Beowulf

=**Beowulf: Ideas for Teaching and Practice** = Wiki by: Erika Patrick



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= = **Lesson Plans**

 1. [| Teaching the Epic through Ghost Stories] By using "ghost stories," this lesson allows students to gain a better grasp on oral story telling and further motivates them to gain interest in Beowulf.

 2.  [| An Introduction to Beowulf: Language and Poetics] This lesson gives students a background on language, which includes the relationship between Old, Middle and Modern English. It also gives students an introduction of Beowulf along with its language and poetics of the poem.

 3. [|Beowulf as a Case Study] This lesson gives students a glimpse into different interpretations and translations and how to decide why they are different. Students are able to share their ideas with the class, and it will allow them to see the decisions that translators make with different works.

 4. [|Looking for the Byronic Hero Using Twilight's Edward Cullen] Students will make comparisons between modern heroes and villains, traditional heroes and villains, and all of them in between. The heroes and villains in Beowulf are different to those that are in Batman; students will be able to create a project (book cover, photo album, or essay) that compares and contrasts the two and better understand characters.

 5. [|Beowulf Lesson Plans] This is a site full of lesson plans that contains useful notes to review, and it contains engaging lessons that will keep a student's interest throughout the teaching of Beowulf.

 The following links are to Beowulf study guides that contain not only figures and tables, but also useful techniques and activities to engage students with the text.
 * Handouts and Anticipation/Study Guides**

 1. [|Beowulf Anticipation + Study Guide]

 2. Glencoe.com

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;"> 3. [|Beowulf Study Guide - studyguide.org]

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 82.8%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 81%;">4. [|The hero connection: From Beowulf to Batman] This type of guide can will go well with number four under "lesson plans."

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 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;">Assessments **

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 83.72%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;"> 1. [|Beowulf Quiz] This quiz will be a very good way of practicing for future tests, and can can also be graded. The quiz offers many insightful questions to get students thinking!

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 74.52%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;"> 2. [|Beowulf: Still a Hero]

This Web site is more useful for teachers. They offer everything from journal entries to exams, and anything in between; students will definitely be challenged and show their hard work in some of these activities.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 74.52%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;"> 3. [|Study Questions on Beowulf]

"Study questions" is also a good site for both teachers and students; teachers may be able to use similar questions instead of taking them directly from the site, and students will be able to use this site as a review.

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 * Videos**

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 92%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 81%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 72.9%;">1. [|Modern interpretation of Beowulf] Modern-day movie of Beowulf; the online version does not always work so renting it may be a better option.

2. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 81%;"> Another way of incorporating film into the classroom is just by renting the movie and allowing the students to watch it. As they watch, have them compare and contrast the modern-day version with the traditional epic poem; they will eventually put it into essay form. After the essays are written, the students will present them to the class.

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 * Full Text, Overview and Analysis**

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 74.52%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;"> The following Web sites are given to show the three different ways of using the text: modern-day text, audio recording, and text in Old English.

1. [|Every Poet.com - Beowulf Full Text]

2. [|Seamus Heaney's AUDIO RECORDING of excerpts from Beowulf]

3. [|Beowulf in Old English]

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 74.52%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;"> 4. [|Beowulf overview and background] <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 67.068%; text-align: left;">This site has an extensive overview and background of Beowulf. Sometimes students become more motivated after knowing the background information and the necessary facts prior to reading the story, or in this case, poem.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 82.8%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 90%;">5. [|A Critical Analysis of Beowulf] This critical analysis can help students when they are struggling with their assessments (papers, exams, etc.), and can even be used as a study guide.

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 * Related Studies**

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 70.0488%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> 1.[| Modern movie interpretation of Beowulf] This website can be used to get more acquainted with the newer version of Beowulf, which can be used in the classroom to compare the versions of Beowulf.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 94%; text-align: left;"> 2. [|"What good is Beowulf?"] I chose this article to obviously show the different opinions on Beowulf: was he good or was he bad? Students can show their advanced techniques to analyze the actual text from this article.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 92%; text-align: left;"> 3. [|Grendel's Story] Grendel by John Gardner is a book that tells Grendel, the monster's side of the story. In the past, when students read through Beowulf, they wanted to know more about Grendel and his mother, but until now there has never been a book that does just that. If students were to read this book, they would be forced to think critically and essentially choose a side. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 81%; text-align: left;">