Thursday/Friday Update

THURSDAY IN CLASS
Personal essays were turned in.  Be sure that you've turned yours in to www.turnitin.com as well; a few people who turned in hard copies still have not submitted it online.  That's required.

We focussed on Chapters 8-10 of Beowulf.  For 8-9, we looked closely at "Unferth's taunt" in order to understand Unferth's motivation as well as the nature and scope of Beowulf's response.  The guided discussion questions help break this down.  For Chapter 10, the initial focus was on the opening that functions as a DISarming scene, the very opposite of the "arming scene" found as an epic convention, usually with abundant details of the description and history of shields, swords, etc.  We looked at his final boast, the worried waiting of the Geats, and their faith in their leader.  This section ends by mention the stirring of the monter and Beowulf's watchful waiting.  We barely started Chapter 11, looking mostly at the Old English vs the translation of the first sentence.

FRIDAY IN CLASS
1) Hand-out of direct questions/quick responses for Ch. 11 and 12
2) Written responses for Ch. 13-14 from the earlier hand-out.  On that handout, Ch. 13 contains "notes" vs. questions.  For 4th and 6th periods, I modified it so that students were to summarize the story that the scop is developing as they ride, using 3 or 4 bullet points to indicate the events and "lesson learned" of the side-story about Siegmund and Hermod. 

These to be stapled and turned in; if you didn't quite finish during class, they are due on Monday.

FOR MONDAY
Read Chapters 15-19.  No written work required.  There is a high probability of a reading check quiz on Monday that will cover only 15-19.