Teaching Homer’s Odyssey

SPACE FOR THE ODYSSEY?

There’s no need to shy away from more ‘complex’ texts, such as Homer’s epic, says James Clements – especially as the new curriculum gives teachers the freedom to escape the three-part lesson…

For 3000 years people have enjoyed the story of The Odyssey. Packed with monsters, battles and vengeful gods, the tale of Odysseus’ long journey home from the Trojan War still has the power to captivate children today.

For teachers in English primary schools, stories with the ability to ignite children’s enthusiasm have never been more important. Children’s enjoyment of reading is central to the new National Curriculum and schools will be expected to do everything they can to foster young people’s love of books. The current Ofsted framework also has a focus on reading, although inspectors are not looking for one method of teaching or any particular lesson structure. As Michael Wilshaw has said, Ofsted simply wants to see lessons where “children are engaged, focused, learning, and making progress”. The new curriculum and advice from Ofsted gives schools and teachers the freedom to move away from three-part lessons and schemes of work built around specific genres. Instead they can create lessons that will inspire their pupils as well as making them stronger readers, writers and users of English.

Teaching The Odyssey

Studying rich, complex texts over several weeks can be the perfect way to meet the challenges of the new National Curriculum for English. And for Class 4C, that text will be The Odyssey. For the next month it will be the vehicle for teaching the curriculum and all its demands: higher expectations for language comprehension; a sharper, more focused structure for teaching writing; and increased expectations for teaching aspects of English language, such as grammar and punctuation in context. Hopefully it will also be an enjoyable experience.

“Has anyone heard of a man called Odysseus?” I ask Class 4C. Blank faces look back at me. “OK, how about the Cyclops?” Hands shoot into the air from all corners of the classroom. “The Sirens? The Trojan War?” More hands fly up. “I’ve seen the film of that,” calls out Danny, excitedly. “Mum went out and Dad said we could watch it. It’s got loads of fighting. There’s this bit where…”

Reading, understanding and enjoying

While some learning objectives taken from the new curriculum lend themselves to being taught discretely, some are too wide-ranging to be taught in just one lesson. Objectives such as

> To develop positive attitudes to reading and understand what they have read
> To increase their familiarity with a wide range of key texts, including myths and legends

These need to be taught continuously over time and building a longer unit of work around a quality text can help children to meet them. The narrative structure of The Odyssey, a series of short stories (each covering an adventure Odysseus has as he travels from island to island) is perfect for organising an English unit. During the first phase of lessons, 4C learn about each adventure in a different way. They:

> Read and compare different versions of the story of Odysseus’ battle with the Ciccones and his escape from the Lotus-Eaters
> Explore Odysseus’ escape from Polyphemus the Cyclops through a drama activity
> Listen to and discuss the crew’s meeting with Circe the Enchantress
>Work in groups to prepare and tell the stories of the Sirens and Scylla and Charybdis
> Read and analyse written versions of Odysseus’ journey to the Underworld for the effective use of language

After a fortnight, 4C are experts on Odysseus and his adventures. More than anything, they are enthusiastic and excited about The Odyssey. Katy has found a graphic novel version in the library, which is now being passed around the class from child to child when they think I’m not looking. 4C are ready to start writing.

Setting the task, gathering ideas and planning for writing

Over the next two weeks the children each write a book telling the story of their own journey home from the Trojan War. 4C will write three short stories, each forming a chapter of their book. Each chapter begins as they land on an island and ends with them leaving. All they need to do is decide what happens while they are there. 4C are reminded that not everything in their plan has to be drawn from their imagination, they have permission to borrow ideas from The Odyssey itself, from stories they’ve read, from films and television or computer games – from anywhere. After five minutes, Tom has finished his plan. On the first island he fights and kills some zombies, on the second he fights and kills the minotaur, and on the third island he fights and kills a zombie minotaur. We look at his plan as a class and suggest how we might add a bit of variety to Tomdysseus’ adventures. Naturally, the zombie minotaur stays.

Writing, editing and teaching

Once everybody has a first draft, they can begin the most important part of the process: editing and developing their writing to make it as strong as possible. The children read each other’s work, making suggestions and borrowing ideas. They are given honest feedback on their writing, with clear suggestions for how it might be developed. Most importantly, 4C are given time to act on the feedback, making changes that will improve their written work and make them better writers.

Assessment of 4C’s work shows some confusion about dialogue so they would benefit from some direct teaching of this, using examples from the books they’ve studied. This lesson starts with the conventions for direct speech and moves through to considering how speech can be used to move action forward or impart information about characters. The children then return to their written work. For Deanna this means going back and making sure her inverted commas are in the right place. For Amir it’s re-writing sections so it is the dialogue that drives a scene, rather than the narrator’s voice. This is where it makes the most sense for the teaching of English language features to happen, right in the middle of the writing process so that the children can return to their writing and put into practice what they’ve been learning. As they are working on their own stories – something they care about making as good as it can be – everyone is motivated to try and get it right.

Reading for pleasure

For the last half an hour of the unit, 4C sit and listen to the climax of The Odyssey. They hear ofs Odysseus’ return to Ithaca and what awaits him – his home overrun with suitors for his wife’s hand and his throne. There is nothing to discuss. There is nothing to write. There are no more learning objectives other than to enjoy one of the most remarkable stories ever written.

The class listen spellbound as Odysseus enters his palace disguised as a beggar and picks up his old bow. There is silence. After a month of reading, writing and talking about The Odyssey, 4C are there in Odysseus’ shoes, slowly drawing back the bowstring. They grin as the arrow flies through the row of axe handles, winning the contest. They cheer as Odysseus turns the weapon onto the suitors before embracing his wife and son. Odysseus is home.