​Malvern Prep Juniors Immerse Themselves into the World of Beowulf

Have you ever seen a traditional Sutton Hoo Ship Burial? Tasted mead? Wondered what Grendel looked like? Juniors in Nicole Wilkinson's British Literature class wondered these things and more while studying Beowulf during the first quarter. Students weren't simply reading the text, though, they were immersing themselves into the story and discovering connections between a poem written more than 1,200 years ago and modern day life.

“I love when students can connect on an intellectual and emotional level to works of literature,” said Wilkinson. “I think it is important to become cultured as well as educated, and that means knowing something about art, music and language and being able to make those beautiful connections in one’s own life.”

Wilkinson believes in teaching literature with an eye towards the historical, cultural and linguistic context of the time periods.

“Beowulf is written in Old English, so we spent some time learning about the evolution of the English language,” said Wilkinson. “We also watched a few cultural and historical videos, studied the Sutton Hoo Ship Burial and Mr. [Jason] Sammartino ’04 and I took the students to the Philadelphia Art Museum for a program on medieval arms, armor and warfare.”

In addition to the themes of heroism and loyalty, there are also a number of Christian themes, messages and symbolism present in Beowulf, so the students and Wilkinson spent time researching the Christian aspect of the poem, as well as exploring the connections to both pagan and Biblical stories.

After the students had finished the first and second parts of the poem, Wilkinson asked the class to do a “See-Think-Wonder” exercise. This exercise was an opportunity for the students to reflect on the following questions: What do you see in the poem? What do you think about what is happening? And, what is something you wonder about after reading the poem?

“Following the exercise, I had the students read their ‘Wonder’ out loud and pair up with others who were interested in exploring the same topics,” said Wilkinson. “From there, the groups had to submit a project proposal for approval before beginning.”

The projects ranged from traditional research projects to videos, movies, sculpture, clay models, and even a battle … sort of. “Our group was undecided between making a video and making a rap battle,” said Jimmy Bell '18. “We all really liked the rap battle idea because Beowulf had different battles in the poem and we wanted to make something funny focusing on those battles.”

“Giving the students the opportunity to let their imaginations wander to recreate and explore different aspects of the poem that interested them, while creating connections with their classmates is something they will remember longer than they will remember a quiz, though quizzes and assessments serve a purpose as well,” said Wilkinson. “The projects certainly helped them to deepen their understanding of the poem and the history of the time period.”

The students’ projects included:

• Realistic Sutton Hoo Ship Burial - Andrew Knaus, Casey Lauder, Patrick McNally-Heinemann
• History of Mead - George Snyder
• Movie and Soundtrack - “Love You Now” - Matt Davis, Quinn McCahon, Liam McKnight, Desmond Papariello
• Beowulf vs. Monsters Rap Battle - Jimmy Bell, Joey D’Elia, Dom Massimo, Peter Ngyuen
• Model Mead Hall (Herot) - Michael Castaldi, Griffin Delaney, Brendan McDonough
• Christian Elements in Beowulf - Kevin Boyle, Connor Dillon, Bobby Fish
• Clay Model of Grendel’s Cave and Grendel Action Figure - Kenny Kapikian, Patrick Klinges, Howard Yao

“This is the perfect poem to teach 11th grade boys,” said Wilkinson. “In it, you have heroism, loyalty, competition, a bit of trash talking and one-up-man-ship among the guys. There are challenges met with success and failure. There are sports and battles and friendships and strong faith. We often decoded some of the more difficult lines together, and they were able to relate to what was happening by imagining their own lives. That was a lot of fun for me as a teacher, to see them discover that as we read.”