Week at a glance Jan 11 - 15, 2010

Curriculum focus: determines meaning of words through knowledge of Greek and Latin roots (1.3.K3a), identifies, interprets, and analyzes the use of personification (1.3.K4g), identifies, interprest, and analyzes the use of symbols (1.3.K4i), compares and contrasts character traits (1.4.K7a), identifies and describes the protagonist (2.1.K1a), identifies and describes the antagonist (2.1.K1b), and compares and contrasts works of literature that deal with similar topics and problems (2.2.K2).

After a brief break thanks to our snow days, we'll return to covering the basics of mythology. We'll start the week with a review of what we learned about archetypes by having students review the familiar archetypes we regularly see in movies, tv shows, and books. We'll then continue our opening week of notes -- a lot of notes to start us off so that we have a strong background and vocabulary to make later activities, discussions, and readings much easier -- with notes over how we use myths to make sense of our world, Joseph Campbell's analysis of the Heroic Quest, and the development and origins of Greek mythology. We'll wrap up the week with a quiz over the basics of mythology and notes and discussion over the Greek pantheon.

• Mon: Archetype review and discussion. Notes due at the end of the hour.
• Tues: How do we use myths to make sense of our own world? Notes in class.
• Wed: The Heroic Quest - Notes in class.
• Thurs: Greek Mythology - Origins and Development - Notes in class.
• Fri: Short quiz over Mythology Basics. Greek Mythology - Who's who? The Titans, the Olympians, major and minor gods and monsters - Notes in class.