This set of 6 guided reading play scripts, written by Sue Russell, follows the history of the Olympic Games through from ancient to modern times; and as with all her other sets of guided reading scripts, has 6 speakers per ‘play’ plus accompanying quiz.
Find out about the amazing stars of the Olympics. Read about triumph and tragedy, elation and despair – it’s all there in stories that range from totally unbelievable to just plain bizarre!
This collection, however, not only covers the stories of the stars but also the stories of nations – and their struggle on the world scene. In the perfect world, sport would be totally separate from world events and divisions – but not so in real life. So we find many ‘stars’ caught up in issues totally beyond their control – and in some cases, with tragic circumstances. But against all the odds, man proves himself again and again incredibly resilient, proudly living up to the motto of the Olympic Games : “Citius, Altius, Fortius” – Faster, Higher, Stronger.
This motto is the title of the Olympic Ode (up to 30 speaking parts, divided up into 3 parts: Faster, Higher and Stronger) which is available off Sue Russell’s website www.plays-r-ussell.com along with her Class Play version of these Guided Reading scripts.
Play 1 is a comparison of Ancient and Modern Olympics – this covers both Summer and Winter Olympics.
Plays 2 – 6 focus on the Summer Olympics. (The ‘stars’ are taken from a long list of stars, all of whom I would love to have included, but was unable to for practical reasons. I struggled to make the selection of stars for the Summer Olympics, so to have included Winter Olympic stars as well would have just been impossible. Thus, The Winter Olympics will be covered in a future set of scripts).
1 The Olympics – Ancient and Modern
Speakers:
‘Ancient’ ‘Modern’
Sostratos (wrestler/boxer) Rower
Leonidas (runner) Swimmer
Kallipateira (boxer’s mother) Gymnast

2. Modern Olympics 1896-1912

Speakers:
Narrator
France America Great Britain
Greece Sweden

3. Modern Olympics 1920 – 1936 (Impact of 2 world wars)
Speakers:
Narrator
Belgium France Netherlands USA Germany

4.Modern Olympics 1948 – 1964 (End of World Wars – The Soviet Union joins the Games)
Speakers:
Narrator
Great Britain Finland Australia Italy Japan

5. Modern Olympics 1968 – 1984 (Tragedy & Triumph)

Speakers:
Narrator
Mexico West Germany Canada U.S.S.R U.S.A.

6. Modern Olympics 1988 – 2004 (To the Future)

Speakers:
Narrator
S. Korea Spain U.S.A. Australia Greece
Please note: Teaching time of these scripts of 40 minutes (each) is very approximate, depending on how much time is taken to read and answer quiz questions. As with organisation - whether to break up into hour, day or week units. Their use is very versatile.
History of The Olympic Games Guided Reading Play Scripts by Sue Russell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.