The Odyssey

1st session

Previous knowledge
The students have already studied some greek myths. Therefore, they are acquainted with
the main characteristics of this kind of stories (heroes, gods, actions ...). They are also
familiar with the geographical frame where these stories take place. It's also probable that
some students know the story or some details.
Grade: 2nd ESO
Content objective: Students will get to know the main details of The Odyssey and will be
able to write a short review.
Language objectives: Asking and answering wh-questions. Expressing statements,
agreement and disagreement.
Material: Images of book covers, reading text, star diagram, layout of book review.
Motivation activity 8'
• The teacher projects images of book covers of The Odyssey that can suggest the
ideas of stormish weather, struggles, trip, fight, etc.
• The students write individually three words that may have to do with the story they
are getting to know.
• The words are said aloud and written on the board.
Text activity
• Before reading activity 12':
1. The teacher projects on the board a star diagram with the five questions about
the story: who, what, when, where, why.

Odyssey

2. The students make predictions in pairs.

3. The different predictions are presented to the class and written on the board.
This activity is used as a support for the content (structure of a narrative text)
and as a support for the language as the teacher will read aloud the complete
 questions and give the complete answers from the answers of the students.
- Who is the main character of the story?
- The main character of the story is a young man.
• During reading activity 15':
1. The teacher forms groups of four students taking into account the heterogenity
of the class. Each group is provided with a copy of the previous star diagram
that has to be filled with the text information.
2. The text is read using the jigsaw technique: each member is responsible to
gather the information of one or two of the questions with the responsibles of the
other groups. As the text is short and is provided with language scaffolding all
the students will read the whole text.
3. After returning to their group, the questions are answered in the star diagram
using complete sentences.
• After reading activity 15':
1. The answers are checked in the class. One member of each group asks aloud
to the other groups one of the questions. The different answers of each group
are written in the star diagram on the board.
2. The teacher encourages the students to reformulate the different answers in
only one and to complete it including the information read in the text.
- Who is the main character of the book?
- The main character is the greek hero, Odysseus, the king of Ithaka. He was
very intelligent. He fighted in the Trojan war...
Applying activity: Writing a book review of The Odyssey 10'
• Each student receives a layout of book review that has to be filled (author, main
character, plot, genre). The student complete finally the book review with an
adequate image. He/she can choose it from the book cover showed at the
beginning of the class.