Beowulf is almost a "right of passage" read during a student's senior year of high school. For some students, it is a confusing, dusty read. Try this activity to bring to life the story and to develop the students' problem solving skills.
Mead Hall Feast
Goal: Students will take the complex problems of organizing and preparing food, organizing and presenting entertainment, and organizing and displaying decorations for a class "mead hall feast."
Before reading Beowulf, spark some excitement by telling the students that they will get to recreate a feast, like the ones during the time period of the story. Make sure to point how people lived and "partied" during the time period while reading the story. For example, they ate with their hands instead of using forks and knives; they told stories, etc.
After reading the story, give the students the task of putting together the feast. The directions for this lesson are for two regular classes. However, it can be done with smaller and larger groups.
Cooperative Learning Task
Assign or allow students to sign up for one of five areas: menu design, fund raising and shopping, food preparation, entertainment performances, and costumes and decorations.
Teach students to use a problem solving process, such as the following: state the problem or task, brainstorm solutions, try out the solution, evaluate the solution, select a mutually acceptable solution and then make a decision.
Since there will be around 5-10 students in each group, students will need to select a leader. Every person in the group should be assigned a specific task. The groups need to think about any problems that may arise so that they have plan. And, each group needs to communicate with all of the other groups.
Group Problem Solving
Evaluating the solutions in a group to find consensus is sometimes difficult. Students need to see a model of good teamwork techniques if they are not familiar with problem solving in a group. Once each group has a plan of how to overcome its problems, the group needs to execute it. Give students a deadline, and do not make it more than two weeks.
Known problems or issues that will need solutions: find recipes for the time period, find money for food and decorations, find transportation to the store to purchase the food, find a place to prepare the food, find a place to have the feast, find a mutually agreeable time for the feast, find out what entertainment would be acceptable for the time period and decorate the mead hall. There may be other problems or issues that arise as well.
Assessing the Activity
To assess this activity, use a rubric. Criteria for the rubric could be teamwork, creativity, task completed, problem solving techniques used, etc. Students can also write a reflective journal on the process and the actual feast.
This cooperative learning project is one that uses problem solving techniques and is quite fun. In addition, this activity is one that students will remember for years to come.
This activity was developed with Kizzi-Elmore Clark many years ago.
