Pytash: Lesson Design for Classical Literature

I absolutely love when I read texts and the contents of a chapter include some of my personal experiences. In this chapter of Classics in the Classroom, Jago wrote about the idea of expert groups. In Block II of Advanced Study, we have had the opportunity to work in expert group numerous times. While I believe it was a great idea for future teachers to engage in this activity, I never thought about how students could benefit from this experience. When students get into expert groups they are able to collaborate on the ideas of their peers (which would make Vygotsky very happy) and construct their knowledge in a way that the rest of the class could find beneficial. Also, it takes pressure off of students to concern themselves with a huge amount of information, and they are able to narrow it down and focus primarily on one idea at a time.

I also really liked the way that this chapter connected to Chapter 4. Jago expressed the importance of teaching students the structure of stories, so they can better understand the elements within the story. In Chapter 6, Jago used the example of  The Odyssey. We all know that this story is based about Greek Mythology, but it is also an epic. According to Jago, this would be important information to go over with students to give them a foundation on the story as a whole.