The Odyssey Unit Plan for Middle and High School with Intro to Greek Mythology

It’s time to start thinking about your unit plan for The Odyssey. You know you need some background activities for an introduction to Greek mythology, something to keep your students engaged with a difficult text, some way to help them access this difficult task, and an essay prompt to round it all out. 

Sound familiar? This was where we found ourselves when we started planning to teach The Odyssey for the first time. A whole lot of “some of this” and “some of that,” and not a lot of clear direction. What we came up with, though, is epic (pardon the pun).

So, if you’re looking for a way to teach The Odyssey to students that is meaningful and engaging; if you want a unit plan that is more focused and cohesive; if you’d like everything from an introduction to Greek mythology to culminating essay activities, rubrics and final assessments, this The Odyssey unit plan bundle is for you.

What’s Inside

Introduction to Greek Mythology and the Hero’s Journey Unit Plan

1. List of Common Allusions from Greek Mythology
2. Access to two Common Mythological Allusions review Kahoot! Challenges
3. Access to three introductory Edpuzzles 
4. Hero's Journey Archetype graphic 
5. The Hero's Journey: Percy Jackson (Standard and PreAP versions with answer keys)
6. Greek Mythology Allusions Test (Includes matching or multiple choice variations; each variation includes two versions)
7. Hero's Journey On Demand Writing Prompt (Standard and PreAP versions with holistic scoring rubrics)
8. Start Here: Unit Overview (includes content standards)

The Odyssey Unit Plan: The Hero’s Journey and the Homeric Hero

1. The Homeric Hero v. The Modern Hero (Standard, Edpuzzle, Nearpod, includes graphics for reference)
2. The Hero’s Journey Archetype (PreAP, Edpuzzle, includes graphics for reference)
3. Access to Edpuzzles about Ancient Greek Ideals (PreAP, 4 Edpuzzles)
4. Access to Introductory Edpuzzles (3 Edpuzzles)
5. The Odyssey Guided Reading Questions (Standard and PreAP versions, includes answer keys and scoring guides)
6. Adjectives to Describe Character 
7. The Odyssey Meets Instagram (includes scoring rubric)
8. The Odyssey Storyboard (includes scoring rubric)
9. Argumentative Homeric Hero Essay Prewriting and Graphic Organizer (Standard, includes scoring rubric)
10. Explanatory Hero’s Journey Essay Prewriting and Graphic Organizer (PreAP, includes scoring rubric)
11. Access to Exam Review Kahoot (Standard and PreAP versions)
12. Final Exam (Standard and PreAP variations, includes two versions and answer keys)
13. Start Here: Unit Overview (includes content standards)

A Closer Look

Introduction to Greek Mythology and the Hero’s Journey Unit Plan

A review of the 12 Olympians, monsters of mythology, and some of the figures in Greek mythology frequently alluded to in Western literature is often a helpful place to start any study of The Odyssey.

To ensure all students have the same basic understanding of important figures in Greek mythology and can recognize the elements of the hero’s journey, we introduce students to these ideas using a few helpful videos and the film, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. 

This movie closely follows Joseph Cambell’s hero's journey and allows students to become familiar with its steps using an accessible "text" before they attempt to tackle Odysseus’s journey in The Odyssey. As students watch the film, they track Percy's progress through each stage of the hero's journey. Read more about this resource here!

The Odyssey Unit Plan: The Hero’s Journey and the Homeric Hero

We wanted our students to walk away from reading The Odyssey remembering more than just the story of Polyphemus, the Cyclops, but did not want to commit to reading every. single. line. of this epic poem. If you feel the same, our approach to the text will make you very happy. 

This unit is based on a version of The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson, a far and away more engaging and understandable translation than others we’ve come across. In this differentiated unit, we chose to focus on Odysseus as both a Homeric hero and modern hero for our standard-level students (Adventure #1) and the hero’s journey archetype and how Odysseus’s journey home to Ithaca follows Joseph Campbell’s 12 steps for our PreAP/honors level classes (Adventure #2). Consider it a choose-your-own-adventure! To make the most of this bundle, we suggest you choose Adventure #2 (although it certainly still works with Adventure #1).

Adventure #2

We like to begin with the end in mind, so to prepare students for the essay that comes at the end of the unit, we frontload information about ancient Greek ideals using four engaging Edpuzzle video activities to get students thinking about what Homer’s audience would have valued before they begin reading the text. Students complete three introductory Edpuzzles that give them all the background info they need in order to understand the circumstances surrounding the beginning of The Odyssey (without having read The Iliad). 

For the guided reading questions that accompany the text we group books together and excerpt the most relevant parts of the story to keep students engaged. Prefer your students to read the whole thing? Omit the italicized summaries.

Everyone benefits from a little brain break as we work through this text. Students have fun completing two creative activities that allow them to reflect on what they’ve read with The Odyssey Meets Instagram and The Odyssey Storyboard That activities.

After finishing the epic poem, students complete an explanatory essay in which they address how Odysseus’s journey follows the 12 steps of the hero’s journey archetype and also reflect on its connection to one of the four ancient Greek values they learned about at the beginning of the unit. We support students as they work through this challenging prompt with a scaffolded graphic organizer that helps ensure they meet the expectations for this writing assignment. 

To help students prepare for the 75-question multiple-choice exam that concludes the unit, we’ve included a helpful review Kahoot based on the test. 

Curious about the other adventure? Read more about it here!

Copyright © Three Heads Teaching, LLC

We hope these resources are helpful in your classroom. We have no problem with you sharing them with your course-alike colleagues and hope it earns you your favorite ☕! If you’d like to share with other teachers, purchase a discounted license. Please do not publish, print, or post answer keys online for your students. To preserve the integrity of the resources, we kindly ask that you not post any of these materials on publicly accessible websites.