The Iliad Comes to Life!

When the semester ended, six of my brightest seniors decided they'd rather be in my dual credit English class, leaving behind twelve very cranky seniors who just want to graduate. They don't want to read Hamlet, they don't want to read Faust, and they don't want to read The Iliad.

The Iliad is giving them particular grief because they just can't seem to keep the character names straight, or the allegiance of each character.

I'm pulling my hair out.

I gave them a quiz...

Everyone failed.

I tried a new, groundbreaking instruction method called the PEAK System, then gave them the exact same quiz to check for growth...

Everyone improved, but half only improved a to a higher "F".

How do I get these seniors to understand Homer's Iliad!????

Possibly one of the most random ideas I have ever had seems to have done the trick.

I bought toys.

Well, actually, Josh bought toys while he was in town picking up three wonderful OKWU students from the airport for Where's Weippe Ski Retreat, and he found an array of colorful and somewhat strange action figures, including G.I. Joe's, PEZ, and Happy Little Family.

I taped yellow on the gods, orange on the Achaeans, green on the Trojans, and pink on the Spartans. Some figures had two colors, such as Achilles, because he is both god and man, Myrmidon and Achaean, and also Helen because she was Spartan, then was stolen by a Trojan.

I thought up a funny saying for each figure, playing with them as I explained (which, if you know me well, then you know this is one of the hugest stretches of my entire life because I didn't even play with toys as a child...I played with paper I dug out of the trashcan!), then mixed all of the action figures up and told one of the boys to give a shot at his own explanation.

To my delight, he got it!

And so did boy #2, and boy #3, and boy #4.

One pricey investment in childhood action figures may have just saved my burnt out seniors from failure.

This puts a whole new twist on differentiated instruction, and while I don't think I'll be winning any awards for it, at least they've got it! And I finally learned to play with toys. Blake, you would be so proud!