Classical Greek GCSE

[SwimmingInTheWineDarkSea]

Wondering if there is anyone here either with a young person studying GCSE Classical Greek - or perhaps teaching / tutoring it themselves?

Thx.

I plan on tutoring mine for gcse (home ed, he is currently 6, but maybe start Latin at 8 and see how he gets on).

I did it at a level and relatives did it as a degree.

Plan on using Athenaze - which was what I did at school, but now looks like they have a new edition (which I haven’t read). Story based - so quite a nice intro.

I think there is a newer course called Greek to gcse. This web page has quite a few books. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/academic/academic-subjects/classical-studies-and-archaeology/ancient-greek-language-and-grammar/?pg=5

Many thanks. The reason I’m asking is because I (as an adult) was supposed to be doing the exams this year - but obviously that went sideways. I’m re-entered for next year. We were trying to cover the ground pretty quickly, so to be honest another year is better.

We were using a combination of Bloomsbury’s books (John Taylor and others) and my tutor’s copious grammatical notes which he produces himself. I have the Usher, Hillard & Botting etc. However, for various reasons, I am now without a tutor. This is fine as far as the language goes - I’ll manage - and we spent quite a lot of time on the Herodotus. I suspect, however, that the Homer (Iliad book 3) is going to be a weaker point. I have my tutor’s grammatical notes - and I’ve also bought the Bowie book on Iliad 3. I’m just wondering what schools use - on this specifically, or indeed any other background info on Homer. Can I ask what texts you did for A-level?

It’s possible I’m over-thinking this. I do already have a literature degree, so it’s possible I’m looking for information that just isn’t necessary for 15 year olds. My tutor said that many candidates just learn the set texts off by heart.

I will have a look through the full Bloomsbury list. I haven’t used Athenaze, but the other person who was studying with me used it in another group. She quite liked it as a language aid - but I guess it isn’t tailored to the exam in the same way as the Taylor book.

I think 8 is a good age for the Latin. I know a local school that starts it in Juniors. Minimus the mouse always looks quite fun.

Many thanks.

Hehe - it was so long ago I forgot my set texts! Tbh - the set texts for a level all merged together as gcse, as level and a level were pretty similar in format and 1 after the other. Usher - that’s the one I forgot about!

A selection of set texts over the 3 exam years: philoctetes (Sophocles), Iphigenia in tauris, plato’s republic, one of the books of the Iliad.

As a basic, learn the set texts by heart as it is easy points to pick up on the Lit paper. Look at past papers. I think at gcse the questions were targeted on - showing that you know the rest of the set text/story AND also that you could spot constructions for emphasis eg chiasmus, putting things at the beginning of the line, lots of ‘p’ sounds like feet running etc.

Remember this is gcse. State the obvious first before diving into some complex imagery etc.

For a level there was a marked difference between exam boards (I did aqa latin AS but OCR Greek). Aqa questions were shorter and simpler, ocr had longer, more essay-like questions. The grade boundaries may have been quite different though, and it was a good 15-20 years ago!

Ps - if I remember correctly athenaze book 2 (old version) had a selection from the lysistrata at the end - which was quite fun as a teenager.

Good luck!

I'd think about learning it the reverse way round - ie getting the Loeb version of the Illiad and trying to translate/looking at the translation either to check or to help if you can't translate and then decipher what you got wrong and why - got me through at university (with an A level but a lot of texts to work through without being taught them formally).

Otherwise you might have a look at the online courses run by CIty Lit as they might have something suitable.www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/languages/classical-languages/classical-and-new-testament-greek?gclid=CjwKCAjw8MD7BRArEiwAGZsrBUOAXAPJVlVzWrzqXYWaxCJTF5ZqJYhSHkFVq1bVJacfzmpgAqyZixoC78kQAvD_BwE

I taught Greek to A Level and often used resources from ZigZag Education. I see they don't have any resources for Greek any more, but I could send you a few pages from the various packs I've had over the years just so you can get an idea of the level of analysis needed.

My son’s school uses Taylor for the language. Everyone learns the set text at gcse (ie memorises it, rather actually be Abel to translate it) but maybe if you are doing it for fun you want to aim higher! I don’t know what resources there are for that (for the literature commentary bits I mean )

My DD did OCR Classical Greek and Latin for GCSE and has started both for A level.
She used the Taylor books for Greek language and is continuing with them for A level.
One set text is Euripides, Medea and she’s been translating extracts from that.
She has OCR Classical Greek Anthology for As and A level and there is a GCSE version which may be of use?
She agrees with Londonmummy66 suggestion to start translating the extracts from Homer.