Manual Arts High School
Technology Integrated English Language Arts Lesson
 
Fundamental Understandings
This unit will introduce students to Homer and his Epic The Odyssey. To be more specific students will learn how Homer's Epic functions as a prescription for a culture's value system. Students will learn background information, reading comprehension skills, practice of the writing process and the use of a multi-media presentation tool in the form of Microsoft PowerPoint.
 
NCTE National Standards
 
Technology (ISTE) Standards:
 
Relevance
 
Students have previously analyzed works of literature and they understand that texts can be used to expand an individual's understanding of the world around and within them. Students are also aware that literature is a vehicle for expressing social and cultural views of its time. This Unit will assist students in the process of discovering how to deal with emotional decisions about their lives by examining literature that features characters who deal with the similar predicaments. The unit will help students in acquiring and enhancing their language arts skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The unit will help students use their technological skills for informal verbal expression, written communication, and formal presentations.
 
Context:
 
Students must know how to read and write. They must be aware that all the decisions they make will affect their future. The three part project will help students "visualize" the obstacles we all face in life and how life is a journey that requires a goal oriented mentality through the reading of Homer's The Odyssey from ELEMENTS OF LITERATURE, third Course Copyright 1997 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Students practice reading Comprehension skills and the Writing Process (Pre Write, Draft, Editing and Publishing). Additionally students will learn how to promote their discoveries through the use of Microsoft PowerPoint.
 
 
Components of the unit
 
Workforce Competencies:
 
Information Manager
Students locate, comprehend, interpret, evaluate, maintain, and apply information, concepts, and ideas found in literature, the arts, symbols, recordings, video and other graphic displays, and computer files in order to perform tasks and/or for enjoyment.
Effective Communicator
Students communicate in English and other languages using information, concepts, prose, symbols, reports, audio and video recordings, speeches, graphic displays and computer-based programs.
Creative and Critical Thinkers
Students use creative thinking skills .to generate new ideas, make the best decisions, recognize and solve problems through reasoning, interpret symbolic data, and develop efficient techniques for lifelong learning.
Ethical and Responsible Workers
Students display responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, integrity, and healthy decision-making.
Systems Manager
Students integrate their knowledge and understanding of how social, organizational, informational, and technological systems work with their abilities to analyze trends, design and improve systems, and use and maintain appropriate technology.
Effective Leader
Students establish credibility with their colleagues through competence and integrity and help their peers achieve their goals by communicating their feelings and ideas to justify or successfully negotiate a position, which advances goal attainment.
Culturally Sensitive Leader
Students appreciate their own culture and the cultures of others, understand the concerns and perspectives of members of other ethnic and gender groups reject the stereotype of themselves and others and seek out and utilize the views of persons from diverse ethnic, social, and educational backgrounds.
 
 
Through the Odyssey, Lesson 1
 
Through the Odyssey, Lesson 2
 
Through the Odyssey, Lesson 3