Embedded Files
"Poetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it." Percy Shelleyley
Anglo-Saxons Part 2 - My Heart Longs for the Journey: An Illuminated Text Long Term Project
Lesson Overview
Lesson Overview
Illuminated Texts - creating a video that explicates a text (usually a poem or short piece of prose) using movement, color, fonts, and music - was born in my classroom. This project for two students (in about a month or 5 weeks) has them pick a text, and then they use software (most likely Power Point) to make the words, letters, and pictures move in a way that makes the text come alive. For more on Illuminated Texts go to this page.
For this project, students will choose from either an Anglo-Saxon poem or riddle (3 of them) or an excerpt from Beowulf or Grendel. Most students end up doing an Anglo-Saxon poem. There is is sign up sheet below so that students, once they choose a poem, can sign up for it so that you don't have 20 of the same poem (everyone wants to do "Wulf & Eadwacer") in the same class period.
The handout also gives a website that more Anglo-Saxon poems and riddles can be found on.
The following is taken directly from the handout: In this project, you and your partner are to use Microsoft Power Point, Apple Keynote (or Imotion), or Adobe After Effects to fashion an animation or video that explicates (explains or illuminates) text from Beowulf, Grendel or from Anglo-Saxon or Celtic Poetry. You will find (if you do this correctly) that the hard (and interesting) part is not the technology, but the ideas, creativity, and the text that you choose. You may want to begin by going to our Website and looking at the Illuminated Texts that are there. There are Illuminated Texts for most sections (Anglo-Saxon, Renaissance, etc), but you want to avoid the ones closely related (especially if you have chosen a specific poem – don’t look at an Illuminated Text of that same poem) to what you are doing.
Handouts
Handouts
Most Recent Handouts
Most Recent Handouts
My Heart Longs for the Journey - The Illuminated Text Project Handout Docx PDF This two-page handout goes into great detail about how to pick the work; how to find out information on creating Illuminated Texts; even how to choose a partner wisely (it takes a lot of work on both students' part).
Illuminated Text Poem/Text Signup Sheet Docx PDF - A signup sheet for each period so that you won't have 20 of the same poems being done as an illuminated text.
My Heart Longs for the Journey - Extra Credit Version Docx PDF (like the above except designed as EC for when homework started being forbidden).
I've also included some older, helpful handouts: What Makes a Great Illuminated Text Docx PDF
And for teachers to help grade and keep track of things: Illuminated Text Grade Sheet Docx PDF
More Handouts can be found on the Illuminated Text page
Some Very Notable Examples ( I am working on crediting all)
Some Very Notable Examples ( I am working on crediting all)
8Wulf and Eadwacer.mp4"Wulf and Eadwacer" by Randal Kwok and Jerry Gong
Everyone wants to do this poem as their Illuminated Text (we cover it later in this unit). Besides being a moving poem - it is also a riddle that the reader (or viewer in the case of the Illuminated text) can solve for themselves. These artists do a terrific job in bringing it to life and giving the viewer the visual clues that they need in order to figure out what is happening in the poem.
SummerIsGone_14625.mp4"Summer is Gone" by Lisa Danforth
Done as an example by a fellow teacher, I show this incredible Illuminated Text as an example of what an Illuminated Text can aspire to. It is - in a word - perfect. Based on a short Anglo-Saxon poem from the Exeter Book, this Illuminated Text uses words, colors, movement and music to bring the poem alive. It is short and focused. Like all great Illuminated Texts it is not about the technology - but the ideas that make it great. Oh and Lisa wrote and performed the music as well!
TheWhale_JacobAbrahams_BerniceCai.mp4"The Whale - An Anglo-Saxon Riddle" by Jacob Abrahams and Bernice Cai
This Illuminated Text breaks a few of the rules that the students are given in their handout - but it doesn't matter. The rules (see the handout) are their really for guidance and to keep the students from going overboard. For instance, they are to use only one true image - with the rest of the "picture" being created by the words. However, the creators do such an amazing job with the pictures that they use that they are certainly not in excess. The music, the picture, the timing - everything is done well here and shows the power of what an Illuminated Text can do.
GrendelfinalsceneIllText.wmvThe Final Scene of Grendel by FEK & NMM (I'm working on more of their names!)
For the years that I offered this - hardly anyone chose to do it using Grendel (or Beowulf for that matter). While there may be many reasons for this - to me, the main difficulty in this kind of choice was that in addition to the work that the students needto complete in actually creating the Illuminated Text - they also have to pick and choose when doing Grendel or Beowulf exactly what text they will be explicating in their project. Do they choose a contained piece? A theme? A bookend?
In any case this project is amazing and hits all the marks! The scene is seen in a new light - and it does best what Illuminated Texts are capable of.
OnceUponaTimeFelipe.mp4"Once Upon a Time" by Felipe
Though this Illuminated Text is from Nicole Krauss's "The History of Love" - I show it as a wonderful example, for this project. An amazing piece of work. I know for a fact that students in other classes (like my British Literature class - where I used it as an example of how to do an Illuminated Text) were so moved by his video that they went out and bought the book. He did the music himself - and the ending is silent on purpose, given the text that is appearing on the screen.
Remote Enhancements
Remote Enhancements
By having the Handouts available for students - and then showing and watching together (very easy to do in Zoom or Google Meet) - first some general examples (like "Cat in the Rain") and the ones above. While showing them - I kept the chat open so we could talk about things to look for - students also dm'd each other to find a partner to work with.
As this lesson is one of two possible long term assignments - you could also do the other long term project: The Oxford English Dictionary Project.
OR
You can go to the Anglo-Saxon poetry from The Exeter Book: We began the year with one of these poems - "Deor" - now we continue (after they've done a lot of poetry already). These are poems from the Exeter Book, an incredible text with many of the surviving verse that we have from the Anglo-Saxon period, including some wonderful riddles (another lesson). The students are given handouts with the poems on them (though they've read them in their text book already) so that they can take notes on the poems as we go through them.
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Thoughts on the Lesson
Thoughts on the Lesson
There is no doubt about it - these Illuminated Texts take an incredible amount of effort. But I do find it amazing that in all the years I did these, very few students (less than a handful) complained about the amount of work. They would spend 10 hours on this (over a month) and not complain - and they would complain about a two hour essay. It is also important to note that Illuminated Texts teach in two very different ways - the first in the creation - the second in the watching.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse