out. I found with something like The Odyssey, which students may decide is the most boring thing they have ever read (or so they will tell you), activities that get them up and moving around are always a big hit.
Be creative. There are lots of things you can do to really engaged your students in The Odyssey and make it a memorable reading experience for them - and not just because they didn't like it. In my next article, I will let you know about several projects I used to keep my students engaged while we were reading The Odyssey.
