Tween Writing Class Summary 5/19/14

with Sally Zeiner

The Epic Poem

For our final writing class we learned about the form of the epic poem, such as Homer's Odyssey. To begin, I read aloud the first chapter of The Children's Homer by Padraic Colum in which Odysseus pretends to be mad to avoid being forced by Agamemnon to join in the Trojan War. 

An epic tale begins with an exile, like Odysseus's, followed by a journey, and the return home. In class we developed our main character, their companions, monsters, and the reason for the exile. Then the students found quiet places outside to begin writing. One at a time I met with them to hear about their ideas and help them to develop their stories. They were off and running with great ideas! I hope they will continue to work on these epic ideas over the summer.

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