Beowulf

Check out this link on recently discovered Anglo Saxon treasure! FUN!

Day 1: Anglo Saxon Culture:  Anticipation guide for the Anglo Saxons Powerpoint. Works as BDA (before, they guess – access prior knowledge; during ppt, they pay attention and make corrections – engagement; after, they will break in to small groups or we will go over as a class to double check their answers to make sure they have correct info.).

We will then discuss (and read aloud!) from the Language Change handout (borrowed from another online source, but cannot place it. I apologize, but this is not my own work.)

H/W: Read the Prologue (Raffel), fill out Double Entry journal

Day 2: Share DEJ responses; teacher feedback/commentary

Listen to Beowulf in Old English (project so students can see how it looks!)

Pass out Guided Notes handout & go to computer lab; use Interactive w/ Overview, Language, Poetics, & Translations (readwritethink)to answer.

Journal (writer’s notebook): “Beowulf was passed down through oral tradition (scops). The story was set in 6th century Scandanavia yet was not written down. Its origins are pagan yet the Christian tradition is found throughout the text. Essentially, this recorded version is a pagan story being told through a Christian lens. How do you think this effects the text?”

H/W: read p. 39-46 in text book (“Wrath of Grendel” & “The Coming of Beowulf”)

The following is under construction!

Monster Activities, hand out Monster Project *IDEA: adapt pic of monster to “Wanted Poster”?*

Hero Activities

“Fights” – Students will make a poster sized comic strip depicting details of the major battle scenes and present them to the class.

Monster Projects due; Write hero’s eulogy for Beowulf.

Review for Test, Test

Translation comparison activity

Powerpoint I’m considering re: Anglo Saxons (background)

Teacher Reflections:

Beowulf was good because it was more creative and lax than future units.  An excellent way to start the year.  We discussed modern superheroes versus Beowulf and their qualities.  Chuck Norris was included each time, which cracked me up, and happened to support the idea that Beowulf refuses to use weapons unless he has a good justification.  I thought these kids would be too young to know who he is!  Students also made a comic strip depicting the fight scenes (in groups), wrote and presented a hero’s eulogy for his death, and finally created a visual depiction of one of the monsters while writing a creative retelling of the story from that monster’s point of view.  (Thanks to Susan Morton or Tim Dilg for that one!  Not sure who I stole it from!)