The Ancient World and the Contemporary Classroom

I’ll discuss how memory techniques from ancient rhetorical manuals can help modern students learn vocabulary faster and “funner.”

For example: imagine a horse in your shower. A snorting, stamping horse. On its rear flank—its HIP—it has P-O-S smeared in steaming manure. Really think about this image.

You’ve just learned the word ἵππος—and you won’t soon forget it!

Eloquence is a key ingredient in the classical tradition, and desire to possess it animated classical curricula for centuries. Nowadays few classicists put their understanding of rhetoric to work by teaching students to speak effectively and persuasively, though the desire to learn is still widespread. This talk explores ways to do so consistent with humanities and liberal arts goals.

This talk describes an assignment from a Greek Myth course that prompts students to relate Myth to their own lives. Students use schematics of the Shield of Achilles in Iliad 18 to create a Shield of Themselves for the course website. Samples of several Shields show students insightfully adapting the scenes on Achilles’ Shield to their own experiences.

This lightning talk will present “Story Map” and discuss potential uses in the classroom and beyond.  Story map is a new free digital tool through which one can map any narrative across the earth and narrative time.  Annotation features allow embedding of texts and images, creating a more meaningful engagement with the complex and unfamiliar geography of the ancient Mediterranean.