Helios | Sol Mythology Series for Middle & High School ELA Students Grade 7-12

Engage Secondary English Language Arts students with Helios (or Sol in Roman mythology) — the Titan god of the sun. He is the son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, and the brother of Selene (the moon) and Eos (the dawn). Helios is depicted as a handsome young man with a radiant face and golden hair. He drives a chariot across the sky every day, bringing light to the world.

Use this Digital Download for a Two-day English Language Arts Lesson

Use my tested-in-the-classroom resources with your students to discuss allusions and tropes derived from Helios, the idea of anthropological personification, mythological explanations of natural phenomena, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and more.

Common Core Standards: This resource aligns well with the reading literature standard: "Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment (e.g., Auden’s “Musée des Beaux-Arts” and Breughel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus)."

This Resource Includes the Following Features:

• Available as a printable PDF, Digital Google Slides, and as an Easel Activity and Assessment
• 1 Teacher's Two-day Lesson Calendar
  • With a teacher-tested stamp of approval, follow my suggestions on how to teach the story of Helios. Start with background knowledge, places, and geography, engage students in group reading with custom-made reading cards, and quiz your class with quiz-bowl-style questions. Cap the lesson off with a creative imaginary map project to chart Helios's journey across the Mediterranean.
• Key Characters and Places Worksheet
  • Orient your learners by identifying the story's key characters and geographical location.
• 4 Art + Literature Reading Cards
  • Entry on “Helios” Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
  • Helios — Symbols and Emblems
  • Aphrodite's Curse, Phaëthon, and Text-to-Text and Text-to-World Connections
  • Entry on Colossus of Rhodes (One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World)
• A Bank of 15 Quiz-Bowl-style Questions about Helios and His Myths
  • Test their knowledge with a custom-made question set after your students engage with the reading cards and other supplementary material.
• Frayer Model Vocabulary Cards (with student sample)
  • Frayer models are a way to get kids to think about vocabulary visually in a four-section square —- A square for meaning, one for examples, another for non-examples, and a sketch. It is fantastic to see the work they produce. A great way to decorate your classroom to showcase your kids' vocabulary-in-text understanding.
• Half-Sheet 3-2-1 Exit Ticket
  • Exit tickets are a way to get data about your students' understanding of the lesson right before the class is finished. Collect these exit tickets and quickly see what ideas your students took away from reading and discussing the myth.
• Creative Map Project
  • Explore Greek mythology by imagining the course of Helios's journey with his 4-steed chariot with a creative map project.
  • Includes student-friendly instructions, project objectives, a rubric, and a pre-made map!
• Further Reading List
  • Consider this further reading list if you think it is merely a bibliography. Share the list with your students or have them do projects based on the available research.
• Answer Keys for all student-facing documents
  • Teachers always ask for answer keys for my products, so I gave you plenty of guidance on what to expect from students in their written and oral responses.
• Standards Alignment Chart (Common Core, TEKS, VA SOL)

I created this resource with secondary students in mind. It is designed for an English Language Arts Mythology unit —

• For any myth-related unit!
• On the Greek and Roman Pantheon — including the Titans, and the Olympians.
• Use this resource as a stand-alone lesson or pair it with a larger unit on Myth, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Robert Graves's Greek Myths, Edith Hamilton's Mythology, or Parallel Myths by J.F. Bierlein.

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