Grade 3 Language Arts Curriculum

Introduction to Greek Mythology

Introduction

Many activities are open-ended, encouraging students to state a point of view, make an interpretation, or relate the readings to personal experience. Engagement in art, music, and drama activities also provides students with the opportunity to exercise various modes of expression and understanding. Questions found in literature lessons promote higher level thinking and allow teachers to engage students in more in-depth discussions of selections. Extension activities provide opportunity to generalize beyond the lesson topics.

Rationale

Greek mythology has had a far-reaching effect on the literature, art, and music of western civilization. The activities of this unit focus on establishing the relationships between these stories and our culture today. The concept of change is examined within the content of the myths by looking at how a character's life is affected and changed either by a personal choice or the power of an outside influence. Activities further explore the foundations of our language, the role of the story (the myth) to explain the world, as well as the origin of drama and opera in ancient Greece.

The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) awarded the Greenwich Public Schools teachers who developed it the award for outstanding curriculum for gifted students in 2000.

Journeys and Destinations

Introduction

This unit uses an inquiry-based, interdisciplinary approach to investigate literature. The guiding theme of the unit is the recognition of change as a concept that affects people and their relationships as well as the world around them. An open-ended approach to the discussion process emphasizes the search for meaning in literature. Vocabulary and grammar development supports the readings as well. Throughout the unit, students consider the role of memory in their lives through writing about memories and researching the role of technology in preserving memories.

Rationale

A language arts curriculum should expose high-ability students to exemplary works of literature that challenge their critical reasoning and nutture their search for meaning in an ongoing quest to understand themselves and those within their world. This unit provides such a quest. Moreover it provides an array of opportunities for active student learning in the core language arts strands of reading, writing, oral communication, and language study.