QR Challenge: The Odyssey Book 19-21

Created using the ClassTools QR Treasure Hunt Generator

Teacher Notes

A. Prior to the lesson:

1. Arrange students into groups. Each group needs at least ONE person who has a mobile device.

2. If their phone camera doesn't automatically detect and decode QR codes, ask students to

• Download a QR reader (e.g. I-Nigma | NeoReader | Kaywa) onto their mobile devices
• Bring these devices into the lesson.

3. Print out the QR codes.

4. Cut them out and place them around your class / school.

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B. The lesson:

1. Give each group a clipboard and a piece of paper so they can write down the decoded questions and their answers to them.

2. Explain to the students that the codes are hidden around the school. Each team will get ONE point for each question they correctly decode and copy down onto their sheet, and a further TWO points if they can then provide the correct answer and write this down underneath the question.

3. Away they go! The winner is the first team to return with the most correct answers in the time available. This could be within a lesson, or during a lunchbreak, or even over several days!

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C. TIPS / OTHER IDEAS

4. A detailed case study in how to set up a successful QR Scavenger Hunt using this tool can be found here.

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Questions / Answers (teacher reference)

Question	Answer
1. Question. What happens during Penelope’s and Odysseus’s first private conversation in 20 years?	(Odysseus still is disguised as a beggar and Penelope doesn’t know him. Penelope tells him of her sorrow at losing Odysseus and how she held off the suitors by weaving Laertes’s shroud during the day and unraveling it at night, until she was caught. Odysseus tells her lies about himself, including that he’d seen Odysseus. Penelope tests him by asking what Odysseus was wearing and weeps when he responds correctly. She then announces her plan to hold a tournament of axes the next day. Whoever can string Odysseus’s bow and shoot through all 12 axes will become her new husband.)
2. Question 2. Who is Euryclea? Why is she significant?	(She is Odysseus’s old nurse, from his childhood. When bathing his feet, Euryclea recognizes him because of an old scar on his leg. Euryclea recognizes him and begins to weep but he swears her to secrecy.)2
3. Question3.What kind of person is Penelope? Defend your answers.	(Penelope is dignified and well-spoken, accustomed to honor in her own household. She is kind enough to welcome strangers and offer them the comforts of hospitality. She is resolute and enterprising in trying to hold off the suitors by pretending to be weaving and by devising competitions that no one is able to win. She also is assertive, not afraid to disagree with the suitors who want to deny Odysseus the bow. She’s loving and loyal to her son and defers to him when he orders her to leave the tournament. And she weeps for Odysseus every night though he’s been gone 20 years.)3
4. Question4.How has Telemachus changed since the beginning of The Odyssey?	(At the beginning of The Odyssey, Telemachus was very upset about the situation in his house but fearful of the suitors and afraid to assert himself. With the backing of Athena, he has become more confident and capable. He has traveled to other courts to get news of his father, he has learned to speak up to the suitors, and he now speaks of himself as head of the household. Though still young and inexperienced, he has become Odysseus’s strong ally, assisting him with strategy as well as in battle.)4
5. Question5.What is the setting of the tournament?	(The setting is Odysseus’s palace in Ithaca.)5
6. Question 6.What is Penelope’s and Odysseus’s problems?	(Penelope wants to get rid of the suitors. Odysseus wants to reveal himself and kill them.)6
7. Question 7.What is Penelope’s and Odysseus’s goals?	(Penelope’s goal is to get rid of the suitors by marrying one of them. Odysseus’s goal is to win the tournament, reveal himself, and kill the suitors.)7
8. Question8.What is Event 1?	(Penelope prepares the tournament by having the axes set up. Odysseus prepares for his role by having Telemachus hide the weapons, having Euryclea lock the women in their rooms, and enlisting the help of Eumaeus the swineherd and Philoetius the stockman.)8
9. Question9.What is Event 2?	(Telemachus and all of the suitors fail to string Odysseus’s bow.)9
10. Question10.What is Event 3?	(Eumaeus gives Odysseus the bow, Penelope and Telemachus agree that he can try to string it. Odysseus successfully strings the bow and shoots through all twelve axes.)10
11. Question11.What is the Resolution?	(Telemachus arms himself and positions himself next to his father, ready to kill all of the suitors.)11

 

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