September · Week 1 of 4 · School week 1 of 36
Week 1: Heroes and Hard Questions
Skills this week
Word study
Old English word building: compounds, kennings and everyday Anglo-Saxon words.
L.11-12.4b, L.11-12.5a
Reading & writing
Launch the reading journal; read the opening of Beowulf through the fight with Grendel; learn claim, evidence and commentary and MLA line citations.
RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.3, W.11-12.1, W.11-12.8
Math
Test for functions, use function notation, find domain and range, and compute average rate of change.
HSF-IF.A.1, HSF-IF.A.2, HSF-IF.B.5, HSF-IF.B.6
Science
What environmental science is; design a fair test on mulch and soil water loss.
HS-ESS3-1, HS-ESS2-5
Social studies
Purposes and forms of government; Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau on the social contract.
C3 D2.Civ.8.9-12, D2.Civ.3.9-12
Word study this week
Old English (Anglo-Saxon) word building: short native words and compounds. A kenning is a two-part metaphor that renames something, such as whale-road for sea.
Words to read: kenning, epithet, compound, folklore, kinship, thane, scop, mead-hall, wyrd, wergild
Build it: kin → kinship → kinsman → kinsfolk
Sentence: “The scop sang of the thane's loyalty to his lord in the mead-hall.”
Spelling: kenning, epithet, compound, folklore, kinship, thane, scop, mead-hall, wyrd, wergild, alliteration, caesura
Day plans
- Day 1Heroes, Kennings and a Ship Funeral
Beowulf (Francis B. Gummere's public-domain translation or any modern translation) - Day 2Heorot, Grendel and the First Rule
Beowulf (Francis B. Gummere's public-domain translation or any modern translation) - Day 3Boasts, Wyrd and a Fair Test
Beowulf (Francis B. Gummere's public-domain translation or any modern translation) - Day 4The Hand-Grip and the Social Contract
Beowulf (Francis B. Gummere's public-domain translation or any modern translation) - Day 5Courage, Truth and the First Data
Beowulf (Francis B. Gummere's public-domain translation or any modern translation)
Centers this week
- Kenning workshop: invent six original kennings for modern things (a phone, a freeway, a laptop) and trade them with a partner to decode
- Function sort: 12 cards with tables, graphs and mapping diagrams; sort into function and not a function and write the reason on each
- Mulch experiment log: weigh the two soil cups in grams, record the date and time, and add one observation
- Social contract chart: one row each for Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau with view of human nature, purpose of government and one key phrase in your own words
Student games this week
Kenning Forge Function Check Feedback Loops Why Government?
Week at a glance (printable)
| Block | Day 1 Heroes, Kennings and a Ship Funeral | Day 2 Heorot, Grendel and the First Rule | Day 3 Boasts, Wyrd and a Fair Test | Day 4 The Hand-Grip and the Social Contract | Day 5 Courage, Truth and the First Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Question of the day | What makes someone a hero, and who decides? | If you started a new town tomorrow, what is the first rule you would make, and why? | What is one environmental problem near you that you would like to investigate? | Would you give up some freedom in exchange for more safety? How much? | Which takes more courage: facing a monster or facing a hard truth? |
| Word study | Old English compounds and kennings: whale-road, bone-house, ring-giver | Build the word list: kinship, folklore, thane, scop; sentences that show meaning | Wyrd (fate) and weird: how an Old English word changed meaning over 1,000 years | Spelling and usage: alliteration and caesura in the week's sentences | Word study check: define 8 terms and decode 4 kennings |
| Reading | Launch the reading journal; Anglo-Saxon England and the epic; read the prologue, Scyld Scefing's ship funeral (about lines 1 to 52) | Heorot is built and Grendel attacks (about lines 64 to 193): setting, the monster's motive, the Danes' despair | Beowulf arrives and boasts; the exchange with Unferth (about lines 499 to 606): the heroic code and the role of boasting | The fight with Grendel (about lines 702 to 836): pacing, imagery of the hand-grip and why Beowulf fights without a sword | Reading check: three traits of the epic hero, each with a cited line; discuss the mix of Christian and pagan elements |
| Math | Function or not? Vertical line test and mapping diagrams; x = y² fails (x = 4 pairs with y = 2 and y = -2) | Function notation: f(x) = 2x² - 3x + 1, so f(-2) = 15, f(0) = 1 and f(a + 1) = 2a² + a | Domain and range: f(x) = √(x - 4) has domain x ≥ 4; g(x) = 1/(x + 2) has domain x ≠ -2; write both in interval notation | Average rate of change: f(x) = x² from x = 1 to x = 4 is (16 - 1)/3 = 5; savings that grow from $1,200 in January to $1,650 in June gain $90 a month | Weekly check: 8 problems on function tests, notation, domain and range, and rate of change |
| Science | What is environmental science? Map one local issue (water, heat, dust or traffic) as a web of science, economics and government | Experimental design: will a 1-inch layer of mulch reduce water lost from soil? Name the independent, dependent and controlled variables and start two cups | Data day: record mulch-cup masses, compute percent water lost so far, and graph mass over time | ||
| Social studies | Purposes of government (order, security, public services, protecting rights) and forms: democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, autocracy, theocracy | The social contract: Hobbes (Leviathan, 1651), Locke (Two Treatises of Government, 1689) and Rousseau (The Social Contract, 1762) compared | |||
| Writing | Diagnostic: a one-page response to What makes a hero? using one example from life and one from a story | The analysis paragraph: claim, evidence, commentary, with a model paragraph on Grendel's anger | Embedding quotations and MLA line citations: (lines 86-90) the first time, then numbers alone | Draft an analysis paragraph: how Beowulf's boast reveals the heroic code, with two cited lines | Peer review with the claim, evidence and commentary checklist, then revise the paragraph |
| Game | Kenning Forge | Function Check | Feedback Loops | Why Government? | Kenning Forge |