Welcome to the course site of A Bird's Eye View of British Literature. In this course you are going to study British literature in a historic context and find out to what extent this still affects the world around you.
We hope that the course will inspire you to go on reading books and poetry even after you have finished. There is so much more to discover!
In the first meeting we will explain how this course works and where to find the necessary information. The latter you can find in the Introduction. However, if you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask your teacher.
The English department
F2F class 1: Introduction
What are we going to do in class?
Introduction to the project;
Hand out the materials (two readers);
Make teams;
Get familiar with the website on Wikiwijs
Goals of this course
After having finished this course you:
know the basics of British literature in a historical context;
know which literary genres are characteristic for which literary period;
can explain the most important features of different literary genres in different periods;
can order and summarise all of the above information in a digital timeline (Word/PowerPoint/Sutori);
can analyse literary extracts and poems from different periods;
can write a modern Shakespearean sonnet;
can express your opinion on the poems and extracts that you have read;
can discuss your opinions and motivate them in English in your team;
can relate the literary extracts and poems to modern day life;
can present your favourite period and extract or poem in English.
Form your team
Form a group of four peope (or if necessary three people) and give a list of names to your teacher.
With your team you are going to create a digital literary timeline.
Timeline
How to create a digital timeline?
You can do this by using Word, Powerpoint or Sutori. If you want to use Sutori, read the instructions below. In order to be able to hand in your work in Magister, you will need to export your timeline to a PDF version.
In this course you are going to study six different literary periods. After having finished the first three themes you need to hand in two digital documents in Magister:
Your digital timeline (teamwork task 1 of themes 1-3, but hand in individually);
Your personal answers to the other tasks of themes 1-3 (make sure these are your own personal notes and NOT those of one of your classmates).
Mind the following. There are deadlines (see Magister: opdrachten). If you exceed these deadlines, you will lose points!
Assessment
TOETSPLAN – A Bird’s Eye View of English Literature
Dit project zal als Praktische Opdracht meetellen in het PTA (Pogramma van Toetsing en Afsluiting).
Het project omvat verschillende opdrachten die samen maximaal 52 punten kunnen opleveren (zonder de extra tasks). Norm: 70%=6. Zie voor een gedetailleerde berekening de volgende link:
Study chapter The Middle Ages from your Bird's Eye View reader.
Decide what the most decisive historical facts are in both the Old English period and the Middle English period.
Decide what is characteristic for literature in The Middle Ages.
Collaborate with your team and put the above information in your timeline. You can add pictures, videos and such in order to personalize your timeline.
Task 2: Beowulf
In this task you are going to focus on the old English epic poem Beowulf.
Assignment 1: The English language
Before learning more about the poem, you need to find out how medieval history has influenced the English language by watching these two short videos.
Mention two important historical events that influenced the English language.
Assignment 2: Alliteration
Now read the chapter about Beowulf in your Poems and Extracts reader.
What is 'alliteration' and what is its function?
Assignment 3: Beowulf old vs modern
In this video you can read and listen to the Old English version of Beowulf. It is almost incomprehensible, but you might recognize some words that resemble modern English words or even words from other languages. Only watch the first minute of the video and write down words that sound or look familiar to you.
Now compare the old English version with a modern English translation by Seamus Heaney and find out how many of your findings were correct.
What characterists of the Old English Period (see reader Bird's Eye View) can you discover in this story?
Task 3: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
In this task you are going to focus on a completely different medieval work of fiction: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It is a late 14th-century chivalric romance, one of the best-known Arthurian stories.
Originally this was a long poem in four parts. For most people it is almost impossible to understand the Middlle English in which it was written, as you in the original text below. That is why most people read a modern translation.
Assignment 1: language
What writing technique does this extract have in common with the original version of Beowulf?
Assignment 2: Germanic versus Arthurian hero
Now read the background information on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in your Poems and Extracts reader. In what way is an Arthurian knight like Gawain different from a Germanic hero like Beowulf? Mention two differences and explain your answer.
Assignment 3: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Read the abridged version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in your Poems and Extracts reader, as well as the Code of Chivalry below.
1. How does Sir Gawain sin and what is his punishment?
2. Several of these codes can be applied to Sir Gawain. Make a list of the five most important codes and support your choices with examples from the text.
Extra task: Life in the Middle English Period
What was British culture like in the Middle English period? What was the role of women and the role of the church? How were people punished? Try to find out about this by doing more research. Click on the button to have a look on the following website:
You must do research in two different topics. There are seven options. Topic VII, about Chaucer, cannot be chosen.
Theme 2: The Renaissance
Task 1: Timeline
Study chapter The Renaissance from your Bird's Eye View reader.
Decide what the most decisive historical facts are in this period.
Decide what is characteristic for literature in The Renaissance.
Collaborate with your team and put the above information in your timeline. You can add pictures, videos and such in order to personalize your timeline.
Task 2: Shakespearean sonnets
'To be or not to be, that's the question.' Many people know this line and even recognize this as a line from Shakespeare's play Hamlet. Shakespeare wrote many interesting plays in different genres, like comedies and tragedies. Next period we will study one of his plays and experience why many of them are still worth reading.
In this project, however, we wil focus on Shakespeare's sonnets, which are also interesting food for thought.
Study the section about Shakespeare's sonnets in your Extracts and Poems reader. There are two sonnets for you to read, but you can also choose to use the two videos below to hear them read out loud.
SONNET 18 & 130
Assignment 1
You could say that both sonnets are love poems, however, conveyed in opposite ways. Describe how in both sonnets the narrator expresses his love to the person described.
Assignment 2
An important part of the sonnet can be found in the final lines, the couplet. What message does Shakespeare try to get across in these final lines in both sonnets?
Task 3: Your own sonnet
Together with a classmate or on your own you are going to write a sonnet à la Shakespeare.
You can start from scratch or base yourselves on an existing lyrics. Mind that you use all the characteristics of a Shakespearean sonnet. Although it is difficult to use iambic pentameter, try to use it as often as you can.
If you work with a classmate, make sure you mention your classmate's name in your notes.
Click on this video for extra help.
You can also decide to rap your own sonnet during the Sonnet Club. Look at the following video for more inspiration:
F2F class 2: Sonnet Club
In today's Sonnet Club you are going to enjoy each other's sonnets. In groups you are going to read, assess and make a top 3; resulting in a class top 3.
Extra task: The Shakespeare webquest
Do a webquest to find out more about Shakespeare, his inventive language and acting in the Renaissance.
Click on the button to go to the Onestopenglish website and do activities 1, 3, and 4. Have fun!
Study chapter The Neoclassical Period from your Bird's Eye View reader.
Decide what the most decisive historical facts are in this particular period.
Decide what is characteristic for literature in The Neoclassical period.
Collaborate with your team and put the above information in your timeline. You can add pictures, videos and such in order to personalize your timeline.
Task 2: Gulliver's Travels
In this task you are going to focus on the novel Gulliver's travels by Jonathan Swift.
Read the following synopsis (from www.bookdrum.com) to get an idea of the complete story:
Lemuel Gulliver has wanderlust. He takes every opportunity to abandon his loving wife and children, setting sail as a ship’s surgeon on whichever ship will hire him. Unfortunately, every ship he joins is either shipwrecked or attacked by pirates. It is following these unfortunate incidents that Gulliver discovers his new lands: worlds that reveal the meanness, vileness, idiocy, and barbarity of life.
His first voyage sees him washed ashore in Lilliput, whose inhabitants are less than six inches tall. They manage to take him prisoner, but he is soon released and becomes an honoured guest. Although he helps the Lilliputians in a war with their neighbours, their gratitude soon fades and he is charged with treason. He manages to put out to sea where he is rescued and returned home.
On his second voyage, Gulliver finds himself abandoned in Brobdingnag, a land of giants. He is well treated as a pet and curiosity, and is soon adopted by the Queen. She provides him with a miniature house, and he enjoys a comfortable life – except when he has to battle giant wasps. Eventually his house is seized by a giant eagle and carried off to sea. Again, he is rescued and returned home.
Undaunted, Gulliver puts to sea a third time, only to find himself on the flying island of Laputa, whose learned citizens waste their time in pointless scientific endeavours such as attempting to soften marble for pillows. On the same trip, Gulliver meets a magician and a race of wizened immortals, condemned to suffer forever the miseries of old age. He even visits Japan, where he encounters the Emperor.
The fourth and final voyage takes Gulliver to the land of the Houyhnhnms, wise and dignified horses who rule over savage humans called Yahoos. Gulliver identifies with the Houyhnhnms rather than the Yahoos, but they ultimately reject and expel him. He is once again rescued and returned home.
Back in England, Gulliver is unable to fit into society, preferring to talk to horses. His eyes have been opened to the monstrosity of the human condition. He has experienced too much, both awesome and fearsome. It takes years for him to be able to enjoy the company of his wife and grown children. He writes his diary, Gulliver’s Travels, as a warning for all of humanity.
Gulliver's Travels has always been a very popular work of fiction. Because of this there have been quite a lot of film adaptations. Watch these two official film trailers from respectively 1996 and 2010:
There is even a cartoon version from 1934: Gulliver Mickey.
Now read the extract from Gulliver's Travels in your Poems and Extracts reader and answer the following questions:
What are the main causes of war according to Gulliver? Give at least two examples.
Which wars does he say are the worst?
Jonathan Swift uses a lot of irony and satire in his work. Find at least three examples of this in the passage you have read.
Extra task: The real Robinson Crusoe
You have probably heard of Robinson Crusoe: a man stuck on an uninhabited island who had to survive on his own. Of course, there is so much more to the simplified story that many people know.
This work of fiction, published by Daniel Defoe in 1719, was written like an autobiography. Defoe was, amongst others, a journalist, businessman, manufacturer and government spy. He wrote the novel in journalistic fashion: he gives the facts as fully and accurately as possible.
Although the story is fictional, Robinson Crusoe is based on the account of Alexander Selkirk, a Scotsman, who was left behind on the isle of Juan Fernandez, off the coast of Chile, and stayed there from 1704 till 1709.
In this extra task you are going to find out who this real Robinson Crusoe was by watching a History Channel documentary.
After having watched the documentary, write a brief summary of the contents in which you include Selkirk's childhood, life at sea, his rescue and his life in London afterwards. Use 100-150 words.
Study chapter The Romantic Period from your Bird's Eye View reader.
Decide what the most decisive historical facts are in The Romantic period.
Decide what is characteristic for literature in The Romantic period.
Collaborate with your team and put the above information in your timeline. You can add pictures, videos and such in order to personalize your timeline.
Task 2: Romantic poetry
Two iconic romantic poets are William Wordsworth and Samual Taylor Coleridge. Their joint publication of poems in Lyrical Ballads in 1798 is seen as the start of the Romantic Period.
One of the most famous poems by William Wordsworth is I wandered lonely as a cloud. Read this poem in your Poems and Extracts reader. You can click on the video below for a reading of the poem.
Assignment: Wordsworth
The poet tries to draw a picture of what he has seen during one of his wanderings. However, he does not use factual language. Instead he uses a lot of figurative speech (=beeldspraak). Find at least three examples of this in the poem and try to explain what is meant by the phrases you have chosen.
What element(s) of poetry in the Romantic Period can you retrace in this particular poem?
The joy the sight of the daffodils gave him is not something that disappears. It is an experience of lasting value, to be recollected in a moment of peace while lying on his couch. We all have these kind of recollections of something that gave us joy in the past. What happy memory do you sometimes recall when you are on your own in peaceful relaxation?
Assignment: Coleridge
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samual Taylor Coleridge is one of the longest and spookiest poems in British literature. Read the introduction to this poet in your Poem and Extracts reader (page 16)
Coleridge focuses on other elements in his poetry than Wordsworth did.
Before reading the extract from this poem in your Poems and extracts reader, you are going to listen to a song by Iron Maiden, an English heavy metal band formed in the 1970s. Although this music genre might not be your cup of tea, the lyrics of this song is based on the original poem and gives a modern English rendition of the poem's story.
What element(s) of poetry in the Romantic Period can you retrace in this poem by Coleridge?
Now read the extract of the original poem in your Poems and Extracts reader (page 14 + 15) and answer the following questions:
What elements of the Romantica Period did you discover in this poem?
What is the attitude of the sailors towards the Ancient Mariner?
From listening to the Iron Maiden version you know that Death and Life in Death gamble on the Mariner's life. Death wins the crew, while Life in Death wins the Mariner. How does the Mariner's fate compare to that of the rest of the crew? What could be considered worse and why? In your answer refer to the original poem.
Extra task: Be a poet
If you enjoyed writing the Shakespearean sonnet, you might want to explore some more. Writing a poem like the Romantics did might be even considered easier because you do not have to apply strict rules!
As you have read on page 12 of the Bird's Eye View reader, your poem must have an individual, personal approach as it in some way or other tells the reader about your personal feelings. Themes that could be used are, for example, the supernatural, dreams, children, nature, and morbid aspects of life.
So, try to find your inner voice and write a poem of at least 10 lines.
Theme 5: The Victorian Period
F2F class 3: What did the Victorians do for us?
What are we going to do in class?
Many people are unaware of the fact that the Victorian Period is closely related to our modern way of life.
Assignment:
Work together with your team.
From all the inventions on the whiteboard pick three that you think have been most influential.
You must be able to give arguments for your choice.
One of you will be asked to present your choices to the other students.
Task 1: Timeline
Study chapter The Victorian period from your Bird's Eye View reader.
Decide what the most decisive historical facts are in this particular period.
Decide what is characteristic for literature in The Victorian period.
Collaborate with your team and put the above information in your timeline. You can add pictures, videos and such in order to personalize your timeline.
Task 2: Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens is one of the most famous writers of the Victorian Period. Many people might be familiar with the character Scrooge from his novel A Christmas Carol. However, Charles Dickens wrote many other novels that give a much more indepth insight in life in the Victorian Period.
Assignment: Charles Dickens
Watch the following video about Charles Dickens and answer the following question: What kind of message does Dickens want to get across and how does he succeed in doing that?
Assignment: Hard Times
Now read the two extracts from Hard Times, a novel published in 1854, in your Poems and Extracts reader.
Answer the following questions:
What is Gradgrind's attitude to education?
What is the tone of the this extract? Explain your answer by giving two examples from the text.
Extra task: What did the Victorians do for us?
You are going to watch an episode of the BBC series What the Victorians did for us. While watching your episode you need to make a list of things that the Victorians left as a legacy for your generation. Which of the mentioned 'inventions' did you like best and/or find most influential and why? Make a personal top 3 and motivate your choice in 80-100 words.
You are going to think about and discuss war and poetry. Taking the War Poets as our starting point we will discuss how their work relates to nationalism and war in the broadest sense. Who and what should we commemorate and why?
Task 1: Timeline
Study chapter Britain before and after World War I from your Bird's Eye View reader.
Decide what the most decisive historical facts are in this particular period.
Decide what is characteristic for literature in this period.
Collaborate with your team and put the above information in your timeline. You can add pictures, videos and such in order to personalize your timeline.
Task 2: War poetry
WAR POETRY
Imagine going to war as a 19-year-old British young man in 1915. Initially honoured to go off to Belgium or France to fight for your country, but then faced by the horrors of war: life in the trenches, gas attacks and the unrelenting sound of canons. The First World War (28 July 1914- 11 November 1918) was a war in which over nine million soldiers died. It was supposed to be a war to end all wars. Unfortunately, we know this to be untrue.
Assignment: WWI
Watch the first four minutes of this video to understand Watch the next video (3 minutes) about life in the trenches:
how the war started:
:
Describe in your own words what life in the trenches really meant.
Assignment: war poets
Some of these soldiers fighting at the front shared their experiences by writing poetry. At first these poems tended to be optimistic and patriotic, but as the war continued an angrier mood started to appear.
Read the poems In Flanders Fields by John McCrae and The Soldier by Rupert Brooke in your Poems and Extracts reader. You can use the following links to hear these poems read out loud:
Although you might not understand every detail of these two poems, try to understand the main idea.
Answer the following questions:
What is described in both poems?
Explain for both poems whether they are patriottic or not. Explain your answer by giving examples from the poems.
Now read a third poem in your Poems and Extracts reader: To the Warmongers by Siegfried Sassoon. Answer the following questions:
What is described in the first part of the poem ("I'm back again .... pass them by.")?
"For you our battles shine". Who is or are meant with 'you'?
How does this poem compare to the two previous poems?
Assignment: Siegfried Sassoon
Sassoon is famous for his angry poems about the war. He even took one step further. He did not only protest by means of his poems, but also in another way. Find out on the internet what he did and what the consequences were.
Extra task: Dulce et Decorum Est
Would you be willing to die for your country? Tough question!
Wilfred Owen might be considered one of the most famous War Poets ever. In 1917 he wrote the poem Dulce et Decorum Est. Before experiencing the poem, read a Dutch article by Anton van Hooff in NRC: NRC article
Now read (and listen) to the poem by clicking on the following button: Dulce et Decorum Est
Answer the following questions:
1. What impression do you get of the soldiers from reading the first stanza and why did they look like 'beggars under sacks' (line1)?
2. What happens in the second stanza and how does this affect the narrator later on in life?
3. What hypothetical case does the narrator put forward in the last stanza?
4. Would you be willing to die for your country? Motivate your answer.
Final assignment
F2F classes 5 & 6: Presentations
Assignment: team presentation
You have studied different periods and literary genres and read different poems and extracts. Which historic period and which poem or extract appealed to you most? Give a presentation of 5 minutes about your ideas. You can choose between two forms of presentations:
Put your ideas in a digital mindmap with the use of Piktochart (https://piktochart.com) and give a presentation in class. Make sure you also make a PDF version to upload to Magister.Put your ideas in a digital mindmap with the use of Popplet (http://www.popplet.com) and give a presentation in class. Make sure you also make a PDF version to upload to Magister.
Present your ideas with the help of a video you have made yourself. You can use https://screencast-o-matic.com or another videorecording tool. Upload your video to Magister.
In your presentation you need to:
Briefly describe the essence of the chosen literary period
Briefly describe the essence of the chosen extract or poem
Motivate and illustrate your choice of period by referring to characteristics and that appealed to you most.
Motivate and illustratie your choice of poem or extract by referring to phrases/ words that you found interesting and/or beautiful
Discuss whether this work of fiction is universal and still relevant
Explain what kind of effect/influence this poem or extract has/had on you
Explain what you have learned from the entire course and motivate your opinion
Divide the spoken text equally
Present the information by heart (you can use some prompt cards though).
Optionally you could add interesting information about one of the extra tasks you may have done.
Your popplet or video must be sent to your teacher by mail prior to your presentation.
How to use Popplet? Watch this video. How to use Screencast-O-Matic? Watch this video.
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Auteur
Tamara Maas
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Laatst gewijzigd
2019-11-06 11:31:47
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