Leda and the Swan Lesson | Greek and Roman Mythology Series Grades 8-11 ELA

Who is Leda? The Swan? Is Zeus involved? How is Helen of Troy part of this story? Figure it out with this educational digital download. Look at the “Further Reading Guide” to supplement this lesson with myth-related books, websites, and articles.

This Resource Includes the Following Features:

• Available as a PDF, Google Slides
• 1 Teacher Three-day Lesson Calendar (with Teacher’s Notes)
• 1 Key Characters and Places Anchor Chart
  • Orient your learners by identifying the key characters and the geographical location that situate Leda and the Swan in Sparta and the surrounding Mediterranean region. Includes a map activity!
• 2 Reading Cards:
  • Leda and the Swan: The Different Variations of the Myth
  • Leda and the Swan: Art and Literature Connections
  • Includes a Student-Friendly Reading Protocol.
• 15-Count Question Bank
  • Check for understanding with a quick and adaptable question bank.
  • Includes a Custom Note-taking template to ensure student accountability!
• Frayer Model Vocabulary Cards
  • 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 amazing to see the work they produce. A great way to decorate your classroom to showcase your kids’ vocabulary-in-text understanding. The cards contain terms, geography, and challenging words (as well as contextual entries that fit the story).
• 1 Half-Sheet 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 your students have learned. I also provide two different tickets to offer academic choices for students.
• Writing Activity
  • The writing activity is a summative assessment, asking students to trace differences in the myth’s various versions and provide a literary analysis. Includes a grading rubric and sample answer set.
• 1 Further Reading List
  • Don’t disregard 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. Assign different sources to students and organize presentations where learning can go deeper into the story.
• 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, VA SOL, and TEKS)

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

• Encourage students to talk about animals in literature, metamorphoses, gender roles, men and women relationships, and how myths can be syncretic (i.e., how ancient stories are amalgamated from different cultures and times).
• Use this resource as a stand-alone lesson or pair it with a larger unit on early Greek myths, primordial stories, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Robert Graves’s Greek Myths, or Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.