Myths and Legends:The Abduction of

Persephone

Monday 25th January 2021

Learning Purposes

• To further develop knowledge of Greek myths and legends

• To consider myths from different perspectives

• To develop analytical writing skills

Previous learning:• What was the moral

behind the myth of Narcissus? What did it warn us against the dangers of?

Future learning:• Continue to develop a

knowledge of various myths and legends, inferring information from them and writing analytically about them.

Starter

Use these images to make a prediction about the myth

Reading

• Read the myth to yourself.

• Once you have done that, summarise the myth in no more than fifty words, but no less than forty.

Reading

• Look back to your prediction of the tale.

• Now compare how accurate/inaccurate your prediction was with the myth.

• Make an annotation to explain the similarities/differences.

Comprehension

Answer the following questions in full sentences to test your understanding:

1) Who was the goddess Demeter? Demeter was…

2) Who were Persephone’s parents? Persephone’s parents were…

3) Who kidnapped Persephone and why? _____ kindnapped Persephone because…

4) What did Zeus explain to Demeter?

5) What action did Demeter take as a result?

6) Why was Persephone unable to return to the world of the living?

7) What agreement was finally made?

Comprehension

This story was written to help the Greeks try to explain the natural world.

Answer the following in full sentences.

1. What exactly does it try to explain? The myth tries to explain…

2. What explanation does it give?

3. Do you think that this is a good explanation? Give reason for your answer

Character activity

• Copy out and complete the table below

Developing analytical writing skills

• Now, more than ever, it is going to be important for you to develop, practice and maintain a strong standard of analytical writing.

• This is a skill that you are going to need all the way up to your GCSEs in Year 11, so the time to start perfecting it is now.

• We are going to break it down, step by step.

What your writing should include

• Write down the following checklist of things your analytical writing should include:

❑ A topic sentence that introduces your idea – what is the purpose of your response? What are you telling us about?

❑ Evidence from the text (your embedded quotation)

❑ An explanation of what your evidence shows

❑ Close language analysis (pick a specific word to focus on)

❑ Concluding sentence

Recap: embedding quotations

• When writing a piece of analytical writing, is important for you to be able to embed you quotations so that your writing sounds more sophisticated and articulate.

• Quotes needs to be blended into your work writing and not simply tacked on after your first sentence.

✓ Hades’ dishonesty is shown when the writer informs us that he ‘tricked his reluctant bride’.

× Hades is dishonest. This is shown in the quote ‘tricked his reluctant bride’.

For example…

Within the myth, Hades is presented a deceptive. Hades’ dishonesty is shown when the writer informs us that he ‘tricked his reluctant bride’. This shows that he was willing to do whatever it took to marry Persephone. The verb ‘tricked’ highlights that Hades was incapable of being truly loved by Persephone and so had to use sly tactics. Overall, Hades is someone who should not be trusted.

What do you think has been done well in this response?

For example…

Within the myth, Hades is presented a deceptive. Hades’ dishonesty is shown when the writer informs us that he ‘tricked his reluctant bride’. This shows that he was willing to do whatever it took to marry Persephone. The verb ‘tricked’ highlights that Hades was incapable of being truly loved by Persephone and so had to use sly tactics. Overall, Hades is someone who should not be trusted.

❑ A topic sentence that introduces your idea❑ Evidence from the text (your embeddedquotation)❑ An explanation of what your evidence shows❑ Close language analysis (pick a specific word to analyse)❑ Concluding sentence

Developing analytical writing skills

• You are going to pick a character from the myth and analyse how they have been presented.

• You could look at how Hades has been presented as sly/deceptive/tricky

• You could look at how Demeter has been presented as overbearing/caring/protective

• You could look at how Zeus has been presented as diplomatic/fair/cautious

Use this model to help you

Within the myth, Hades is presented a deceptive. Hades’ dishonesty is shown when the writer informs us that he ‘tricked his reluctant bride’. This shows that he was willing to do whatever it took to marry Persephone. The verb ‘tricked’ highlights that Hades was incapable of being truly loved by Persephone and so had to use sly tactics. Overall, Hades is someone who should not be trusted.

❑ A topic sentence that introduces your idea❑ Evidence from the text (your embeddedquotation)❑ An explanation of what your evidence shows❑ Close language analysis (pick a specific word to analyse)❑ Concluding sentence

Self-assessment

• In your paragraph, identify where you have included each of the elements of an analytical response.

❑ A topic sentence that introduces your idea

❑ Evidence from the text (your embedded quotation)

❑ An explanation of what your evidence shows

❑ Close language analysis (pick a specific word to analyse)

❑ Concluding sentence

Plenary

• You will each be a character of your choice from the myth. Once you have decided who you want to be…

1. Prepare some questions that you could ask each character.

2. Then think of some answers to questions that you may be asked and how you would answer them.

Think of sensible questions – do not ask what they have had for breakfast.

Directed Reading

• For the remainder of the lesson, read a book of your choice.

• Fill in your reading log as usual. If your log is full, record what you have read on a piece of paper and keep it safe.