| Date | 03/24/2021 |
|---|---|
| Teacher | Aker, Matthew |
| School | Martin County High School |
| Grade | 9-12 |
| Subject | Literacy |
| Goal | Literature is meant to be brought to life. Without artistic, kinesthetic, and verbal connections, many students view literature as an endless flipping of pages full of meaningless words. They long to experience novels, short stories, poetry and other works of literary art in unique and fun ways. The goal is to use Legos to make stories suddenly became something students can see, feel, and experience. The use of Legos challenges students to move beyond the printed page to become more open-minded and think creatively. |
| Description | Beowulf is a classic story filled with monsters, a venomous fire-breathing dragon, undersea scrimmages, and battle descriptions including torn limbs and bloody, severed heads—like your basic video game. Yet many of the high school students we’ve worked with were completely turned off because they found the language too difficult and therefore it was hard to get all of our students to completely engage. Enter Legos. Students are challenged tpo create their own 3D model of Grendel, Grendel’s mother, or the dragon. They must support their ideas by citing evidence from the text, and make and explain inferences where specific descriptions are not available. Taking the lesson further, students can develop an arena where they set up their moving monsters to “fight” a Beowulf character. We discuss the probability of the outcomes, and discuss behavioral and physical characteristics of predators that occur in nature: What adaptations aid predators to overcome their prey? Which of these adaptations would need to occur in a monster in order for it to defeat Beowulf? While this description is about one particular piece of literature, it will be implemented with all literary studies. |
| Benefits | Students gain a deeper sense of the literature by thinking about alternate scenarios, making inferences, and supporting their Lego design with the text. This type of lesson challenges the students to expand and think more creatively. And they’ve drawn many students toward independent reading and inquiry. |
Items
| Title | Amount |
|---|---|
| Lego kits | $700.00 |
| Total | $700.00 |
