ADVENTURES OF ULYSSES UNIT Distance Learning

This comprehensive unit is the product of years of work and teaching. If you don't have a copy of the novel, or have enough for all of your students to have a copy, you could probably find copies of most of the novel - in a variety of formats on the internet. When you have google Docs to mix with the elements on line, it's amazing the resources that are available. I have taught The Adventures of Ulysses to both seventh and eighth-grade classes at all levels from struggling level one readers to gifted students. This story grabs all students because of the interest in mythology, monsters and the touch of love retold by Bernard Evslin. Each chapter of the novel is a short story unto itself. That makes it great to teach. Some of the chapters can be eliminated, especially if you’re running out of time at the end. Also, this lessons and graphic organizers could easily be adapted for a unit of the Odyssey as well.

I teach in a district that requires us to incorporate a certain framework of teaching in our lesson plans (Purpose, Directed, Modeled, Cooperative and Individual). The 21 days of detailed lesson plans included here include these elements daily. All 12 graphic organizers and the 9 Captain’s Logs have been actively used to in the teaching of the novel as well. We all know our students best. Pick and choose what you want to focus on and what you need to skip.

I teach in a one-to-one Google Chromebook school. Everything I do is created using Google and uploaded to Google Classroom for release to my students. ALL of the items included started as documents that were printed and could still easily be used this way. However, the Google suite of products easily incorporates the technology piece we are being asked to incorporate. Of course, who isn’t looking for a time saver in our busy job? Google and Google Classroom has made the organization super easy and streamlined.

Skills included in the unit -

citation

theme

summary

plot

characterization

figurative language

point of view

academic vocabulary

research

leadership

writing through ACE responses