Tag Archives: sell this swamp

9/2/2016

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Hooray for Friday! So, we had all day yesterday to work on our Beo-Boast. If you are still sitting at a line or two, you are going to need to work a little on this at home. We’ll have some time this week to revise and edit (and do he metacognition part), but not longer than 15 or so minutes.

Today, we read two small parts: the Battle with Grendel and the Monster’s Lair (pages 48-52) and then did the Sell this Swamp activity. I showed you the old real estate listing for my old house (right before the bank foreclosed on it!) to show you an example of you can twist negatives into positives. For example, that house was a disaster, but the kitchen is large and spacious, perfect for someone who loves to cook. Yes, the backyard has a mounted deer head deteriorating in the elements showing a bit of the skull, but it’s a large backyard with mature fruit trees!

platz

The instructions (and a few real life real estate examples) can be found in Blackboard > Beowulf> Sell This Swamp.

sell swampYou don’t have write the ENTIRE listing: just the first descriptive paragraph. Try to take at least five negative things and spin them to be positive. I gave two that you could use in class:

  1. You know how Grendel used torn scraps of skin as wallpaper on the walls of his den? You can say that’s “custom leather wallpaper.”
  1. The lake that glows at night? It’s an eco-friendly house,  perfect for environmentalists who want to save energy at night.

Here is a list of the negative imagery that I highlighted in class for you:


 swamp

 

2/6/2015 – A

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HAR is a Houston real estate site where you can look for homes to buy or lease. I used it a lot when I was looking to buy a home. It’s actually really cool!

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. Notice how the language changes between the different types of houses. If you found a foreclosure, a lot of times, they use the words “fixer-upper”, but that generally means that the house will be cheaper because it is not in good condition.

If you need help navigating the webpage, I can help you figure things out. 🙂

We read The Monsters’ Lair, which was really short, because it’s only one page (easy!) and looked at the descriptive language.

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

swamp

2/6/2013

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The Captain is back today! Hooray!

We last left off with our pirates listening to the bards telling the earlier stories of Beowulf and how awesome he was when he was younger.

Today, we listened to the bards tell us about Grendel’s Mother’s Swamp. We were also given an opportunity to make some money for the repair of the ship. We are acting as realtors to sell the swamp to make the commission! In first block, Ms. Moulton even came in and was our “guest speaker” to give us hints on how to sell this horrible bit of property.

Then, we read about Beowulf’s battle with Grendel’s Mother. It was ferocious!

(PICTURE OF PENCIL GOES HERE!)

Then, we finally met Old King Beowulf, who looks something like this:

We stammered out that we needed his help because this dragon, or as Aaron said, a big ugly lizard attacked us. Beowulf mused thoughtfully for a second, and said that his people had also been terrorized by this dragon. If we agree to stay to fight the dragon tomorrow morning, we we will be rewarded with our hearts’ wishes: a new or fully repaired ship.

When you write the contract,  check out the following notes that Riley left for you in this PDF – Contract Notes.

ATTENTION

The Beowulf Metaphorical Response has been SHORTENED – you only need to complete the metaphors for the following:

  • Beowulf
  • Grendel
  • Grendel’s Mother
  • Hrothgar
  • Unferth
  • Herot

IV – 9/11/2012

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Today, we started class with a word prediction. There is also a PDF with the words in LMS – in the drop box, write a one sentence prediction of what you think is going to happen today.

We then read The Monster’s Lair and the Battle with Grendel’s Mother.

Then, we took on the role as a real estate agent and wrote a listing for Grendel’s Mother’s swamp. Make it positive! Try to find at least 4-5 things from the text that you can spin to a positive for potential buyers. Remember – you get a comission from this listing, so make it good!

Afterwards, we worked on the Metaphorical Response. Please make sure that if you have questions, look at the examples, the drop box, and talk to Riley. The hard part is just thinking of bizarre things.

Also, Riley leveled people – so if you weren’t here, you need to get your pirate booty!

9/12/11

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We started out sneezing today about underestimation. Grendel (and Unferth, too) underestimated Beowulf when he went to attack the monster. We talked in class about how teachers can underestimate students, especially students whose first language is not English. Riley once had an algebra teacher who sent students who spoke Spanish to the special ed. teacher. No lyin’.

We then read two sections: The Monster’s Lair which described where Grendel’s Mother lived and The Battle with Grendel’s Mother, in which Beowulf attacks Grendel’s Mother.

Riley was all crazy, acting things out. But the best part was when Beowulf received INTERVENTION (help) from the giant’s sword hanging on the wall. She talked about how she was writing a paper, and no ordinary pen or pencil could make do – she needed an EPIC weapon to help her defeat that paper. But the pencil is so mighty that no ordinary student can lift it – only an EPIC CAPTAIN like Riley could even hope to use it. Sorry, Oscar. That’s why you can’t write with the pencil. 🙂

The assignment for the day was to write up a real estate listing for Grendel’s Mother’s swamp. After she died, there was no one to inheirit the property, so we are acting like real estate agents to sell the property. Hopefully, we can get a HUGE COMISSION on the land to help fix out ship. Instructions and help are in LMS.