This poem takes place at Icarus’ graveside and challenges students to reconsider whether or not Icarus’ story is a cautionary or celebratory tale! The difference in setting provides students with an opportunity to evaluate how Baring’s allusion differs from Coates’ allusion. Secondly, “Icarus” by Maurice Baring provides a different take on Icarus’ story. My favorite part of this poem is Coates’ ability to change tone and meaning through repetition of the title phrase: “Poor Icarus!” Read it here. While Peabody’s version of Icarus’ story is pretty straightforward, Coates’ interpretation is a great exercise in tone. When designing this mythology-based synthesis unit, I kept poetry close to my heart and chose poems to help students synthesize the allusion to Icarus across texts.įirst, “Poor Icarus” by Florence Earle Coates is a great place to begin. If we were doing this in prose, it would take much longer for students to see the repetition of ideas. In a few days or weeks, students can encounter the same story, allusion, myth, or figure several times in different poems. When teaching synthesis, I often rely heavily on poetry because of its brevity. My favorite part of this text is actually its creative use of similes! Evaluating Mythology in Poetry It also provides a great basis for this unit because teachers can review many skills, including inference and main idea. For this reason, I chose an excerpt from Josephine Preston Peabody’s Old Greek Folk Stories Told Anew.Īt the end of the day, this is the familiar myth written at a little higher level. It’s often more challenging to find mythology written with the rigor, depth, and complexity that high school readers need and deserve. Additionally, this review also helps teachers gauge student ability at the beginning of a unit.Īs a high school teacher, it’s easy to find mythology written for elementary and middle-school readers. Also, this means everyone has a chance to build success before working on a difficult skill like synthesis-thinking. Plus, a quick review means everyone starts on the same page. Assuming too much prior knowledge just leads to frustration for everyone. Beginning Synthesis with ComprehensionĪlthough students usually know the story of Icarus by the time they reach high school, it would be silly not to review the story if it’s going to be the focus of the unit. Additionally, the story has a clear lesson, which helps students evaluate how different authors adjust that message. By high school, students are usually familiar with this story. With that in mind, I decided to build a synthesis unit focused on the story of Icarus and Daedalus. To build a mythology-based unit focused on allusion and synthesis, it’s really best for students to focus on a story, figure, or archetype that’s familiar. However, sometimes those figures aren’t familiar enough for students. In the past, I’ve described curriculum spirals focused on Penelope and Helen from Greek mythology. Because synthesis requires teachers to use texts that are related (by genre, theme, or content), this is a good place to incorporate mythology. While my sophomores don’t have a mythology-specific unit, they do have a unit focused on using short works to practice synthesis. This post this post may contain affiliate links.
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