This Lesson's Title:

Ulysses: Time Traveler

bringing a world famous hero to a time (and place) near you!

This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Ruth Oxborrow at an AT&T-sponsored in-service class for teachers.

The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the adaptation of The Adventures of Ulysses by Bernard Evslin. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially from pages 124-128 of the book.

Check out The Adventures Of Ulysses at Amazon.com.

If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for this book at the county library.

Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources:

Pre-step…before sharing the published model:  Before beginning this lesson students should be exposed to Greek Mythology by reading several short Greek myths and doing a web search of Greek gods, heroes, monsters, and myths. This website we found particularly helpful and comprehensive as a classroom tool: Mythography by Loggia, and doing your own search for helpful websites may prove effective too!  Research done in Greek mythology should be discussed as a whole class.

Step one (sharing the published model):  The book The Adventures of Ulysses by Bernard Evslin should be used as a read-a-loud while studying Ancient Greece. As a class, read aloud the chapter describing Ino’s Veil, (pg. 124-128 in The Adventures of Ulysses by Bernard Evslin). Distribute copies of this section to small groups of students and have them find the most interesting adjectives in the passage and write them on a large sheet of paper.  The students can then sort the words into self-chosen categories, such as: color, feeling, imagery, etc.

Discuss with the class all the adventures that Ulysses has been had and why he is unable to go home. Each “adventure” is short but the underlying conflict is that he is angering Poseidon.   Even if they have little knowledge of Ulysses' adventures, focus on the idea of how Poseidon creates new obstacles for Ulysses, preventing his successful return home to his wife and son. 

Ask students this idea-developing question:  "If Ulysses came ahead to modern times, what kind of modern day transportation might he use to get back to ancient Ithica?  What other mythological characters might go with him?"

Inform student that today they'll be writing a story where Ulysses is in a modern day setting and is preparing to set out on a modern day adventure that will take him back to Ithica.

Step two (introducing student models of writing):  In small groups, have your students read and respond to any or all of the student models that come with this lesson.  The groups will certainly talk about the idea development, because of the post-it note that has been embedded on each model.  You might prompt your students to talk about each model's organization and word choice as well. 

• Sixth graders--Baylie, Bridgette, and Quinn--share their time travel stories

Step three (thinking and pre-writing): Post the lists of words that your student groups have created around the room.  Students will begin their pre-write by completing the graphic organizer attached to this lesson.  Before beginning to write, students might meet with a partner and share ideas and adjectives. 

The Interactive Button Game on the Student Instructions Page will get your students thinking about their scenes and choices for characters, mode of transportation and destination. This lesson also comes with a pre-writing worksheet. You can open and print the graphic organizer by clicking the link below.

• Idea Development and Organization Planning Tool

Step four (revising with specific trait language):   To promote response and revision to rough draft writing, attach WritingFix's Revision and Response Post-Its to your students' drafts.  Make sure the students rank their use of the trait-specific skills on the Post-Its, which means they'll only have one "1" and one "5."   Have them commit to ideas for revision based on their Post-It rankings.  For more ideas on WritingFix's Revision & Response Post-Its, click here.

• Sheet of 6 Idea Development Post-It Notes
• Sheet of 6 Organization Post-It Notes

Step five (editing for conventions):  After students apply their revision ideas to their drafts and re-write neatly, require them to find an editor.   If you've established a "Community of Editors" among your students, have each student exchange his/her paper with multiple peers.  With yellow high-lighters in hand, each peer reads for and highlights suspected errors for just one item from the Editing Post-it.  The "Community of Editors" idea is just one of dozens and dozens of inspiring ideas that is talked about in detail in the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Workbook for Teachers.

Step six (publishing for the portfolio):   When they are finished revising and have second drafts, invite your students to come back to this piece once more during an upcoming writer's workshop block.  Their stories might become a longer story, a more detailed piece, or the beginning of a series of pieces about the story they started here.  Students will probably enjoy creating an illustration for this story as they get ready to publish it for their portfolios.

Interested in publishing student work on-line?  We invite student writers to post final drafts of their original at WritingFix's Community of Student Writers.  This is a safe-to-use blog for students and teachers. No writing is posted until it is approved by the moderator. Contact us at publish@writingfix.com if you have questions about getting your students published.

Learn more about author Bernard Evslin and The Adventures of Ulysses by clicking here.