Title of Text: Beowulf
Author/Illustrator: Paul D. Storrie/Ron Randall GRL: S Series: Graphic Myths and Legends Genre: Fiction, Folklore, Graphic Novel Standard: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. Lesson Objectives: to draw inferences from the text and give evidence from the text to support inferences, to use questioning to deepen comprehension, to understand and describe story elements of character, plot, setting and theme. Comprehension Strategy: Questioning Skill: Story Elements Fluency: Appropriate Speed Academic Vocabulary: explain or research the meanings of the words below. Discuss the morphology of the words: suffixes, taking a root word and adding to it to change the meaning of the word. Have students talk about the meaning of each word, using antonyms, synonyms and situations where each word can be used correctly. a. revelry b. menace c. barrow d. fens e. herald f. mail Before Reading: ENGAGE! THINK! 1. Build Background Knowledge a. Let’s look at the front and back cover. What do you know about? b. What would you like to learn? c. Story elements – the main character is Beowulf. From the back cover, how can you start to describe him? Look at the map on pages 2‐3, what do you know about the location/setting? One of our themes will be good vs evil. This will be shown in many different ways. Let’s predict what the plot of the story will be. 2. Skill Introduction: a. Story elements – (covered above) 3. Strategy Introduction: a. Questioning – let’s activate our background knowledge by preparing some questions to help us better understand the story. (develop what, where, why, when, who and how questions) 4. Fluency: Appropriate Speed – read the first paragraph on page 4 – too slow and too fast. Discuss how they hindered comprehension. Standard ‐ Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. Using the information from the back cover, make some inferences about the story. Copyright © 2012 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. Lerner Digital™ and Lerner eSource™ are trademarks of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. www.lernerbooks.com During Reading: Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late! Check for Understanding (Stop after page 21) 1.
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Tell me about a part you didn’t understand? Turn and Talk: how is using the strategy of questioning helpful in your reading? What are some questions you have developed so far? How have they helped you? How does Beowulf stop Unferth from speaking badly of him? Standard: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. Infer why Beowulf wasn’t quite content. After Reading: 1. What did you learn? What surprised you? 2. What more do you want to learn about this topic? 3. Story elements – compare Beowulf and Unerth. How does the illustrator help us understand the different settings? 4.
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Standard: What is the most important thing to remember from this book? What are the details that can help you remember this? Theme – good vs evil was one theme in this book. We saw this with Beowulf vs Grendel and vs Grendel’s mother. Who else was evil? What in the text proves this? What was another theme? How did the author help us understand it’s a theme? Folklore has lessons to learn. What was the moral to this story? Standard: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. Infer why Beowulf woke the dragon. Writing Standard: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. a. Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally. b. Use dialogue and description to develop experiencesand events or show the responses of characters to situations. c. Use a variety of transitional words and phrases to manage the sequence of events. d. Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely. e. Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.
Task: Write a different ending to the story. Use some of the same characters from the book. Introduce at least one new character and develop the character so that the reader understands the character. Use the points above. IF/THEN: Story Elements – if students are having difficulty understanding character and setting, talk first about character – what steps did Beowulf protect the land and king? Then, look at pictures of the outdoor setting and talk about how the illustrator supported the words of the author. Copyright © 2012 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. Lerner Digital™ and Lerner eSource™ are trademarks of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. www.lernerbooks.com