Reflection+Greek

Greek Project At the end of my unit on the Greeks I wanted to do a project that reflected the achievements or culture of the Greeks. What I settled on for this unit was for the students to create a piece of poetry or write a play. I figured this was right in line with the spirit of the Greeks. Most students immediately let out a groan after I told them what we would be doing. Personally, I really thought this was going to be a tough assignment and that I would probably get in a lot of mediocre projects. To write a poem or play that is informative and still well done without sounding like a report, in my opinion, is a very difficult task. The first day of work time was pretty much a wash as most students didn’t have any idea what they were going to do, or even how to tackle this assignment. Most students initially thought about completing a play, feeling that it was the easier of the two. However after a little work they realized that a play was also a difficult task. This was a project where if they were doing a poem they needed to cover the same themes and get across a lot of information quickly, and in a very different way than they have probably been expected to before. If they chose to do the play, they needed to develop a script that didn’t read like a report, have characters, a plot, and then actually perform it either before the class or have it recorded. In the end I was probably pretty well split between those who chose the play and those who chose the poem. This was a project that as kids were working I had a difficult time telling if they were getting it and if they were putting together a project that was going to be at the level that I hoped. Many students worked on this outside of class which created a class atmosphere where some kids didn’t have much to work on and some were working very hard. Also, the people creating poems were working alone and would write a stanza or two and then need to discuss it or have someone read it. The result was a classroom where to me it felt like little was being done, but when I talked to the kids they were working and were progressing through this, even if it did not always feel like it. When the project was done and it was time to present I expected maybe a couple decent poems, but I thought most of them would be pretty rough. I also thought the plays would be pretty decent, if for no other reason than I had had more contact with the groups doing the plays and I knew more about what they were going to present. When presentations began I was incredibly impressed by level of writing the students displayed, particularly in their poems. I had some just incredible poems that were filled with emotion and imagery, all while getting across all the information they needed. Some of the plays were well done, particularly those who recorded them at home, but as a whole I felt the poems by far outshined the plays. In total I felt that the students did the best job in this project addressing the required material and showing their understanding as compared to the other of the projects. Maybe it was because they had more prior knowledge on the material, but the final project was much harder than the pervious projects and the results were very good. I really feel that with the experience the students gained in the pervious projects, they were able to tap their own creativity and really use the information they were given to create some very informative but authentic assessments.