8/26/2016

So even though PBJ Time was a complete failure, we still have to know the material. So, I taught you the pictures that I drew for PBJ Time. I explained what each picture meant, and even acted a few things out. Apparently after today, I was trending on Twitter. :p

riley pbj review

So here are my index cards! These pictures, along with the audio explanation of the drawings, can be found in Blackboard! One thing that I added this year was a drawing of a bottle of Scope, to represent the bards or scops. Since they told the stories orally, I explained that the mouthwash was there to remind them of that. Also Scope looks like scop, so hopefully that will be a reminder if scop is used on the test instead of bard.

Afterwards, we worked on our Epic Dudes.

epic dude notes

On Monday, there will be an altered schedule (no first period! no late arrival!) because of computer roll out.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for making the move to Klein Oak so easy!

8/25/2016

Happy birthday Douglass! August 25th babies are the best! 🙂

For the first time in ten years, my Peanut Butter Jelly Activity failed. I know! I was so shocked, I couldn’t believe it! When I saw it happening with 2nd period, I just assumed that it because my students were off task. And you guys *know* I hate time wasters. So I scolded them, perhaps a little unfairly (I’ll apologize tomorrow, I promise).

So, while second and third period muddled through teaching each other PBJ Time, we grouped and did something different for the rest of the day.

We reviewed epic heroes by reading notes and watching The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny. This is one of those activities that at first glance, doesn’t have much to do with an academic English class, let alone Beowulf! But we used that silly, fun video to find elements of the epic hero cycle. I’m confident that students will remember Chuck Norris descending from the Heaven easier than they’ll remember the textbook definition of divine intervention.

epic1

epic2

 

We then worked on the Epic Dude. Using our notes, find an epic hero and fill out the template. If you need to see examples, I have some in class that you can see. :)

 

epic dude notesFor values, think about how does this person/character represent his or her culture’s values. For instance, Steve Jobs may represent the American values of hard work, creativity, innovation, and the desire to be the best.

1/12/2016

Today, we started off watching the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny and I asked each one of you to ponder a specific questions as we watched:

  • Who are the epic people featured in the video?
  • What are the “valorous deeds” that have been accomplished?
  • What are some examples of the supernatural?

If you weren’t here for this, you can do this in Blackboard. I may have to play the video for you if you can’t get to You Tube on your phone.

We then took notes over what an epic is and specifically, what an Epic HERO is. We spent a lot of time talking about the VALUES of an EPIC HERO.

epic1epic2

We then worked on the Epic Dude. Using our notes, find an epic hero and fill out the template. If you need to see examples, I have some in class that you can see. :)

Sentence 1: Describe the person.

Sentence 2: What was/is his/her quest? What was the overarching goal?

Sentence 3: What are the brave events that he/she did? These are the things that helps the hero reach the quest.

Sentence 4: Who does he/she get help from?

Sentence 5: What was the setting that all of this occurred in? What’s the history?

I want you to use a REAL PERSON for this – not a character from television or movies. If you need help finding a person, search for heroes in history. I found loads of web pages with lists of people.

 

8/27/15 – A

We started today off by coloring and labeling this map:Map of British IslesWe are in British literature, and here are the British Isles. I can a dog and pony show that I can show you if you missed this to help you remember it!

We then took notes over what an epic is and specifically, what an Epic HERO is. We spent a lot of time talking about the VALUES of an EPIC HERO.

epic1epic2

We then watched the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny and asked each one of you to ponder a specific questions as we watched:

  • Who are the epic people featured in the video?
  • What are the “valorous deeds” that have been accomplished?
  • What are some examples of the supernatural?

If you weren’t here for this, you can do this in Blackboard. I may have to play the video for you if you can’t get to You Tube on your phone.

We then worked on the Epic Dude. Using our notes, find an epic hero and fill out the template. If you need to see examples, I have some in class that you can see. :)

 

1/26/2015 – A

Hope you guys had a great weekend.

I started today off by talked about how language has changed from the 11th century by showing how the Lord’s Prayer has changed over the centuries. Old English has very little in common with the English that we read/write today.

We then took notes over what an epic is and specifically, what an Epic HERO is. We spent a lot of time talking about the VALUES of an EPIC HERO.

epic1 epic2

We then watched the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny and asked each one of you to ponder a specific questions as we watched:

  • Who are the epic people featured in the video?
  • What are the “valorous deeds” that have been accomplished?
  • What are some examples of the supernatural?

If you weren’t here for this, you can do this in Blackboard. I may have to play the video for you if you can’t get to You Tube on your phone.

We then worked on the Epic Dude. Using our notes, find an epic hero and fill out the template. If you need to see examples, I have some in class that you can see. 🙂

1/27/14

Riley as a CeltWe are moving quickly and assignments may not match up completely in BB since we are cramming two days into one – a few things have been skipped over, so make sure you keeping track of your grades in Gradespeed AND Blackboard!

The first thing we did today was take the Wergild quiz: You can find this in Beowulf: Peanut Butter Jelly Time: Wergild Quiz. It’s worth 30 points and it’s open note, open group, open internet, open OneNote, open poster! You can take it as many times as you want – the point of this is learning how to translate the textbook and the poster into test questions.

Our adventurers came back from their reconnaissance mission tired, but with much knowledge. We learned that there is an old, epic king who is very generous, noble, and honorable who might be willing to help rebuild The Revenge (that’s the name of the ship, remember?). We have to learn what EPIC is before we actually go meet him. So listen up!

To prepare, we watched the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny and wrote a list of five EPIC things that we saw.

Then, we went to Beowulf: Epic Hero and printed the Characteristics of an Epic to OneNote and took notes. You can get this from a neighbor.

We ended the day with Epic Dude. Make sure that you look in BB for the instructions and that you use complete sentences. I don’t need five sentences for each square: I need a total of five sentences.

Epic DudeHopefully, I’ll see everyone tomorrow! Boo for inclement weather days!

1/28/2013

Today, Riley started out today with the Riley Review of Peanut Butter Jelly Time – it was pretty much just a small mini-lecture reviewing all the history bits from last week.

Captain Riley as a Celt

Remember that OLD ENGLISH is not the same thing as ENGLISH.

Our adventurers came back from their reconnaissance mission tired, but with much knowledge. We learned that there is an old, epic king who is very generous, noble, and honorable who might be willing to help rebuild The Revenge (that’s the name of the ship, remember?).

But what does epic mean? We watched The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny and identified what made this ULTIMATE, and then we took notes over an epic. Get those notes from crew member, Zully.

We then worked on the Epic Dude. Using our notes, find an epic hero and fill out the template.

One last bit of great news: ALL of my students have leveled to cabin boy!

IV – 8/31/2012

Since our ship was destroyed by the dragon, we decided to hitch a ride with some Vikings back to Sweden to meet their King – Beowulf. Supposedly, he’s pretty generous and might even give us a ship!

So, on our way to travel to Sweden, we learn a little about this king. WE hear that he is EPIC. Epic? EPIC? What does that mean? I guess we better figure this out before we meet him.

We watched “the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny” and made of  list of of the hard core people and hard core things they did.

THIS WAS EPIC!

To drive home the point, we then highlighted notes from the textbook – called Epic Hero.

We then chose an epic hero from tv, movies, or from real life and filled in the blanks about him/her. Make sure you draw an object in the hand!

Lastly, we wrote an acrostic poem on the back of the Epic Dude that describes elements of an epic poem. Make sure that this information comes from textbook highlights and not over your specific hero. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS.

1/23/2012

We were told that Beowulf is an EPIC HERO, but we don’t really know what that means, so we we tto the textbook to find out. We don’t want to accidentally offend King Beowulf when we meet him to request help to fix our ship.

We read and highlighted information from the textbook about epic heroes. We then created out own “Epic Dude” – think of a hero that is epic and fill in the blanks about him/her. Make sure you draw an object in the hand!

We watched the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny and wrote an acrostic poem on the back of the Epic Dude that describes elements of an epic poem.

Pretty easy day!