Spark

Lesson 2: Ancient Greece Before Percy

50 min

California CCSS: Focus Standards

Student Lesson

Content

Students will cite evidence from multiple informational texts to explain how features of ancient Greek life and belief could shape myths.

Language

Students will combine facts and predictions using because, since, and use precise domain-specific vocabulary.

Foundations

Students will reread short informational excerpts aloud, pausing at punctuation to support accuracy and meaning.

How does The Lightning Thief build on—and transform—traditional mythic ideas?

Knowledge-Building:

This lesson builds on Lesson 1’s idea that myths explain the world by showing the cultural world that produced Greek myths.

Enduring Understanding:

People create myths to explain mystery, danger, and values in the world around them.

Future Lessons:

Students will use this context to understand why Greek gods, monsters, and ideas matter in Percy’s world and how Riordan modernizes them.

Unit Performance Task:

Students will later explain how myths reflect cultural values and compare mythic ideas across texts.

Lesson Flow	Purpose of Learning Experience
Launch15 Minutes	Students will draw on what they learned in Lesson 1 and build curiosity about the kinds of mysteries ancient Greeks may have used myths to explain.
Learning in Action30 Minutes	Students will use multiple informational texts to gather facts about ancient Greek life, beliefs, and ideas; define domain-specific vocabulary in context; and predict what this culture might explain through myth. (RI.6.1, RI.6.7, L.6.4.a)
Look Back5 Minutes	Students will synthesize learning in a brief written response that uses evidence from at least two texts.

polytheism: belief in many gods
city-state: an independent city and the land around it with its own government
philosophy: the study of big questions about life, knowledge, and truth

Material List