King Arthur

Goals for this unit:

 

• Students will make connections, esp text to text
• Students will recognize author’s purpose and credibility (White; students will also consider this when writing This I Believe essays)
• Students will work on monitoring and questioning as reading strategy
• Students will recognize and identify origin of allusions

Products:

 

• Create a resume for leadership for King Arthur
• Write and submit This I Believe Heroes essay
• Allusions list (include origins)
• Fact vs. fiction research (legend & history)

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Guiding Questions and Concepts

 

• Courtly love / Code of Chivalry (create own)
• How do our experiences lead us to be better? / Are all bad experiences bad? Are good experiences always good?
• During our Beowulf unit, we define the epic hero as.. Does the King Arthur legend fit the criteria for this label?

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Year 2009-2010 – King Arthur; Reading The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White 

Day 1:  Finish background film in class.

 

     HW: Read p. 7-26 (ch 1 & 2) and create a character web (consider characterization)

 

 Day 2: Computer lab – “Archeological Quest” (cheesy name for building background information) using these websites: 

 

     Early Arthurian Legend and the Origins of the Legend  ; History, the Legend, and more ; The Characters in various texts  ; “Was King Arthur Really King McArthur?”

 

     Students fill out a T chart from ArtsEdge for information they feel is historical/accurate and information they feel is fictional/based on legend.

 

    Finally, students wrote a blog post examining what they have learned about King Arthur and provide a judgment call regarding what they believe about the origins of the legend.

 

    *Pass out ALLUSIONS assignment due near the end of the unit. (Nov. 11)      HW: Read p. 27-55 (ch 3-6) and continue filling out character webDay 3: SSR; Quiz; Guiding question: How do our experiences affect us?     Quotes from text p. 38 & p. 46 – class discussion     Pass out Experiences log for reading about Wart’s adventures, RESUME assignment (for Arthur as leader) on back

 

     Journal: “It is more secure to be feared than to be loved.” – Niccolo Machiavelli

 

• Students should respond to this quote after reading about the Wart and his experiences with Mr. P.  (“Might is Right”)  They should decide what Wart learned and how he would feel about this quote as an adult, based on our knowledge of the legendary King Arthur.  They should also write whether or not they agree with this statement and why.  After they have written their responses, this will be a topic for discussion.

    HW: Read p. 55-85 (ch. 7-8) (Work on your allusions assignment – don’t get behind!)

 

Day 4: SSR

 

Code of Chivalry Handout 10 Commandments of Chivalry

    HW: Read p. 85-112 (ch. 9-11) (Work on your experiences handout – don’t get behind!)

 

Day 5; SSR; Quiz

 

… To be continued…

 

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For the “Quote Journal ”

 

11/21/08:  American Idiot lyrics – Green Day

 

Students should write about the connections between this song and the chapter where Wart becomes an Ant.  Then, they should try to connect both the chapter and the song to our modern society.

 

  Activities not included in the 09/10 school year:

 

Present your Graphic Organizer.  Here is the RUBRIC for your project.  (I adopted this assignment from another teacher: Graphic Organizer.For next year, I am thinking that maybe I should break the whole book into similar (4 chapters – or perhaps 8 would be better…) sections and assign students to do this project 1-2 times over different sections (dependent on class size) and have them “round robin” teach their group about the section and require them to defend their choice of significant events. I also have a RUBRIC that the other students would fill out.  Students will have to be prepared to discuss whether or not they feel that all of the significant events were included in the project being presented to them.All of the students will still be required to have read the assigned chapters… so I’m not sure if this is considered a “jigsaw” exercise or not.)

 

Medieval Power Point Projects

 

Personal Coat of Arms, and present.   For helpful hints, see Heraldry.

 

“Movies about King Arthur” Handout – watch movie from list and be prepared to discuss in class. Movie List and Movie Discussion Questions.  

 

“Who Was King Arthur?” Handout

 

• Extra Credit: Bring in a significant movie clip from a movie related to King Arthur (see handout)

For webquest-ish activity:

 

FAQ about Arthur and more http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/FAQ-Arthur.htm

 

Specific info and links to texts about characters http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/mainmenu.htm

 

*Link with focus on text to text connections. http://www.d.umn.edu/~lmillerc/TeachingEnglishHomePage/TeachingUnits/alovro.htm