Week 3

Tuesday, 8/28

• Beowulf
• Review Answers
• Begin

HW: 

• Due Thursday
• Read and Annotate Through Line 1250
• Journal 4: Beowulf and Grendel
1. What advantage does Beowulf have over other combatants against Grendel?   Why could no other man prevail against Grendel? 
2. What does Grendel leave behind when he flees? 
3. What four treasures does Beowulf receive?  What were the eight added to this? 
4. What should the prince have learned so far in the tale (lines 1057 ff).
5. What purposes could the minstrel's songs about Sigemund and the dragon serve? 

• Thesis Class
• Due Fri: Three thesis statements of varying qualities for your junior project. 

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Thursday, 8/30

• Continue Beowulf 
• More background notes
• Read and Annotate Next Handout Section

 HW: Study for the Quiz

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Friday, 8/31

• Quiz 1
• Readings
• "Caedomon's Hymn" (not yet memorized, though)
• "The Seafarer"
• Beowulf
• Terms and Notes
• Thesis Review
•  Reading
• Note: we didn't get to the creative writing yet, so we're just reading and annotating for homework. No written work beside annotation will be due on Tuesday.

HW:  Read and Annotate Beowulf through line 2,164

• A review of what you're reading in case you feel lost: After the battle with Grendel's mother, Hrothgar presents more gifts to the mighty warrior; Beowulf and his men return to Hygelac, their king and king of the Geats, in southern Sweden; there Beowulf presents gifts to king Hygelac and rehearses the story of their adventures. 

Week 2

 Tuesday

• More Riddles!
• Journal 2: Compose your own riddle (you may compose more than one). 
• "Cædmon's Hymn"
• The story of our first English poet. 
• Notes on Anglo-Saxon Poetry
• Alliteration
• Kenning
• Stich, hemistich, caesura

 HW:

• Finish Journal 2 (Riddles)
• Hand copy "Cædmon's Hymn".  Put it in the quiz/test section of our binder.

Thursday

• Fix Grammar
• Recite
• Announce blog and grades
• Tell us your Riddle
• "The Seafarer"

• Bewoulf's Background
• Basic History of England
• Terms 
• Begin Reading/Hearing
• Return Thesis Papers

HW: Thesis Research


Friday 

• Fix Grammar
• Recite
• Beowulf begins!
• If extra time:
• Forming a Thesis
• Thesis Project Work

HW Due Tue of Week 3 (next time week meet):

• Read and annotate all the Beowulf pages handed out in class. 

• Journal 3: Opening 600 Lines of Beowulf.
• What was wrong at Heorot? What caused this problem?
• Why was Grendel so angry? 
• Where is Beowulf's strength greatest? 
• Does Beowulf boast?  Is this wrong?
• How does Unferth reply to Beowulf's self-assessment?

Junior Humanities: Week 1

St. George - Patron Saint of Angle-land

* Opening

• Welcome!

* Pray


Thursday

• Junior Humanities Syllabus
• "Marginalia: How Should We Read?"

Friday

• Literary History in Boxes
• Old English to Modern English Reviewed
• English Rulers 

• Anglo-Saxon Riddles 

HW: 

• Get a binder and set it up according to the syllabus.
• Have your parents sign the syllabus and put the syllabus first in your binder. 
• Fill out the Thesis Questionnaire 

2: Planning and Proximity

            In our last chapter, we posited that the teacher’s primary responsibility in the classroom is setting and maintaining a healthy atmosphere of lively, respectful engagement.  The coming chapters are dedicated to helping you achieve a classroom atmosphere that will bless you and your students.  A good atmosphere will vary some from teacher to teacher or even day to day for you.  Some subjects benefit more from particular strategies; some teachers have unusual gifts.  A good teacher leverages assets rather than rues deficiencies; no one but Christ has the corner on the market of best teaching; students enjoy variety in methods and personality just as you do. Signs of a poor classroom atmosphere are fairly universal: student disrespect and disengagement.  Students may be ignoring the directions of the teacher, speaking rudely to one another or the teacher, failing to accomplish much in the allotted class time, or expressing themselves through other body language that shows a carelessness about the academic goals set by the teacher.

1: Respect and Your Role (The Good Teacher Series Begins!)

In the spirit of youthful ambition, my goal here is for us to become good teachers.  I know we’re heading into thin atmosphere as our very Lord questioned such a title (Mark 10:17-18), but I also know that, as His beloved children, we are to be imitators of God, and we look to the Author and Perfector of our faith, the only truly Good Teacher.  He loves our students and will help us love them better.