Introduction to Literature

The students will read excerpts from The Odyssey, a classic epic poem from ancient Greece. The reading selection is found in the Language of Literature textbook.

This is an in-class assignment, which the students will complete on the first full day of class. It is purely a credit / no-credit assignment, which I will use to assess the individual writing abilities of the student.

On writing days, the students will complete brief grammar assignments. I will test them over the material at the end of the six weeks, on the unit test. We will work with clauses during this six-week period.

The students will use their dictionaries to define a list of vocabulary words. They should be able to identify the part the speech, the definition, and use the word correctly in a sentence. They will be tested on the unit test.

I will assign the students research projects at the start of the unit. I will take them to the library to research the subject, and they will conduct a brief, five minutes presentation on their research.

The students will answer this question: "what are the characteristics of Odysseus, and how does each both help and hurt him and his crew? They will turn in a rough draft and a final draft, with the final essay typed or word-processed.