Holy Cross students brought ancient Greek civilization to a Worcester middle school spring semester, in an effort to introduce young students to the field of classics.
“We want to bring Latin, Greek and ancient culture and history into the lower grades and make it more engaging,” said Isabelle Jenkins ’10, director of the College’s Donelan Office of Community-Based Learning.
Students in the College’s Greek 102 class taught a section of the state’s Greek civilization curriculum to 25 sections of seventh graders at Worcester East Middle School.
To prepare, students met with Colleen Kelly ’94, Worcester Public Schools academic liaison for history and social sciences, to learn more about the middle school students and discuss how to incorporate state academic standards into their lessons. They then worked with Marybeth Cashman ’05, director of the Holy Cross Teacher Education Program (TEP), and her TEP students to create classroom plans and workshop how to engage with different types of learners.
As an added bonus, the middle school students also got the opportunity to ask their Holy Cross counterparts about their college experience: how they got to college and what they could do with a degree in classics.
“For them to hear it from students closer to their age was incredibly impactful,” Kelly said.