Subject Areas |
Art and Culture
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Archaeology |
History and Social Studies
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World History - Ancient World |
Literature and Language Arts
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World |
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Time Required |
| Two or three class periods |
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Skills |
| information gathering
and research
critical thinking
historical analysis
organization and presentation of information
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Date Posted |
| 2/4/2002 |
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Live from Ancient Olympia!
Introduction
If
television had existed in the time of the ancient Greek athletes Milo of Kroton,
Diagoras of Rhodes, Melankomas of Caria, Polydamas of Skotoussa, and Theagenes
of Thasos, no doubt their triumphs in the ancient Olympic Games would have been
the subject of numerous live broadcast interviews. In this lesson, students will
have an opportunity to develop such "live interviews" with ancient athletes; working
in small groups, they will produce a script based on the results of their research
and they will perform the interview for other students in the class. To
prepare meaningful scripts of questions and responses for their interviewers and
athletes, student groups will draw upon resources of an online exhibit, "The
Ancient Olympics" , developed for the EDSITEment-reviewed Perseus
Project. Designed especially for students, this exhibit includes sections
on ancient and modern sports, the site of Olympia as it looks today, the cultural
and historical context of the Games, and athletes who were famous in ancient times.
Whether they access the site themselves or are provided with reprints by their
teacher, students will find ample resources on "The
Ancient Olympics" with which to construct interviews that reflect their understanding
of some of the values and beliefs underlying the ancient Olympic Games. This
lesson can be taught either by itself or in conjunction with the more extensive
lesson unit, "It
Came From Greek Mythology" , which offers several activities for teaching
about the mythology of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as the ancient concept
of the hero. Although designed for students in grades 3 through 5, much of "It
Came From Greek Mythology" is adaptable for older students, and serves as
a useful compendium of EDSITEment resources on Greek mythology and culture.
Guiding Question: What beliefs and values
are reflected in stories about famous athletes at the ancient Olympic Games?
Learning Objectives
- Learn
about the city of Olympia and the ancient Olympic Games that were held there
-
Read stories about ancient athletes
- Analyze the
qualities for which ancient Olympic athletes were praised or blamed
- Write
and perform scripts for "live interviews" with ancient athletes that reflect an
understanding of the beliefs and values that underlay the ancient Olympic Games.
1
Introduce students to the cultural context of the ancient Olympic Games. Point
out that the ancient, unlike the modern, Olympiad was a religious festival. Draw
on the online essay, "The
Greek City-States and the Religious Festival," for images and text that will
help you introduce students to the religious aspects of the ancient Olympics (the
essay is part of "The Ancient
Olympics" exhibit). Tell students how Olympia, the setting of the ancient
Games, was home to the Altis, the great Sanctuary of Zeus, and how the worship
of the gods was an integral part of the ancient Olympic Games. You can make such
details more vivid by showing students photographs of the physical remains of
ancient Olympia, which is permeated by reminders of the gods; these images can
be viewed as part of "Tour
Olympia," also part of the online Olympics exhibit at the Perseus
Project. You can find links to illustrations of and texts about Greek gods
and goddesses, including Zeus, listed in the lesson plan "It
Came From Greek Mythology."
As you present
new material on the ancient Olympics, ask students to discuss differences or similarities
with the modern Olympic games (a discussion which is aided by the general emphasis
of the exhibit on comparing the ancient and modern Games). For example, you will
read that champions received a crown of wild olive leaves that honored them, their
family, and their city. Ask students how such prizes and compare with the rewards
for Olympic athletes today. You can find a section devoted to modern-day Olympic
Heroes on the official site of the
International Olympic Committee (IOC), a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed
Internet Public Library.
2
Divide the class into small groups, providing each group
with copies of one of the "Athletes'
stories" from the Perseus Project
exhibit. Tell students that each group will designate one student to play the
part of their assigned athlete, and another to play an imaginary journalist who
will interview that athlete for a "live television audience." As a group, they
will write a brief script telling other students who that athlete is and what
his* experience can tell us about the beliefs and values reflected in the ancient
Olympics (designate a third student, someone other than the athlete and the interviewer,
to transcribe the groups' ideas). At the end of the class period, each pair (interviewer
and athlete) will perform their scripted interview for the rest of the class.
A prize--perhaps the nearest equivalent of a crown of wild olive--will be awarded
according to the vote of the entire polis (the whole class). (*Only men competed
in the ancient Olympics.)
Also at the outset
of this activity, tell students that interviews should be brief, no more than
five minutes, and should reflect what they have learned about the values and beliefs
that were important to the ancient Olympic Games. While students cannot change
the basic facts of an athlete's life (invent medals or honors or change the dates
of birth and death, etc.), they may invent minor personal details that are consistent
with the circumstances of ancient Greece and with what we know about the athlete's
life.
Note: As always, you should thoroughly
review all material before distributing it to classes or sending students to websites.
Ancient Greek athletes competed in the nude, as is reflected in some of the illustrations
on the online Olympics exhibit of the Perseus
Project.
3 span class="content">Give
each group time to read through its assigned story. Next, provide students with
"Write a Script!", a handout of questions and guidelines, available here as a
downloadable pdf file. If
each student group has access to the online exhibit, it will be able to research
answers on its own. If this is not the case, students will need to be provided
with reprints. (For example, to answer question #1, students will need to be familiar
with some of the images provided in the "Tour
of Olympia.") The questions on the handout are just a guide, and students
may, when they write their scripts, invent questions besides those suggested in
the handout. They may also ask the questions in any order they like. The idea
here is to be creative and to develop a portrait of an ancient athlete that reflects
some of the values and beliefs of the ancient Olympic Games.
Students
may need additional help to answer some of the items, especially if they do not
have direct online access to the Perseus exhibit. Some resources you may wish
to share with them are
4
Have
each student group perform its interview for the class. To help students remember
them, write the names of athletes being interviewed on the board (use the resources
of Perseus for help in coming up with imagined names for interviewers. After each
group's interview is over, have the interviewer say, "Now let's take some questions
from our audience." At this stage, anyone in the group, not just the person playing
the athlete, can answer questions from other students. After all the interviews
are over, return to the subject of ancient versus modern Olympic Games, and discuss
with students some of the differences that emerged in this exercise. Did anyone,
for example, treat the aspect of religious worship that was so much a part of
the ancient Games? You might want to create two columns on the board, juxtaposing
ancient and modern Olympic elements. Further background for you and your students
is available on "The
Context of the Games and the Olympic Spirit."
Extending the Lesson
- Think about ways the experience of performance
might be enhanced. For example, as the interviewer proceeds, a third student could
present material as part of a PowerPoint presentation (if this sounds like overkill,
think of a CNN broadcast with the text "crawl" across the screen). Interviews
could be videotaped, and might take place against the backgrounds of the stadium
and vegetation. You might even create an Olympic festival in the school, with
mock-games, and ads showcasing the products of Olympia (olives, sandals, clothing,
and so on).
- For additional lesson ideas (designed
for grades 3 through 5, but adaptable to 6 through 8), see the more extensive
lesson unit, "It
Came From Greek Mythology", which offers several activities for teaching about
the mythology of ancient Greece and Rome, as well as ancient concepts of the hero.
- As an activity to link the stories of ancient and modern
Olympic athletes, your students can also read about some of the personal qualities
of Jesse Owens, as recounted in manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project
1936-1940 (examples are available in the American
Memory collection); they might compare Owens's story to that of the boxer
Diagoras of Rhodes,
praised by the poet Pindar as a "fair-fighter." Pindar speaks of Diagoras in terms
that are echoed in press accounts of Owens's character: he is a man who "walks
a straight course on a road that hates arrogance." The moving story of Native
American athlete Jim
Thorpe is recounted on America's
Story, a site designed especially for students and part of the EDSITEment-reviewed
American Memory collection.
- Besides
those provided in "It Came From Greek Mythology," for more activities on the definition
and meaning of heroism, see the EDSITEment lesson plan unit, What
Makes a Hero? , designed to help students analyze the meaning of heroism and
to identify heroes in American history and in their own lives. The lesson plan
What Makes
a Hero? introduces students in grades 3 through 5 to the lives and deeds of
national, state and local heroes, and asks them to identify and analyze the qualities
of historical figures they consider to be heroes.
Standards Alignment
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