Living History - The Venerable Bede Group Work
"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.
Lesson Overview
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.
The Venerable Bede Reading
The Old Text Book
The Old Text Book
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 .
Handouts
Most Recent Handouts & Quizzes (two different quizzes depending on how far the students were asked to read)
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
Remote Enhancements
See the second handout above.
Links
Class Recordings (for registered members)
Audio
Video
Rhyme & Reason: Anglo-Saxon Riddles & Celtic Poetry
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Thoughts on the Lesson
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.