Tips for Teaching the Greeks

One of every teacher’s fears, especially when teaching the Greeks, is that their students will not learn or take anything away from the lessons.  Moreover, some teachers are not sure how to combat this fear and make their classes interesting. When teaching the Greeks, it is possible to get lost amongst all of the different myths, gods, and structures; moreover, it is possible for your students to lose interest in the subject before you really get started.  The history of the Greeks is full of war, art, myths, gods, and even a little love and it is your job, as a teacher, to immerse your students in these types of things while teaching the Greeks through showing them just how interesting and fun the Greeks were.  If you are wondering how to do this, just read the lessons plans tips that are about to follow.  While these tips are more for the age groups of 5th through 7th graders, it is possible to integrate them into lessons plans for other age groups.

• If you are teaching about the mythology surrounding Greek gods, you can allow your students to write a character sketch of what they think a god of their choice would be like, according to the information you gave them while teaching about the Greeks.
• If you are teaching the Greeks in their more current world, it would be fun for your students to taste Greek food.  As a project, have each of your students research and create one Greek entrée, bring it to class, and then share  a history of how that particular entrée came to existence.  Your students will have a blast trying new foods.
• Greece is famous for their Olympics, therefore, when you are teaching the Greeks, you can create a type of mini-Olympics for your students to participate in.  You may even be able to have a competition between classes, meaning work with another teacher who is teaching the Greeks, and have a mini-Olympics.  Whichever class wins gets a treat!
• One final, fun tip that is useful when teaching about the Greeks is to let your students create “travel brochures” for each many era in Greek history.  This will allow them to highlight the most important parts of each era, while adding in the little details that were interesting to them. This is a great way to get your students to study as well, because they cannot write the facts and details of the Greeks, without first knowing what they are. 

 

The Greeks have a long, wonderful history, however, if you are not careful, while teaching the Greeks, you can cause the subject to lose some of its uniqueness and become another boring subject.  It can be hard and you will always have that one student that does not want to participate no matter what you try. However, you will get that feeling of satisfaction that comes when you see comprehension and wonder on your student’s faces when you surprise them with a history lesson they can interact with.