Pytash: Chapter 6

I look forward to teaching clasical literature more than I look forward to teaching writing or poetry or grammar, so I was very intruiged t osee what our author had to say on the matter. At firt I though tto my self "what am I going to learn from Japanesse teachers, they dont have to deal with the poverty that American teachers do, Japanesse students coem from families where socail success is valuedabove all esle, the student doesnt want ot dishonor this or her family by failing at school, so the Japanesse teachers are dealing with a completely differnet school system and studnet than American teachers are dealing with. But I found that I liked some of things they are doing, they are beign much more productive and getting results or inforamation from all of their teachers. By allowing teahcers to view their job as research more than teaching, then the teacher feels like they are valued by the school system, teachers learn from each other and together when they plan and critique their lessons together. However, I don't like that Japan has a national curriculum, It is as if they are having all of their teahers experiment with different lessons in hope that theywill hit the jackpot and then have every teracher in Japan terah that golden lesson that every Japanesse student will respond to. I totally agree with how a teaher should handel the outset of teaching The Odessey , The teaher needs to spend time explainging what an epic is and provide modern dayexamples of epics, the teacher must stimulate the students' minds to think about mental constructs theyhav about storys that have influnced them in the past. I would mention superheros whem describign the epicand Odsesius. I would want to read the whole story, not the abridged one that they usually use in high school, the complete verison is only longer because it has more episodes, but it is just as easy to comprehend as the abridged. If I am going to teach someone the greatest epic of all time, then we're goign to do it as the stroy has been handed down to us in its entirity. I would assign the reading as I saw fit, I woudl stop at sreasonable stopping points, I think it woud be worth mentionign how the epic works in an episodic fashion, it is a long story comprised of smaller tales. We would do the common activity of chartting the gods, that would be a day right there. I would print out maps of Mediteranian to show the students the actual loactions mentioned in the story. I would have daily rading quizes over the readings, and I really liekd the authors idea for a test and having the studnets preapre the review for the test for their classmates, I would definlty do this in class and will use this in my student teaching. The students will be broken into groups and each group will be responsible for teahcing the class a short review session on their assigned chapters, afeter each groop goes the whoel slcass should be preapred for the entire test,and each student has taught, the reciproacl process empowers the students and teaches them about academic responsibitlites. I am glad that the author used The Odyssey to demonstrate lesson plans for classics, there were a lot of good ideas in here, but I am sure that createing a lesson planis not this simple it will require experince and trial and error experiments if I will create effective lessons plans that I will carry out.