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Students create a sociogram of characters in "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, demonstrating relationships in the first two acts of the play. This assignment could also be redone at the end of the play as an assessment. After completing this activity, I found that students developed a deeper understanding of the complex relationships in the play and were better prepared to follow the town's dynamic throughout our reading. This file includes the assignment description for students, a grading rubri

This file is designed for a mythology social networking activity. Students choose a character and design a user profile for "Mythbook." This file includes an example of a profile for Ares (the only god I didn't particularly want my students to profile because the possibilities are fairly one-dimensional). The worksheet can be altered by the students on the computer or it can be completed by hand. I have my students create hard copies of the profiles and draw user pictures and gifts.

My eighth grade students use this Family Tree Chart as we read the first section of D'Aulaire's Book of Myths to keep track of relationships between characters. We chart from the beginning of the universe down to the 12 Olympians. They have a hard time conceptualizing the family tree without this diagram. The first section of the file is a copy of my answer key. The second page is the blank chart that the students use.

I use these two poems as part of an essay section in an end-of-unit test on Greek Mythology, but this would also work well as a stand-alone activity. Students respond to one of two poems from Gregory Orr's book "Orpheus and Eurydice: A Lyric Sequence" by first identifying the poem's speaker based on clues (somewhat difficult for my students, since there are details that might lead them astray if they are not familiar enough with the myth), then discussing their conclusion in a short essay. Orr's

I used this crossword as an optional supplemental activity to familiarize students with the spelling of mythological figures and concepts covered in class.

After viewing the Jim Henson Storyteller's version of the Daedalus and Icarus myth, students view Bruegel's painting "Landscape of the Fall of Icarus" (although some experts now doubt that the painting was created by Bruegel...) and read the poem by William Carlos Williams inspired by the painting. This activity is part of a unit on Greek mythology and also includes a Smartboard file with the painting and some basic questions included to generate discussion.

Three options for a culminating project on place or setting, including a yearbook of place, a "real" travel brochure, and a travel narrative. I originally designed this unit for sixth grade students, but I've found that it works best with upper middle schoolers.