A blog following teacher Aaron Jura as he plans engaging, yet relevant English Language Arts content for High School students in New Orleans, LA.
Before we start working hard on The Odyssey we needed the background knowledge and context that using Greek mythology and creation stories bring to the theme. Overall, I find that students enjoy the epic tales contained in the pages of Greek myths. Also, the themes you can explore related to characterization and archetypes are unmatched.
If you haven't brought Greek myths into the classroom -- I would strongly encourage it. They not only allow you the opportunity to review theme and character motivations in detail, but also give you a place to talk about archetypes and other important ideas in literature.
We will do about 3-4 of myth before we move into The Odyssey. The summative assessments of this unit include:
Excited to move through this -- we read Uranus today and the kids were mostly disgusted at the family tree. Ha ha ha!
I always hated this question when it came up in job interviews because it inevitably ended in way too long of an answer. For me, I teach because the energy I get from students when they are engaged is overwhelming. As such -- I often teach skills and connect skills using engaging student centered lessons.
I love to teach music as a form of poetry. For this I searched and searched and ran across an amazing blog post by teacher Brian Mooney. This post speaks to my thoughts on the topics he discussed and inspired me to do the same for my students this year.
I created the blendspace lesson and Prezi and have it here for use in your classrooms -- as you see fit.
I really love the level of engagement and excitement when you can activate all minds in the classroom and for me -- the hypnotic lyrics of hip hop music really hits the mark.
It has been a great start to the school year studying the literary genre of the dystopian novel. Personally, Fahrenheit 451 is one of my favorites -- so I was excited to teach it and focus on its implications considering our society is technologically addicted.
Characterization and conflict are two main ideas present throughout Bradbury's work -- and Fahrenheit 451 is a great way to study the character interactions and respective conflicts that work to define and drive the plot and narrative of the story.
Students have enjoyed creating blackout poetry -- reclaiming the concepts of redaction and censorship to create art while exploring the work itself and its many facets and applications to our modern world. I am excited to get started next week into our content on Greek Mythology and Homer's The Odyssey -- we will further our knowledge of characterization using Jungian archetypes. We will also focus on the universal themes present in Greek myths that tie them to our current world view. STAY TUNED for more on that.
Happy Monday -- may your week be as blessed as mine continues to be!
Mr. J is a high school teacher in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mr. J believes in the power of educators to help children and families achieve. Follow his blog for tips and techniques to keep engagement high and student achievement at the forefront.