Greek mythology for 9th grade? Just a few more quests, please :)

[journey00]

My dd loves Greek mythology. I'm trying to piece something together to make up 1/2 a credit for 9th grade in the fall. Yeah...9th grade planning...this is my first attempt at hs high school. Anyway..

1. Can anyone point me in the right direction where I don't have to re-invent the wheel? Is there an online class or a book with a study guide? I
The Great Courses look a bit boring (sorry) and expensive...my little rural library doesn't have it.

2. How many hours will she need to invest to make up half a credit?

3. Can I count this for some kind of history?

Thanks a bunch.

[swimmermom3]

Well, we used the reading list in The Well-Trained Mind and several of Elizabeth Vandiver's Teaching Company courses and my son absolutely loved it.

 

You can actually line up the Morford Classical Mythology text with Vandiver's Classical Mythology Course if you don't want to buy individual texts. We did the complete volumes for The Iliad, The Odyssey, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and several plays. It was one both my son's and my own favorite homeschooling experience - infinitely rich conversations.

[Jenny in Florida]

We did a Greek mythology theme for my son's 9th grade English year. I pieced together a bunch of resources, some of which were not technically high school level but which I knew my son would like.

 

I gave a full credit for this, by the way.

 

We used:

 

- This online course: http://tip.duke.edu/node/160 (It's listed as being for grades 5 -7, but keep in mind these courses are intended for gifted kids.)

- This composition book: http://www.amazon.com/Imitation-Writing-Greek-Myths/dp/1930443129 (It's labeled fourth grade up. I just required more in terms of depth and length. It also wasn't the only writing he did.)

- A reading list made up of actual Greek stuff (in translation, of course), some modern retellings and a couple of "Great Books" that related in some way to mythological themes. (I'll paste the whole reading list below.) We read some of them aloud together, and he read others on his own. In addition to the light composition stuff above, he wrote an essay about each of the full-length works.

- Study materials for the National Mythology Exam, which he took that year.

 

It was a good year.

 

 

Reading List

“Euthyphro,†The Trial and Death of Socrates, Plato

Antigone, Sophocles

Clash of the Titans, Alan Dean Foster

Frogs, Aristophanes

Goddess of Yesterday, Caroline B. Cooney

King Must Die, Mary Renault

Mythology, Edith Hamilton

Odyssey of Homer, Henry Christ

Odyssey, Book Eleven, Homer (Robert Fitzgerald, translator)

Oedipus the King, Sophocles

Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus

Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw

Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles, Padraic Colum

Troy, Adele Geras

Wonder Book, Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

 

 

 

[Kareni]

2. How many hours will she need to invest to make up half a credit?

 

3. Can I count this for some kind of history?

 

 

A full high school credit is usually considered to be somewhere between 120 and 180 hours worth of work. 

 

Mythology would likely be a Literature class.  My daughter took a Folklore and Mythology class at the local community college through their English department.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Some older theads that might point you to some resources:

 

one

 

two

 

three

 

Regards,

Kareni

[SilverMoon]

For what it's worth, my myth lover has absolutely thrived on Vandiver's Classical Mythology set. I paid a whopping $20 for for the audio only version with the booklets, and most of the books it assigns can be found free on the internet or super cheap on Kindle. (You can put a Kindle app on any computer, tablet, or smart phone for free.)

[Sebastian (a lady)]

On the topic of Teaching Company lectures keep in mind that they all go on sale at some point during the year. The Vandiver lectures on mythology have been as low as $20-30. It's worth getting on their catalog/email list so you get the discount codes.

 

You might also try putting in a purchase request at your library or seeing if they will so interlibrary loan from another system. Perhaps you can get a librarian to wait for the sale price and then purchase it. I've seen these lecture sets be popular for folks who spend a lot of time in their cars. Don't know if that would be the case in your area or not.

[SilverMoon]

I find them used in like new condition at Amazon and Half Price Books, too.

[regentrude]

The Great courses lectures on Classical Mythology by Dr. Vanidever are not boring at all! I have used them for both my students in 9th grade, and they both loved the course, as did we parents.

The course is very inexpensive if you wait until it goes on sale; the cheapest way is to get it through audible for one monthly credit.

[journey00]

Thank you so much everyone! What a nice surprise to check on my thread and have wonderful, helpful responses.  I'm going to check out Dr. Vanidever more closely, the book list that one of you shared, and Lukeion suggestion.  I have credits on Audible! :)    BIG HUGE THANKS!

 

Are there booklets that go with the mp3?

 

Is the Vandiver DVD better than the mp3?

 

One more question: To make this a full 1/2 credit course, what else would I need to add to the audio lectures?

 

So this would be literature and not history, right?

 

We are trying our own thing this year for 9th grade and be more interest led than last year which we were fully enrolled with a full service provider.  It wasn't a bad thing but want to attempt doing our own thing and hopefully we won't crash and burn.  lol. I'm really trying not to freak out about high school.

 

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!

 

 

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I think you could turn either way on the lit vs history question. If you look more at the imagery and themes of the stories as stories then lit. If you look more at the cultural background and history of Greece then history.

 

You could even study both and do the same period for both history and lit by adding some history readings and alternately writing lit analysis and history essays.

[KarenNC]

The Vandiver lecture is very good. I don't think you get the booklets with audible, but I'm not sure.

 

I'm going to be using "Classical Mythology and More" for the high school co-op class I'm teaching this fall. There's an extensive Google preview of it through the publisher. Do note that the digital version of the student book through the Googleplay store is substantially cheaper. I don't know if they have a digital version of the teacher guide, however.  http://www.bolchazy.com/Classical-Mythology-More-A-Reader-Workbook-P3358.aspx  It brings in vocabulary, current allusions, etc. It includes information on the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, and Vandiver has additional lecture series to go with those (I'm definitely a fangirl :) ). I would encourage looking for the Derek Jacobi performance of the Odyssey---it is an entirely different experience to hear it rather than read it.

 

I'm interested in this other book from Bolchazy, but I haven't been able to look at it yet. It's not available through ILL: 

 

 

You might also look at the material on Shmoop. My daughter enjoys the site-- www.shmoop.com. I would also look at possibly doing either or both the National Mythology Exam and the Medusa Exam in the late winter/early spring. http://www.etclassics.org/pages/the-national-mythology-exam   and  http://www.medusaexam.org/  (note that you want the 2015 syllabi, not the 2014).

 

Mythologyteacher.com has a section of student-written choose your own quests---that might make a fun project:http://mythologyteacher.com/Choose-Your-Own-Quest.php"

 

Another angle to consider is the connection between Ovid and Shakespeare, or looking at modern retellings of some of the myths.

 

www.theoi.com is a good resource.

[kwg]

I have signed up for the Greek and roman mythology course through coursera which may give you some other ideas. Looking forward to going through the other links!

[journey00]

Thank you everyone for the very lengthy and detailed posts.  I really appreciate everyone taking the time to help me.  I'm sure I will be back many times for advice :hurray:  as we embark high school.  Thanks.

[Maureen]

I just wanted to add that we are currently going through the Vandiver lectures on Greek Tragedy and have just watched a two part stage production of Agamemnon on Youtube.  The cast was all male and everyone wore masks so it was a great way to show how tragedy would have actually been staged in Ancient Greece.  Today we finished watching an 11 part stage production of Antigone on Youtube.  It was excellent.  It used female actors for the female roles and no one was masked (which actually made it easier to understand what they were saying!)  I particularly liked the way it staged the chorus members.  I'm trying to let my girls SEE Greek Tragedy rather than just read it.  We have to read it translation anyway and it was meant to be seen and experienced just like Shakespeare.

[ThisIsTheDay]

I'll toss another into the ring.  My 9th grader used My Father's World Ancient History & Literature.  We'd never used MFW before. He LOVED it. I was worried that some of the books would be too challenging, as we were very relaxed for middle school.  He adored the Bullfinch Greek and Roman Mythology book, making me promise not to sell it.  He read The Iliad and is reading for fun again this year.  He read several other books with the curriculum, many of which tied into mythology.  From the beginning, he said that he was familiar with many of the gods by reading through whatever those Rick Riordan series are. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to google.)

 

The history and lit make two separate credits. There is also a plan to earn a Bible credit.  All are very flexible, you can pick and choose what to do, or what to substitute, or mix it up to make it work for your family.

[journey00]

I will check out MFW, thanks Thisistheday! :)