"This life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant." Bede
Anglo-Saxons Part 2 - Day 3 The Venerable Bede Group Work : The students will learn first hand what made Bede different and important as a historian in part by chronicalling their first six weeks of school. They will also connect his work (and their reading) to what the novel Grendel had to say about The Shaper - and the idea of history being shaped to bring about a certain effect (propaganda). There is also a part of the lesson that asks students to look at how histories (and education) can sometimes contribute to systematic racism or bias, when the methods of Bede are not used.
See my page on Group Works for general procedures. They start the group work by writing a short chronicle of their first 6 or 7 weeks of school. Around my room, bulletins and announcements are posted with events - so they can actually get some read date (like Bede!). After that they tie their reading and Bede with what they learned about The Shaper from Grendel. Ah wonderful, wonderful connections! There are more questions about Bede and about the bias that can be introduced into writing history - and how that can effect things like systematic racism and other biases. I also recount the time I got history really wrong - and taught it - and how that effected things in turn. See the handout for more.
My most modern text book did what so many other text books are doing these days - removing content in favor of lots of pictures, history, and ancillary readings. A much older text book had the Venerable Bede reading.
The Venerable Bede Reading Handout from The Exeter Book PDF This was the assigned with the earlier Exeter Book reading .
The Group Work The Venerable Bede: Docx PDF
A version for the Remote & the Pandemic Docx PDF - there is an added Extra Credit on this version which brings in the students being away from school - the different ways of learning and how this fits in with Bede.
Reading Quiz The Venerable Bede: PDF
Reading Quiz The Venerable Bede & Celtic Literature: Docx PDF
See the second handout above.
Are there lessons that teachers are allowed to look forward to? I know I do this one. We finish the Exeter Book with the Anglo-Saxon poems found there - and introduce students to Celtic Poetry (end rhyme finally!). This is a very active lesson and will pull on everything that the students have learned about poetry and close reading of the text. There is also a very important small part of the class - in particular, one of the Celtic "Stanzas of the Graves" will pop up again throughout the school year. At the end of the lesson the students will have a chance to listen to a song - and put their close reading, poetry analysis (yes - it applies to songs) skills to work.
Here is Group Work that truly has to be Group Work. They have 8 minutes to create a history of the first 6-7 weeks of school. What's really cool here is that Homecoming just took place a week before - but those first few days of class may, by now, seem like a life time away.