Lesson Plan : Medea and Greek Amphitheater
Teacher Name: | Anna T Smith |
Grade: | Grade 9-10 |
Subject: | Literature Activities |
Topic: | Background information for Medea on Greek amphitheater and performances. Greek Theater space, mechanics, audience, etc. |
Content: | Information about the Greek amphitheater, actors, masks, tragic hero-heroine, and "deus ex machina" Know meaning of orchestra, theatron,skene,chorus, parados, altar, proskenion, ekkuklema, crane. |
Goals: | The students will understand the time period of the Greek tragic drama and how it was performed.Be able to understand reasoning behind the mechanics of the Greek theater. |
Objectives: | Students will understand the background of Greek tragic dramas by taking notes. |
Materials: | SmartBoard, PowerPoint |
Introduction: | Teacher will show the students a picture of the Greek amphitheater. Teacher will make points with students' observations on the similarities to today's coliseums and stadiums. The mechanics used in ancient Greek theater can still be seen in theaters today. |
Development: | Students will take notes on the Greek amphitheater, actors, masks, tragic hero-heroine, and "deus ex machina" information pertaining to Greek performances. All of the inventions used in the Greek theater were important to the clarity for the audience and the efficiency for the actors. The orchestra was a large circular acting area located at the foot of the hillside in a Greek theater. A Greek theater building, or theatron, was a large open-air structure consisting of three parts: the orchestra, the skene, and the audience.At the center was the orchestra, or "dancing place." It was a large circular area.The orchestra was the place of the action.An altar was in the middle of the orchestra,the altar was dedicated to Dionysus. The skene is a building where the actors can change costumes and masks.The audience are the people viewing the play.The audience sat on benches built up on the side of a hill.The chorus usually communicated in song form to the audience, but sometimes the message was spoken. The chorus also helped to communicate main ideas of the play to the audience. The proskenion was in front of the skene and that is where the action took place. The parados or entrance to the theatron were to the right and left of the theatron. A ekkyklema or ekkuklema meaning "rolled out" which brought actors onto the stage who were dead, because no violence ever took place on the stage.The crane was used to fly actors in and out of scenes who were in rolls of someone who flew.In Greek theater there were no intermissions or breaks.Also, the circular shape of the theatron allowed everyone to watch. This design also allowed noise to bounce off all of the theatron letting everyone hear. |
Practice: | Students will read and discuss the first page of Medea and point out how the stage directions in story are like information they learned |
Accommodations: | Teacher will provide hand copies of the notes to students in need. Students will read page one aloud and discuss. |
Checking For Understanding: | Teacher will monitor students' facial expressions. Teacher will verbally quiz student who will (hopefully) respond with the correct answers. Teacher will walk around room to ensure the notes are being written. Teacher will entertain any questions from students regarding material. |
Closure: | Teacher will close with the major points that the students learned about BC Greek performances and how it was seen in in page one of Medea |
Evaluation: | Homework assignment: teacher created word-search puzzle. Instead of providing the words for the students to find, the teacher will have fill-in-the-blank questions of information from notes. The students must fill in the blanks and then find their answer in the puzzle. |
Teacher Reflections: |
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