Preparing Plutarch for Groups or a Co-Op

I’ve chatted about Plutarch a couple of times on this blog. First I shared “Beginning Considerations of Plutarch” in which we discussed the importance of educating the parent.

Then I shared, what I hope is a living idea about why we should read Plutarch and the ancient works in a blog post relating it all to The Hunger Games.

Now, we’re going to talk about moving from beginning considerations and the why of Plutarch into the how of Plutarch.

Who Was Plutarch?

Plutarch was a Greek historian who lived around. 45-120 C.E. He is considered to be one of the first biographers and recorded the lives to Ancient Greek and Romans which later became books titled “Plutarch’s Lives”.

Why do we read Plutarch?

Studying Plutarch is often done in a Charlotte Mason or Classical educational setting as a character and citizenship course. Plutarch presents the lives of each Greek and Roman citizen he wrote about in a relatively unbiased way. He never shares his opinions on the actions of a person. This allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about the person’s character. Where they noble? Kind? A tyrant?
The writings of Plutarch is done in relatively disconnected way, so rather than reading like a long detailed biography, you get short glimpses into the person’s life. Plutarch is writing to tell a theme story. Typically you can sum up the person in a single adjective.
Alcibiades, the Atheiean statesman and general, is brave, but there is so much nuance in his life.

What does Charlotte Say?

Mason began the study of Citizenship in form 2b, around 4th grade. Students in this year read Stories from the History of Rome by Mrs. Beesley. This is an area where Amblesideonline has differed. Their Plutarch study begins in year 4 however, Stories of Rome isn’t read until year 6.
Later, in form 2a, 5th grade, Mason had her students read a Plutarch life every term until they graduates around 10th grade. Typically students would work through 15 Plutarch lives over the course of their education.

Sound overwhelming? It doesn’t have to be.

Plutarch For Groups:

This past year I taught Plutarch with a group of form 2 students for our co-op. After a year of flying solo with my daughter, having Plutarch in a group setting was a sigh of relief. Suddenly there were other minds coming to the text. Minds that thought of things we hadn’t and offered interesting ideas. Plutarch, in my opinion, is done best when it’s in a group setting.

What I Used:

-Ann E. White’s Plutarch Books
-Plutarch Guide from Little World Wanderers
-Pencils
-A Map
-A White board
-A Century Chart

In order to keep with the short lessons, we had 20 minutes for Plutarch, which didn’t leave a lot of room to read together. Reading assignments were assigned for homework and each student did a written narration to bring to our lesson.

Lesson Structure:

-Narration Share: At the beginning of each lesson I would ask my students to share their narration with the group. Usually the first person who shared set the pace and I asked the rest of the group to fill in other areas, specifically, if they could narrate something that hadn’t been said. One area of difficulty in this practice was kids learning not to interrupt one another out of excitement.

-Introduce Vocabulary: After doing our narrations and discussing the past week’s readings we would go over potentially tricky vocabulary words for the week. In Anne E. White's version of Plutarch's lives, she gives the vocabulary necessary for the understanding of the lesson. Many of these words are not able to be inferred from the text and do need some context or explanation in order to fully understand the text. We simply read the vocabulary list and definitions during the lesson period.

-Character Cards: After talking through the vocabulary, we would talk about new characters that would be in our reading for the next week and fill out the character cards. We would write down known important dates, relationships with other people, or character traits of the person.

-Timeline: While studying Plutarch, it is important to give your students, and yourself points of reference in history. During the lessons we would write down any necessary dates in your book of centuries and timeline, like birth dates and dates of death.Sometimes it was also be important to reference any influential wars that are occurring during this period. Ancient Greek and Roman times were particularly marred by war and political lines changed often.

-Map Drills: Because many of Plutarch lives span many different areas of the Ancient Greek and Roman worlds. Since many of these places mentioned in Plutarch look different today, we would reference various locations on the map and then make note of in on the blank maps included in their guides.

-Leave them inspired and homework: After all of this, it would be time to wrap up our lesson for the week. I would usually give a short narration about an interesting part of our next reading. I would then let the students know what reading would be expected of them for the following week.

At the end of the year we did a creative narration project in which the students prepared a scene from the life we read and presented it in a creative way. Some of the projects included:
-A lego scene
-A poster
-A crochet doll
-A model made out of clay

But What If I Don’t Have A Co-op?

Do you have a lot of kids? Plutarch is the wonderful to do in a group setting if possible. If you have children in similar forms, combine them together to do Plutarch as a family. High schoolers down to fourth grade can do Plutarch in a combined lesson and they can all offer insight onto the lesson.

That’s great, but I can’t combine my kids:

Alas, not all of us have children in close grade levels and no options for a co-op. In that case, you, the mother-teacher needs to be an active participant in the Plutarch lessons. This includes keeping your own timeline or century chart, narrations, and character cards.

And as an added bonus:

I’ve written 4 Plutarch guides based on the different Lives. You can find them on the Little World Wanderers units tab.
Try out the first unit, Alcabidies for free. These are perfect for co-op groups or personal use in your homeschool.