Monthly Archives: September 2014

9/17/14 – A

by

We added to the foldable today. If you missed today or didn’t get it all written down, make sure you get the information either from my foldable or from a classmates.

We watched a clip from Secondhand Lions (one of my favorite movies) and talked about how Beowulf is now old, but he’s still strong and capable.

we read The Last Battle, The Spoils, and the Farewell today.

We also finished the last section of Legowulf and watched a video about Antoine Dodson and watched the Mead Hall Intruder – a student created parody over Beowulf’s first battle with Grendel.

Then, I had my classes come up with textual questions over Beowulf to ask me. If you could stump me with the question, I’d give the class an extra point. 1st block ended up getting 6 (!) points by asking really detailed questions. 2nd block kept trying to cheat (and some didn’t even ask me questions!) and they only got 2.5 points.

Tomorrow? We start watching the 13th Warrior!

9/16/14 – A

by

Today, we started out by adding to our foldable and then we watched two Legowulf summaries.

Then, we read The Monster’s Lair and The Battle with Grendel’s Mother. Renee took a really cute picture of me and Osvaldo with our pencils.

Then, we worked on Sell that Swamp – which can be found in BB. We used the following passage from Beowulf as guidance:

swamp

9/15/14 – A

by

HAR is a Houston real estate site where you can look for homes to buy or lease.

I want you to use the search feature and find three homes in your zip code: one home under 120,000, one home under 200,000, and one home over 200,000.

When you are done with that, I gave you yet another shut up and work day. Progress report grades are due tomorrow, so if you get late work turned in, I can’t promise that it will be graded, but I will at least take the zero off for you.

9/12/14 – A

by

Today was just a shut up and work day.

We have THREE big things due today:

The Foil Flip Doll, The Metaphorical Response (which I cut), and the Beo-Boast.

If you turn something in over the weekend, I will not take late points off. If you turn it by Monday, it will be graded in time for the progress reports.

I also deconstructed MY Beo-Boast to help you write yours.kenning

9/9/14 – A

by

Ahoy, mateys! Today, we started off class by filling out the What I’m Good At table. You can find this BB > Beowulf > Beo-Boast. Don’t worry about complete.

This is mine. You can write yours either in a Word document and turn that in, or you can just write your notes in the Comment section of the drop bop.

Then, we read The Coming of Beowulf. Remember, I gave you MY copy with notes so that you could attention and follow, not so you could zone out. We never read for all 80 minutes and we take lots of connection breaks, so when we are reading, I need you to be with me. It’s the Riley Show!

The instructions are in Beo-Boast, along with one of Beowulf’s boasts, a boast that someone wrote about Donald Trump, and a boast that I wrote about myself. I also put in boasts from two former students: Amber and Mayra. Amber has a great vocabulary and wrote using antiquated language. She went above and beyond what I asked. Mayra had a great, original opening and used good vocabulary, but this might be a little more accessible to you.

I also showed you guys how I organized MY poem, and then I gave you a simple outline of what you could do if you were struggling with your boast.

Here is what I drew on the board for you –

 structures

Another idea that you can use instead of a threat is a promise – a promise to your future or your enemies.

The one in black is MY structure and the one in brown is a suggested one (follow this form to boast about what you overcame at your home campus, all the changes that you’ve made here at Vistas, and then what goals you have (graduation and/or career goals). This will be due at the end of the week.

9/11/14 – A

by

Today, we added more to our foldable, read The Battle with Grendel, and worked. We have three things due tomorrow: The Foil Flip Doll, The Metaphorical Response, and the Be0-Boast. I cut the Beo-Boast in half – you have to do Beowulf, Grendel, Hrothgar, Herot, and the Mood of the Poem.

9/10/14 – A

by

We added a bit to our foldable this morning.

Today, we watched an epic rap battle between Dr. Seuss and Shakespeare. This was similar to the “battle” between Beowulf and Unferth. When rappers today have “beef” and battle it out in their music, this comes from the Anglo-Saxon tradition of flyting. Seriously. Check it out on Wikipedia!

We read Unferth’s challenge and watched Strindberg and Helium cartoons. You can watch these cartoons in BB – under the Foil Folder in Beowulf. Helium is Stringberg’s foil – he is so happy and cheerful that he makes Strindberg seem even more depressed.

Instructions for the Foil Flip Doll:

Cut the dude and the two bibs out.

Put the main character on the front flap and write a really good description of him or her.

Do the same with the second character.

On the last flap, put a definition of  foil and explain why these two are foils.

____ is so ____ that he makes ___ seem even more ___.

9/8/14 – A

by

Today we started reading Beowulf. We will read just one section a day, so that means if you find the poem boring (I didn’t write it – it doesn’t hurt my feelings!), I won’t commit readicide on you by making you read for all 80 minutes of class. You can thank me later.

Today, we skimmed the background notes and read The Wrath of Grendel. If you weren’t here, you missed watching me jump on desk growling and you missed me harassing students with “Grendel”. Read this on your own and be familiar with it.

Then, we played a game called Tribond. We were given 3 different pictures of unrelated objects and we had to figure out what they all three had in common. If you liked playing this game, here is a new puzzle for each day!

Then, I explained why we played that game: the Metaphorical Response! A metaphor is a comparison between two UNLIKE things.

From Metaphor Examples:

A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things not using the word “like” or “as” to make the comparison.  The greater the difference between the two things being compared, the better the metaphor. For example, if one were to say that “Football is baseball,” that would not be a good metaphor, because football and baseball are both sports.  However, if one were to say that “football is chess,” that would generally be considered a better metaphor because there is a greater difference between football and chess than football and baseball.

That webpage has fifty good examples of metaphors, like this: The typical teenage boy’s room is a disaster area.

So, you’ll be finding a metaphor for the ten elements on the worksheet and explaining it. If you need help, check out the example in LMS.

You only need to have ONE quote – not two or three like the example shows.

Just make sure that you use good metaphors.

For example (and don’t use this one), Grendel is nasty. No one likes him. No one wants him around, but no one can stop him.

Column 1:  Grendel is like a SBD (silent but deadly fart).

Column 2: SBD farts are silent and sneak up on you. They are very powerful, and take down everyone within sniffing zone.

Column 3: Grendel is very strong, and no one can defeat him. No one likes him, no one wants him around, but no one can figure out how to deal with him or get rid of him. Anyone who goes up against him, is destroyed.

Column 4: One quote that proves your comparison. Since we used a PDF file for Beowulf, you can’t copy and paste, so you’ll need to type it manually.

Note: We are going to shorten this assignment!