Students in Mr. Dearing's 9th grade English classes incorporated visual arts into their creative writing lesson to enhance their learning of Homer's The Odyssey.  After reading the  epic poem students were  given a creative writing assignment in which they were required to choose a character from the story (other than Odysseus) and compose a descriptive narrative from that charcter's perspective.  The arts integration component required students to determine the climactic scene from their original essay and create a visual narrative as a diorama using found and made objects.  

Objective  

•  Students will read and analyze Homer's epic poem The Odyssey. 

• Students will understand that artists communicate intentional context through their compositions. 

• Students will be exposed to the visual art media of sculpture with an opportunity to create an original work in the genre of assemblage using found and recycled materials. 

Outcomes

• Students  will compose an original narrative inspired from the assigned reading Homer's The Oddyssey.  The narrative will present a new story from the perspective of a character in The Odyssey. 

• Students will demonstrate how to successfully "read" visual works of art and understand that artists use keys elements, symbols, colors, and textures similar to literature to communicate ideas, concepts or stories to a viewer. 

• Students will demonstrate gained knowledge of creative writing, the study of the Odyssey and visual art to create a three-dimensional scene, a diorama, that communicates  character(s), setting and story.