The Odyssey: Extra Material

Dear all,

I found some extra material that can help you understand the characters’ relationships and their motivation. Take a look at the following pictures.

Gods’ family tree:

The Odyssey’ main characters:

The Odyssey: Reading Comprehension Questions (Book 10-15)

Dear class,

Today we’ll continue working with our reader The Odyssey: The Graphic Novel. Remember that the assessment for this novel will be a project, so it is important that you read as much as possible before we start with it.

Please, read the following questions and answer them in your copybooks. This activity is individual as the two previous weeks you worked in groups.

 Book 10: Aeolus and Circe

1. Describe the land that Odysseus sighted after his experience with the Cyclops.
2. What was so particular about King Aeolus’ sons and daughters?
3. What was King Aeolus’ gift to Odysseus? Explain.
4. On the way home, what happened after Odysseus felt asleep?
5. What was Odysseus’ plea to King Aaeolus? And what was the King’s answer?
6. How were Odysseus and his men received by the Laestrygonians?
7. Who was Circe? What did she do to Odysseus’ men?
8. Who did Odysseus encounter when he was going to release his men? What did they talk about?
9. For how long did Odysseus and his men stay on Circe’s island?
10. What was Circe’s advice to Odysseus? Who was Tiresias? Explain.

Book 11: The Land of the Dead

1. Whose spirits did Odysseus see before identifying Tiresias’ spirit?
2. What was Tiresias’ prophecy? Explain.
3. What did Achilles say to Odysseus? Name two ideas.

Book 12: Scylla and Charybdis

1. What was Circe’s first warning to Odysseus? What were he and his men supposed to do?
2. Who was Scylla? Describe.
3. What did Eurylachus decide to do when Odysseus went to ask the gods for help? How did this affect their fate? Explain.

Book 13: Home at last

1. How did Athena help Odysseus when he arrived in Ithaca? Explain.

Book 14: The Swineherd

1. Why didn’t the swineherd believe Odysseus’ tales at the beginning?
2. What was the personal story Odysseus told the swineherd while he was wearing the disguise?

Book 15: Telemachus returns

1. Who was Theoclymenus? What was his problem?
2. Who adviced Telemachus in his dream? What was the piece of advice?

Click here to get a PDF copy of these questions: The Odyssey (Book 10-15)

The Odyssey Scavenger Hunt: Books 7, 8 & 9

Scavenger Hunt rules

This treasure hunt s an information-based scavenger hunt, or puzzle hunt, in which teams use their collective brainpower to solve clues!  Each team is presented with clues, which teams must solve in order to find a piece of information.

Each clue leads to a location, where players will find a vital piece of information to answer a question. All members of the group must write their answers on their copybooks, in case one of them doesn’t have the answers the team will be out of competition.
After solving all the clues teams will return with their answers to the classroom.  The fastest team with the most correct answers wins.

Remember that all team members need to stay with their team at all times! You may not split up to “divide” scavenger hunt tasks.

You will have 25 minutes to solve the activities.

Solving clues

So, you’re on the treasure hunt; how do you go about solving clues?
The first part of a clue puzzle refers to particular a location. The second part of the clue asks for a specific piece of information that you must solve in order to go to next location, where you will have to solve a different task that will lead you to another place. Once you have solved all the tasks required you can come back to the start place.

Here you can find a copy of all questions: The Odyssey (Book 7, 8, and 9)

It’s time to play Jeopardy! — The Odyssey (Book 5 and 6)

Dear students,

As today is Monday, it’s time to work with our reader: The Odyssey. In this lesson, we’ll check reading comprehension while playing Jeopardy! Have you heard about this game? If not, here we have the rules for today’s session:

The Odyssey’s Jeopardy Game: Instructions and Rules

1. The class will be split into 4 groups randomly. (3 groups of 4 students and 1 group of 5)
2. Each team will be given a card.
3. One team will be chosen to pick the first category.
4. The first question will be read, and the first team who holds the card up gets 1 minute to answer the question, if it is worth $100 or $200, and 2 minutes, if it is worth $300 or $400.
5. Only one student from the team can answer the question. This means that you should choose a spokeperson for each answer. Groups are allowed to discuss their answers.
6. A correct answer earns the point value while a wrong answer loses the value.
7. If the team gets it wrong, the other teams are given a chance to answer. The team who gives the correct answer gains control of the board and chooses the next category and point value.

Taken and adapted from: http://www.ehow.com/list_6519981_classroom-jeopardy-game-rules.html

The Odyssey’s Jeopardy Game: Board

The Odyssey’s Jeopardy game