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"“Why should I not defy / Destinies strong and dear; / What can man do but try?"
The General Prologue - Discussion & Group Work: This lesson can be done either as a Group Work or as a discussion. They both allude to and follow naturally other work that's been done (specifically "Federigo's Falcon" - ideas of honor and Courtly Love. - if there were time and world enough, perhaps you could do both.
Lesson Overview
Lesson Overview
The Group Work is straightforward - as I hope all of my Group Works are. The Power Point discussion is actually part of a larger discussion that was created for combining "Federigo's Falcon" with this story - both as homework and discussion. I've included the untruncated version of the Power Point (with the "Federigo's Falcon" part) as well.
Group Work (see the Group Work handout below for more details).
Connecting it to other works (and activities - like "Ghost Stories"
The idea of word & honor (see Beowulf)
Connections to "Fedrigo's Falcon" & Courtly Love
The power of the supernatural
The Reality of the World vs these fictional stories
Discussion & Power Point Discussion
I have lesson notes here for running a discussion as well as a Power Point (these are two separate entities and the lesson notes do NOT follow the Power Point)
The Power Point Presentation helps focus a discussion - and mostly goes over the events that actually happen in the story - allowing you to use the Group Work afterwards if you wished with some adjustment.
Group Work Handout & Quiz
Group Work Handout & Quiz
Sir Gawain & The Green Knight Group Work Docx PDF
See above for more on the Group Work - it pretty much echoes what we later ended up doing in our discussion - except in a small group. Perhaps there are more critical thinking elements in the Group Work than the Discussion.
Sir Gawain & the Green Knight Quiz Docx PDF - note there are four versions of the quiz here - one for each of the periods that I taught.
A Handwritten Quiz (from long ago) PDF - yes, before I started using computers these were all done by hand.
Lesson Notes (for running a teacher led discussion) &
A Sample Reading Page w/notes (from the story)
Lesson Notes (for running a teacher led discussion) &
A Sample Reading Page w/notes (from the story)
Note the author of this translation - John Gardner (who of course was the author of Grendel). There are many translations out there for "The Green Knight" including one by J.R.R. Tolkein.
Lesson Notes 2013 (most recent)
This is a Ring Master teacher discussion - see my page on class discussions for more on this.
One of my last years we had switched to horrible Block Scheduling and we did these two stories ("Fredrigo" & "Gawain") in one class. I tried to find a common theme (not appreciating what you have) and added some other Literature as well. This is not a Vertext (quotes only). There are very pointed questions as well as quotes designed to prompt a Class Discussion - though the line numbers are given to make it easier for the students to find the text being discussed. However, it should be said that both the Lesson Notes and the Group Work do a much more complete job of getting into the Critical Thinking ideas of the story.
GawainandFredrigo_20181105.mp3Class Recording ("Fredrigo's Falcon & Sir Gawain" and the Green Knight")
Class Recording ("Fredrigo's Falcon & Sir Gawain" and the Green Knight")
One of the last years that I taught - we combined two stories our class (we were on the horrible Block Scheduling). This is that class discussion on two stories ("Fredrigo's Falcon" & "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight")- make sure you've downloaded the Power Point that goes along with these. We find commonality between the stories, talk about the twists - and what makes them remind us that "we're not alone."
Come Halloween, in my classroom, we tell Ghost Stories. Every student gets a chance to share a story - and I share 2 or 3. This usually happens as we are finishing up the Middle Ages - but more importantly it hearkens back to the Oral Story of Beowulf.
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Canterbury Tales End of Unit Projects:
1) Character Art 2) Graceland Tales 3) Death of Chaucer Play
Thoughts on the Lesson
Thoughts on the Lesson
Honestly - I always found this story both elusive and important to the year. It is a great supernatural story though - and it takes place right before or after Halloween and the Ghost Stories Lesson. I felt the one or two years that we combined the stories (Gawain with Fredrigo) they both got shorted.
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