Title: Daedalus
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Time: 45 Minute Lesson
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Topic: This is a reading comprehension and critical thinking lesson utilizing the story of Daedalus.
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Goals/Objectives
- Students will evaluate the story of Daedalus, which illustrates how ancient Greeks sought to understand the forces that drove nature, life, and death in their society.
- Students will collaborate and record reasonable assertions about the story through accurate, supporting citations.
- Students will create an outline of the text with a graphic organizer.
- Students will evaluate the main ideas by identifying their relationships to other sources and related topics.
- Students will evaluate how one of various cultures throughout history tried to make sense of the world around them.
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Standards
English and Language Arts
- Standard 6.2.3 Connect and clarify main ideas by identifying their relationships to other sources and related topics.
- Standard 6.2.4 Clarify an understanding of texts by creating outlines, logical notes, summaries, or reports
- Standard 6.2.7 Make reasonable assertions about a text through accurate, supporting citations.
- Standard 6.1.4 Use organizational features of electronic text (e.g., bulletin boards, databases, keyword searches, e-mail addresses) to locate information.
History/Social Studies Standards
- Standard 6.4.4 Explain the significance of Greek mythology to the everyday life of people in the region and how Greek literature continues to permeate our literature and language today, drawing from Greek mythology and epics, such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and from Aesop’s Fables.
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Required Materials
- Projector
- Individual computers for each student with internet access
- Headphones for each student
- Copy of the book for each student - Coolidge, Olivia (1977). Greek Myths. pages 87-92
- Tsantes, Stelios J. 1997-2012. Ikarian Enterprises. Retrieved on 5/16/2012. Website: http://www.island-ikaria.com/culture/myth.asp
- Story Map Graphic Organizer is found on the side of each page
- http://dmpgreekmyth.weebly.com contains the lesson plan and activities
- PollEv.com/fausel
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Procedures
Before Reading Procedures
Step 1) Directions: Familiarize the students with the topic, learning objectives, and the remaining procedures for the lesson on the overhead projector. Read the information aloud.
Strategy - Review the Topic and Goals
The reason of this step is to provide the students with the purpose
of the lesson and to set the learning expectations.
Approximate time – 5 Minutes
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Step 2) Directions: Show the characters in the story that they are about to read and “Here is a brief summary of the people and events that lead up to the story we will read today. ‘Daedalus was a highly respected and talented Athenian artisan descendent from the royal family of Cecrops, the mythical first king of Athens. He was known for his skill as an architect, sculpture, and inventor, and he produced many famous works. Despite his self-confidence, Daedalus once committed a crime of envy against Talus, his nephew and apprentice. Talus, who seemed destined to become as great an artisan as his uncle Daedalus, was inspired one day to invent the saw after having seen the way a snake used its jaws. Daedalus, momentarily stricken with jealousy, threw Talus off of the Acropolis. For this crime, Daedalus was exiled to Crete and placed in the service of King Minos, where he eventually had a son, Icarus, with the beautiful Naucrates, a mistress-slave of the King.’”
Ask the following questions to the class on Pollev.com/fausel:
- “What do you know about Greek mythology?”
If it isn’t stated, focus their attention to the fact that the Greeks really had no idea what forces drove nature or the world, so they basically did their best to determine it on their own and answer their questions about life.
- “How did Greek mythology affect people in ancient Greece?”
If unstated, focus their attention to Greek mythology being a part of their religion. Greek mythology was something that guided their thoughts and provided explanations for the questions that ancient Greeks sought to understand. The ancient Greeks sought to understand and explain the forces that drove nature, life, and death in their society.
- “What predictions do you have about the story?”
3 Strategies - Activate Prior Knowledge, Group Discussion, and Generating Questions
The purpose is to focus students on the text they are about to read and to have them thinking about what they already know about the topic. The students gain further purpose for what they are about to read by generating questions while activating background knowledge.
Approximate time – 7 Minutes
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Step 3) Provide the list of words and definitions found below. Review the words with the students and have the students use the words in a sentence or state the definition in their own words.
Vocabulary Terms
Dwelling - living in a particular type of place
Prominence - Being significantly important or well-known
Lingers - to take longer than is usual to do something
Fleet - a number of warships functioning as a single unit under one command
Fierce - aggression or anger
Tyrant - in ancient Greece, a ruler who took control of a state without legal sanction and governed with absolute power
Tribute - a payment made by one ruler or state to another as a sign of submission
Gimlet - a small tool for boring holes in wood consisting of a slim metal rod with a sharp corkscrew end
Fortified - to strengthen or reinforce the structure of something
Vague - unclear or incoherent in thinking or expression
Elaborate - having many different parts or a lot of detail
Forbade – Not allowed to do something
Eagerly – enthusiastic and excited about something and impatiently waiting to do or get it
Lest – (or else) in order to prevent something happening, especially something causing fear
Perish – to die
Steadied – fixed, stable, or not easily moved
Beckoned – to signal to somebody to approach with a movement of the hand or head
Swoops - a small tool for boring holes in wood consisting of a slim metal rod with a sharp corkscrew end
Headlong - with the head in front of the rest of the body, especially in a rapid uncontrolled movement
Clutching - hold something tightly
White-faced - having an unusually pale face
Nor – (and not) used to introduce an alternative, after a first alternative that is preceded by "neither"(used in negative statements)
Strategy – Vocabulary Preview
The purpose is to increase reading comprehension when reading the text that proceeds by improving word recognition and background information about the text.
Approximate time – 7 Minutes
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During Reading
Step 4) Directions: Instruct students to take active reading notes and to fill out the graphic organizer (located on each page) while the teacher is reading the story aloud. Read the text aloud and model accuracy, fluency, and the metacognition process.
Teacher tells the students, "Take active reading notes and fill The summary of each paragraph is modeled for the first three paragraphs, but that they are required to continue filling in the outline starting on paragraph four."
- Ask the students to summarize each paragraph and to make reasonable assertions based on textual evidence throughout the reading of the story.
- Ask the students to connect the main ideas to other literature that also focuses on a moral that they’ve found in the story.
- Highlight the key concepts and information that students ought to include in their outlines.
5 Strategies – Read Aloud, Think Aloud, Group Discussion, Summarizing the text, and Graphic Organizer
The purpose of these strategies is for students to see model reading, the metacognition process of a good reader, collaborate, and to clarify their own ideas.
Approximate time – 15-20 Minutes
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Step 5) Directions: Have the students visit the link listed below. Instruct the students to be silently reading along while listening to the reading of the story one more time on your own.
http://youtu.be/0gsQg3qrkjE
Strategy – Second Reading
Purpose is to increase fluency, speed, word recognition, and understanding
Approximate time – 8 Minutes
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After Reading
Step 6) Ask the following the question on Pollev.com/fausel and have the students respond on their computers:
- What are some of the morals found the story? Be sure to cite evidence from the text.
Strategy - Group Discussion
Purpose is to connect the main ideas to other literature or stories, to clarify thoughts, and to improve summarization skills.
Approximate time – 2-3 Minutes
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Step 7) Have the students complete a one paragraph summary and an assessment on Pollev.com/fausel
The students will respond to the following:
- Identify at least one of the many morals found in the story. Be sure to provide textual evidence to support your answer.
- What is another story that also has the moral you mentioned?
- What are a few of the similarities and what are some the differences between how the stories conveyed the message?
Assessment - The Purpose is to directly determine if the students were able to achieve the learning goals for today. If the students are able to answer the aforementioned questions with support from textual citations, then they met the learning goals
Approximate time - 10 Minutes
END OF LESSON
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Step 8) Follow-Up Possibilities
Create a play about one of the morals that the student is able to cite from the text.
Have the students compare and contrast the story. This story has many morals that can be used to compare and contrast other stories, including Aesop’s Fable. Some examples and applications are listed below.
Relate this story to the movie, A Bug’s Life, which is based partly after, The Ant and the Grasshopper, one of Aesop’s Fables. This tale provided a moral lesson about the virtues of hard work and planning for the future. A Bug’s Life tells the story of a gang of grasshoppers, led by Hopper, who have made an ant colony their servants. The grasshoppers arrive at the colony each season to collect food that the ants have gathered for them.
This relates to the story of Daedalus and the relationship between the King of Crete, Minos, and Daedalus. The King of Crete forces Daedalus to stay on the Island of Crete, so that he can benefit from his services. This is relatable to the relationship between the grasshoppers, demanding the ants to supply them with food through their force and power. They have both used their positions of power in a negative way.
A current popular book, The Hunger Games, is a story that can be easily used to compare and contrast the morals found in each of the stories. Instead of a fierce tyrant king, it is a tyrant government, and instead 7 youths and 7 maidens, it’s 13 boys and 13 girls who must fight to the death.