Epic Poetry Unit for High School: A 2-Week Plan (Grades 9–12)

Epic Poetry Unit for High School: A 2-Week Plan (Grades 9–12)

Epic poetry is one of the best vehicles for high-level ELA skills—theme development, character motivation, structure, and evidence-based argument. It’s also one of the easiest units to derail if students feel lost in the structure or overwhelmed by the reading load.

This 2-week unit plan is designed to be simple, repeatable, and flexible. You can run it with any major epic text (or a curated set of episodes) while keeping discussion and writing rigorous.

Core unit goals (keep these visible)

  • Students can explain what makes an epic different from other narratives.
  • Students can analyze a hero’s choices and consequences using evidence.
  • Students can track theme development across episodes (not just within one scene).
  • Students can speak and write in accountable, text-grounded ways.

Choose your “anchor text” (four strong options)

  • The Odyssey (temptation, identity, leadership, homecoming)
  • The Iliad (honor culture, rage, war ethics, grief)
  • Beowulf (hero code, legacy, leadership)
  • The Aeneid (duty, fate, civic identity, sacrifice)

Two-week schedule (10 class days)

Week 1

  • Day 1: What is an epic? Conventions + evidence marks (choice + consequence).
  • Day 2: Epic hero cycle checklist + apply to an early episode.
  • Day 3: Temptation test: identify the temptation, the justification, and the cost.
  • Day 4: Leadership and community: who suffers, who benefits, who follows?
  • Day 5: Seminar #1: “What is the hero’s defining trait—and what does it cost others?”

Week 2

  • Day 6: Structure: how episodes build an argument about human nature.
  • Day 7: Theme tracking across multiple moments (students build a 3-scene theme chain).
  • Day 8: Justice vs revenge: how the epic frames “right action.”
  • Day 9: Writing day: argument paragraph with evidence + explanation + counterclaim.
  • Day 10: Seminar #2 + reflection: “What kind of leader does this text endorse?”

Essential questions (choose 2–3 for the whole unit)

  • What does the text suggest a community owes its leader—and what a leader owes the community?
  • When does strength become a weakness?
  • How does temptation function as a test of identity?
  • What does the epic treat as “justice,” and who gets harmed by that definition?

Simple assessment ladder (keeps grading manageable)

  • Daily: one claim + one evidence detail + one consequence explanation
  • Weekly: seminar score (evidence use + clarity + responsiveness)
  • Final: argument paragraph or short essay using 2–3 scenes as evidence

If you want the unit to stay unified across mixed reading levels

Epic units often collapse because reading load isn’t flexible. If you want a consistent dual-track approach across multiple foundational texts, explore the complete bundle here: 8 Differentiated Ancient & Medieval Western Literature Study Guides (Bundle).

Related texts in the same system (for quarter planning)

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