Engaging Children with Classical Mythology: 'Once Upon a Myth'

by Athina Mitropoulos-Monk

Once Upon a Myth (Olympia Publishers, £9.99 $12.99) is a collection of five stories that blend fairy tales with Greek myths. Hansel and Gretel meet the Minotaur, Prometheus and Pandora climb the beanstalk, Penthiselea is merged with Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood faces Dionysus, and Snow White is combined with Medusa. Each story is written in rhyming couplets which creates a fun mood to these newly imagined stories. For example, Prometheus, Pandora and the Beanstalks start like this:

In the mythical times, set long ago,

Things weren’t very bright, there wasn’t a glow.

No, our story starts in a cold and dark land,

Where all were under cruel Zeus’ command.

They serve as an introduction to Greek mythology and have a helpful, educational glossary at the back to support the learning of new characters and monsters. 

Having taught Classics for almost ten years, I know that personal interaction and activities are vital to promoting and inspiring an interest in the ancient world. I am therefore also running a series of workshops and talks at various schools and community centres to promote the book and mythology in general. A fee is asked when doing a series of workshops, however this is not applied to state schools or community centres. I have two types, though each is adapted to the given centre. Firstly, I have a Mythology Creative Writing workshop for years 7-9 where I discuss the appeal of mythology over the ages and how it is possible to retell one of these famous stories in a unique way, despite their popularity. Pupils are then encouraged to write their own version of a Greek or Roman myth. Secondly, I offer a Mythical Monsters workshop, aimed at years 4-6. This goes through a wide range of mythical monsters, from the well-known Medusa and Minotaur, to the lesser known Lamia and Chimaera. Pupils create top-trump style cards which are used for an activity and they are then encouraged to design their own mythical monster, inspired by the ones discussed. I am running these at state and private schools, as well as local community centres, and am very keen to continue offering these in the future.

From a recent workshop at Cranleigh Prep School, one pupil reported back that "the talk was excellent, and Mrs Mitropoulos-Monk was very inspiring.” 

Another parent posted “My son absolutely loved it! Thank you. We are reading it every night!”

If you are interested, please email me at athina.mitropoulos@gmail.com

Writing in the Ancient World

For the last four years, the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge has been home to the CREWS Project (Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems), an ERC-funded research project exploring the scripts and writing practices of the Classical and Near Eastern worlds, how they interconnect and their roles in the societies and cultures that used them. Led by Dr Philippa Steele, the project has always had a strong interest in practical experimentation: we believe that one of the best ways to understand an ancient script is to try and write it, using the materials and techniques of the time. This has seen us trying to find the ideal stylus for inscribing Linear B tablets, experimenting with chopsticks for writing cuneiform, or making our own wax tablets. Not to mention a penchant for ancient writing-themed baking.

Alongside this interest in the materiality of ancient writing, we’ve also always maintained a strong outreach programme. Before this year put a bit of a dampener things, we often spoke to schools groups or ran sessions where children and adults of all ages could try their hands at writing their names in ancient scripts. We were always impressed and delighted by the enthusiasm these garnered, not just for familiar scripts like the Greek alphabet or Egyptian hieroglyphs, but also for the less widely known writing systems of the ancient Mediterranean, like Linear B, the Phoenician alphabet or the alphabetic cuneiform of the Syrian city of Ugarit.

This year, we’ve launched Writing in the Ancient World, a collection of resource packs to help teachers incorporate introduce their pupils to these ancient scripts. Each of the packs includes activities, worksheets and information for both teachers and students, as well as 1-page comics introducing aspects of each script and their worlds. They’re aimed primarily at Key Stage 2 (age 7-11) but should also be useful for older children. The resource packs are supplemented by a number of short YouTube videos where members of the CREWS Project explain how each script works, as well as others covering general thematic discussions or practical advice such as how to run a writing session.

                   

All this material is available for free, thanks to a grant from the University of Cambridge’s School of Arts and Humanities Impact Fund. They can be downloaded direct from the CREWS Blog, or from Tes.com. We’re also very keen to receive feedback, so if you use the resources, we’d really appreciate it if you could let us know how it goes, using the form at the bottom of the resources page. 

We’ll also be holding a free online certified professional development workshop on 17^th November. You can sign up here.

Philip Boyes, CREWS Project (University of Cambridge)

Classics in Communities resources for ‘non-specialist’ teachers of Latin and/or Ancient Greek

by Arlene Holmes-Henderson

Background to the Classics in Communities project

The Classics in Communities project is a partnership between the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and the Iris Project. It was set up in response to the primary curriculum reforms which were implemented in England from September 2014. In the Key Stage 2 (KS2) Languages curriculum, for the first time, Latin and Classical Greek can be chosen for study by pupils aged 6-11. The project particularly targets schools which might not otherwise consider the option. It has twin aims: to equip teachers in primary schools with the skills and knowledge necessary to teach these languages; and to conduct parallel research to determine the impact of Classical language learning on children’s cognitive development.

In collaboration with project funders and supporters, we are pleased to launch two new ranges of digital resources.

How to get started with Latin guides

In response to requests from ‘non-specialist’ teachers of Latin, we produced simple guides to inform teachers how they might begin to introduce Latin into their school curriculum. The primary guide explains ways in which Latin fulfils language policy requirements in England and Scotland for pupils aged 7-11. It also combines, in one document, various suggestions regarding funding, resources and training.

The guide for secondary teachers details possible approaches to the introduction of Latin either on-, or off-timetable. Step-by-step instructions for discussion with school leaders and governors are provided. Furthermore, the document contains an overview of the funding available to state schools, as well as some suggestions regarding resources and training.

Pedagogy videos

Non-specialist teachers often ask how to introduce key topics or language concepts in Latin/Ancient Greek to pupils. With the support of the Oxford Classics Faculty Media team, we recorded six videos featuring experienced practitioners discussing effective teaching strategies and offering suggestions for classroom activities:

(a)   Teaching the Greek alphabet

(b)   Teaching the definite article in Greek

(c)   Teaching the Latin cases

(d)   Teaching Latin verb tenses

(e)   Teaching the Ablative Absolute in Latin

(f)   Teaching the Indirect Statement construction in Latin

The Latin films can be accessed here and the Greek films here.  The skills progression grids for primary Latin created in 2014 are still available here.

To learn more about the Classics in Communities project please contact our administrator at emma.searle@classics.ox.ac.uk.

The Classics in Communities project would like to thank the Classical Association and the A.G. Leventis Foundation for their generous support in helping the project generate these resources.

Dr Arlene Holmes-Henderson is a language education specialist who conducts research and provides training for schools and universities, in the UK and worldwide.  She is an academic at both King's College London, where she is working with Professor Edith Hall on the AHRC-funded 'Advocating Classics Education' project, and at the University of Oxford, where she leads research into the impact of Latin and Greek on children's cognitive development for the Classics in Communities project.