Introduction
These activities will meet several of the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts under writing, speech and language, and reading as well as meeting criteria for the NC Essential Standards for Information and Technology. Before completing any of these activities the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer must be read by the class for comparative purposes. Students should also have learned about the concept of mise en scene.ELA Activity # 1:
After having read The Odyssey we will begin our film activities with an open classroom discussion reviewing the plot and some of the characters that were in Homer’s work. Questions asked to students will all be based on getting them to recall the plot and their answers will be written up on a board at the front of the class.
Examples of plot based questions:
Who was Odysseus and what do we know about him when we first meet him?
Where was he going and who did he meet getting there? (Broken down several times into specific points and places in the story)
What was Odysseus’s life like before we met him?
Now that we have the baseline from the story on the board we’re ready to begin going through film clips to compare and contrast. We will let each clip play through one time in it’s entirety prompting the children before to look for any similarities that we have written on the board. After each clip we will ask questions to see what they found and what they missed and rewatch scenes from the clip if needed.
Clip 1: The Introduction (4:40 - 9:09 Ch 2 on DVD)
This clip will introduce the class to the character Ulysses McGill and his cohorts Pete and Delmar. In this clip students will learn that McGill and company are on their way to seek a great treasure and that they receive counsel from a blind seer before starting out on their endeavor. Concluding this clip students should have drawn the comparison to the blind seer in both formats, they will be told the Latin form of the name Odysseus is Ulysses, and they should have cited the contrast between Odysseus’s position as a war hero and Everett’s as a prisoner.
Clip 2: Baptism (15:46 - 22:22)
This clip will show Everett and his men in the woods eating when all of a sudden they are in the middle of a church congregation processing towards the river for baptism. The clip will conclude with the men riding down the road after picking up Tommy. At the conclusion of this clip we want students to have drawn comparisons to the Lotus Eaters. In order to make this connection we might have to prompt them to list the actions of Odysseus’s men who ate the lotus and compare them with Pete and Delmar after their baptism.
Clip 3: The Sirens (42:31 - 48:48 Ch 10&11)
This clip will show the men riding down the road and hearing an enchanting noise coming from a river before seeing beautiful women out on the rocks washing laundry. The men will stop and go out to the women and the clip will conclude with Everett and Delmar leaving with the newly transfigured Pete. After this clip we expect students to have drawn the comparisons of the sirens, that they’re in water on rocks, they sing to wreck men, etc. but we want the contrast to be noted that the sirens succeed in derailing Everett where they did not Odysseus.
Clip 4: The Cyclops (48:48 - 51:11 cut to 52:00- 54:55)
This clip will show Everett and Delmar dining in a restaurant and their introduction to Dan Teague, it will conclude with Dan walking away after robbing Everett and Delmar and killing “Pete”. After this clip we want the students to have made the comparison between the Cyclops and Dan. The contrast here should be that Dan defeats Everett, but the Cyclops doesn’t Odysseus.
Clip 5: The Return (59:32-1:04:38)
This clip will show Everett returning to find his wife Penny betrothed to another man, it will conclude with him being thrown out of the general store. The comparisons here are the suitors that have surrounded Odysseus’s wife while he is away and the man who has taken Everett’s wife while he is gone.
Clip 6: The Fundraiser (1:19:32-1:32:45)
This clip will show Everett and his men sneaking in to the fundraiser and will conclude with the men leaving to retrieve the ring. The comparison’s to be found here are the disguise worn to win back his wife from suitors in both stories. Numerous contrasts can be observed by the students here.
This activity if performed as instructed meets the following standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.3 Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.7 Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.9 Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.7 Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.9 Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
ELA Activity # 2/Technology Activity #1:
This activity requires students to have a working knowledge of mise en scene and the four P’s (Posture, Point of View, Props, and Position.)
Create a Tweet from the Point of View of an audience member in the crowd from Clip 6: The Fundraiser. You don’t have to summarize the whole clip in the tweet, but be specific in the portion of the clip you decide to use.
Example: Turns out @HomerStokes wasn’t quite as progressive a candidate as he claimed to be, #isweaintyourconstituents. At least I got to be there for @SoggyBottomBoys first live concert, the show was great Pappy has my vote as long as they’re the Brain Trust.
This activity meets both ELA and Information Technology Standards:
8.TT.1.3 Use appropriate technology tools and other resources to design products to share information with others (e.g. multimedia presentations, Web 2.0 tools, graphics, podcasts, and audio files).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
ELA Activity # 3/ Technology Activity #2:
Facebook pages
Students will break up into 5 groups and will have access to film clips, and copies of the Odyssey, and internet capable computers. Students are then assigned one of the following: Everett/Odysseus, Pete and Delmar/Odysseus’s men, Sirens in book/Sirens in movie, Cyclops/Dan, Penny/Penelope. Students must then create a Facebook page for each character or set of characters assigned. They are free to take creative license about any information not given in their specific work to help create a character profile for the character as long as they create the backstory for it.
This assignment meets standards:
6.TT.1.2 Select appropriate technology tools to organize data and information (e.g., word processor, database, spreadsheet, graphic organizer, audio and visual recording, online collaboration tools, etc.).
8.TT.1.3 Use appropriate technology tools and other resources to design products to share information with others (e.g. multimedia presentations, Web 2.0 tools, graphics, podcasts, and audio files).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.8.9 Analyze how a modern work of fiction draws on themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works such as the Bible, including describing how the material is rendered new
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.8.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
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