Guilty or not guilty? That is the question 10th grade English honor students of W226 are trying to answer in their mock trial case of “The Odyssey.” Students prepare to take on the roles of the prosecuted, prosecutors, lawyers and witness while researching and finding evidence to build their case. Irene Tanaka, 10th grade English and Honors Teacher, is the brains behind it all. Having done this for four years, this year will become the fifth. As the trial comes on April 29, May 1 and May 6, students choose their roles and prepare cases. And once the day of the trial arrives, students take to the stands of the classroom to settle the score.

“They have to show me understanding of character analysis, the TED Talk mannerisms they learned in quarter 2 and research skills which they did in quarter 1,” Tanaka said. “They also need to demonstrate group work and the things that you don’t learn out of a book, like how to work together as a team and how to help each other out.”

Tanaka started with an idea during a crime scene investigation (CSI) unit in the pandemic for a different Greek tragedy “Antigone”. She received positive feedback from her students as they said it was good, but wanted to see what happened after they did the police report. Tanaka used to be part of mock trials back in high school, so she called up her old mock trial coach who then gave her ideas on how to conduct the mock trial for her classes.

“I thought it would be a good way for students to exercise knowledge on what it takes to persuade, argue and defend a point of view,” Tanaka said.

Tanaka chose “The Odyssey” as opposed to other Greek Myths such as “The Twelve Labors of Heracles” because it is easier to focus on since it only has one main character; “The Twelve Labors of Heracles” on the other hand had too many side characters and side quests.

“I felt that if we put Heracles on trial, then there would be too many charges against him,” Tanaka said.

Students learned about the judicial system. Tanaka said they go through direct examination, cross examination, how to object to the other side and how to protect the witness without seeming hostile to the other side. Tanaka said she thinks the challenge for students is building the case together.

“To work together to build a solid case is a skill you just don’t need for a classroom, but also for a work environment or in life in general,” Tanaka said. “You’re never really going to be working by yourself on anything unless, it’s a hobby.”

Based on students’ readiness, Tanaka started off this quarter with reading “The Trojan War” while talking about the hero’s journey. Afterwards, she had them read “The Odyssey.” Tanaka also had her students watch the film on their own, take notes on the significance of each character and do side research on characters that weren’t in the films but in the myths.

Tanaka said all of that would be stage one. Stage two would be preparation.

In stage 2, students sign up for roles, prepare their cases, do research and get text evidence from either the written myth or the film; basing their testimony for their characters. Students can sign up to be different characters from the myth or be lawyers for the characters. Tanaka said if there was just bailiff and jury, too many students would choose jury, because they think that’s doing nothing.

“When I was in 11th grade there were lots of projects, socratic seminars and presentations,” Tanaka said. “I wanted to make sure students were comfortable speaking and looking for text evidence to back up their evidence.”

Tanaka said she had to strategically choose characters that would help students who were more introverted and needed a bit of structure. By choosing a character from the myth it gives students a parameter on how to act and what to say. Students who are more extroverted, could become a lawyer for a character and guide them on what they need to say during the trial.

“The year immediately after the pandemic (c/o ‘24), they had Odysseus and they almost won their case, but prosecution couldn’t get Telemachus [Odysseus son] to say the key point of evidence that they needed to win the case,” Tanaka said. “I was sitting there waiting for this piece of evidence to come up because it was obvious to me, like, you have to get them to say this, and they couldn’t get them to say it.”

Hayun Kim (c/o ‘26), a past honor student of Tanaka, found it a new experience. At the time Kim was in mock trial, so despite not doing any of the competitions for mock trial, it helped her practice a little.

“It was very fun to do it in [Tanaka’s] class,” Kim said.

Kim was a lawyer with her goal of memorizing the objections and protecting her client. Kim said she enjoyed objecting people and seeing her teammates be happy. During the trials, Kim was nervous, but was glad once it was over.

“In the end I really learned how to fight for what I believe,” Kim said.

Jeighna Raphalea Diaz (c/o ‘26), another past student of Tanaka, played the role of the cyclops from the myth, Polyphemus. Diaz worked with her lawyer to gather evidence and build a case. Diaz said to give enough time for the lawyer to object.

“You had to trust your lawyer to know who they were representing,” Diaz said.

During Diaz’s cases, she was to defend the fact that she (the cyclops) ate all of Odysseus’s men and trapped him in his cave arguing for self defense because Odysseus’s men came into his home and stabbed his eye.

“Out of three cases we won two,” Diaz said. “The one case we didn’t win, we weren’t able to prove that it was self-defense.”

Diaz said she learned to get over her stage fright since everyone’s eyes were on her and learned how to speak clearly because everything someone said in court is going to be written down and documented.

“I also learned how to be patient because sometimes the opposition’s lawyers are trying to get a reaction out of you,” Diaz said. “You can’t show it because it’ll weaken you.” 

Diaz found the work fun rather than hard, as she went to work with other different people and it was like an episode from “Law and Order,” a show about detectives and prosecutors pursuing justice in New York City.

“You just need to know what you’re defending and know the general story or direction, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to get it at all,” Kim said. 

Diaz said Tanaka gave the option for students to dress up as their characters during the trials. Since Diaz played the role of a cyclops which only had one eye, she used a band-Aid on her forehead and a red marker on top of it.

“It gives the other side the sense of, oh, this is the character speaking. Not the student,” Tanaka said.

Diaz said some other student brought a white blanket as a cloak or dress.

“There was an Odysseus in my class that was getting super riled up and into the stuff,” Diaz said. “He actually stood up and Tanaka told him to sit back down.” 

Diaz was going to be a part of the trials this year as a jury for the 4th period honors class. Tanaka said that this is going to be the first year of having returning students participate in being a jury for her 4th or 6th period honor class. Tanaka said it might be a good way to show the 10th graders what the 11th graders have already done, and hoping for a more fair jury since they’ve experienced the whole trial.

“They can see based on their own experience what the 10th graders are presenting,”Tanaka said.

Diaz said for future 10th grade honor students to make sure to have some kind of communication with their partner, to think ahead and to not procrastinate.

“[Tanaka] does give you a lot of time to prepare for trial. Making use of that time would give you a lot of advantage within the trial,” Kim said. “Just do your best and don’t procrastinate like I did.”

“Students seem to be really scared of doing it at first, but as they go on, I think they’re more interested in who said what? What’s the verdict?” Tanaka said. “Since this is the fifth year we had three guilty and one not guilty.”

As the trial came to a close, Tanaka debriefed with the jury members, discussing whether the students were able to argue for Odysseus’ innocents; also they also discussed the charges and prepared feedback for the students. Tanaka said that in both classes Odysseus was found guilty of trespassing into Polyphemus’ home, guilty of assault of Polyphemus which left him blind and not guilty of 1st degree murder of the suitors in his place.

“[The 1st degree murder] is the hardest to prove intent,” Tanaka said. “Connection between intent and the act itself was not proven.”

Period four had a good line of questioning, but wasn’t unable to make the connection. Instead of making the connection and pursuing their line of questioning, they just let it drop. Period six on the other hand had questions, but didn’t use their evidence sufficiently.

“The teamwork angle for one the class was a little bit iffy, but when they did the reflection afterwards they did recognize that, and they know how they have to work together a little bit more when they’re working on projects,” Tanaka said.

Tanaka said during one of the trials a student who played Antinous, one of the suitors, got cornered in the questioning.

“He said ‘Oh, you know I just did it for fun. It was a joke guys!’ when being questioned about the slaughter of the suitors.”

Tanaka said for any incoming freshmen going into 10th grade Honors English should remember the class is heavy in interaction, and should expect to not be working on their own all the time. Tanaka also said they should be able to know their classmates and work with their classmates, as for next year Tanaka will be holding the mock trial again during the 4th quarter.

“It was a successful unit. I hope the students enjoyed it.”