Lesson video

Hi, I'm so pleased that you can join me today, for today's drama lesson.

My name is Mrs. Mears, I'm going to be taking you through the lesson today.

We're going to be learning about the story of Beowulf and the characters within it.

We're also going to be looking at the idea of good, versus evil.

In this lesson, you're going to need a chair and lots of space to work in.

Make sure you've got space above your head and to the sides.

You also need a pen and paper to jot down some ideas.

Pause the video now, if you need to go and get these things ready.

The first thing we're going to do, is a movement activity.

We'll then move on to creating the character of Grendel, both physically and vocally.

Then we're going to be developing rumours about Beowulf and Grendel.

And finally, we're going to hot-seat Beowulf and find out more about his character.

The keywords today are, "Epic Poems".

Now, epic poems are narrative poems, which often have strong heroes, who beat evil characters.

We're also going to be looking at "Archetypes", not to be confused with stereotypes.

Archetypes are groups of characters, with very recognisable traits.

"Still images" are pictures which we can make by freezing the action, also known as freeze frame.

"Hot-seating" lets us question a seated character from the drama.

The characters in the story of Beowulf, have very interesting names.

So, I'm going to go through them with you, before we even start.

The first character is Beowulf, he is the hero character.

He's a hero archetype and he is from Geatland, which is in Scandinavia.

Hrothgar, he is the King of the Danes, also in the area we now think of as Scandinavia and his people are victims, which means that they suffer.

The other character we're exploring today, is Grendel.

He is a monster and he threatens the Danes.

It's set in a hall, called Heorot Hall, it's the Mead Hall and that means it's a place where Danish people come together to drink mead.

Mead is a type of alcoholic beverage, like beer or ale.

They come to socialise and be together.

It's in the Scandinavian area and it's surrounded by marshlands, which are boggy, wet, muddy, grassy field areas.

What type of text is Beowulf? I've spoken to you about it already.

Is it a song? Is it an epic poem, an essay or a play? Have a think and point to the correct answer, right now.

Let's see if you're right.

Well done if you said an epic poem.

An epic poem is a very long poem, involving a hero with superhuman abilities.

Now, "Beowulf" was a poem which was actually written over 1,500 years ago and it's still relevant to us today.

What do you imagine the story of Beowulf might be about? We know it's about a hero.

We know there's a monster.

We know it's set in Scandinavia.

What do you think might happen? When and where do you imagine the story is set? I've already given you a lot of clues.

Should we look at the story right now? King Hrothgar's people are terrorised by the monster Grendel, after a party at Heorot Hall.

This happens time and time again.

Every time they have a party, Grendel comes over and attacks them.

The Danes then decide to stop having parties, because it's too much and they're too scared.

Beowulf a hero, hears about this and sails all the way from Geatland, to save the Danes from Grendel.

He has a conversation with Hrothgar and convinces him that he should have another party.

This is in order to trick Grendel into appearing.

When Grendel does appear, Beowulf attacks him and Grendel then leaves Heorot Hall, goes away and dies alone.

I'd like you all now, to get yourselves into a space.

If you haven't already got your space clear, please pause the video and do that now.

We're going to do something called "leading walks".

This involves walking around the room.

I'm going to demonstrate on the spot, but I want you to be moving as much as you can.

The first thing I want you to do, is just simply walk.

And as you're walking I want you to imagine that your knees are leading the way that you're walking.

So, if your knees are going forward, your body will follow your knees.

Now, I want you to imagine you're leading with one of your shoulders.

So, your shoulder will lead you as you walk around the room.

Now, I want you to imagine the soles of your feet, are leading you.

So, you're going to lift your feet up really high and they are going to help you travel your room.

What do you do with the rest of your body? Do you kind of bounce? Does it make you stand up taller? What does it do for you? And now I want you to lead with your tummy.

So, imagine your tummy is all the way out and leading the way you walk.

Does it adjust your speed? Does it adjust your weight and your stature? Does it help you to move in a different way? We're now going to start exploring the way that different archetypes walk.

The first archetype we're going to look at, is the "Hero".

A hero is typically, strong and brave and tall.

So, first of all make yourself as tall as possible and walk like a hero.

Does it do anything to your elbows? Does it do anything to your movement? Does it help you to move in a different speed? A really straight back, head up high.

You're really heroic.

Can you stand still now, like a hero? What's your hero pose? Is it hands on your hips? Strong? Is your gait wide? Your gait is your legs and your stance.

Do you have your chest up high? Are you looking at high? Maybe one hand goes up high, in a fist and you're looking at your fist in a very heroic way.

We're going to move now, in the archetype of the villain.

Now, a villain is a evil, horrible person.

We may be a robber or a thief, or maybe we're just very naughty and very horrible to people.

So, think about how you might show that with your body and when you're walking.

Are you going to walk in a very quick way? Are your legs far apart? Are they together? Have a think, have a play around.

Which one feels more evil? How should your back be? Is it going to be up straight, or are you going to be hunched over? I think maybe hunched over.

Maybe you're going to walk a little bit faster than before, looking from side to side as you do.

What will your hands do? Are they going to rub together in a very evil way? Let's become a villain and pose as a villain in three, two, one.

Now, can we all do an evil villainous laugh after three? One, two, three! Wonderful.

We're now going to move on, to the monster.

Is a monster big or small? I think big.

So, make yourself really, really big.

Now, a monster is brave, because the monster believes that they know what they're doing.

So, there's got to be some bravery about the way you walk.

So, maybe have your chest up high.

Like you are brave.

Would you be straight backed or hunched over, as a big evil monster? I think we're going to be slightly hunched over, but with a high up chest.

So, think about that, it's kind of in between! You're hero and you're villain in strange way.

The evilness will still come from your fingertips.

So, have a think about how your hands will show that you are evil.

Will they be claw like? So, have a real think about that.

And in a moment, I want you to be frozen as your monster archetype, three, two, one.

Freeze! I want you to think about what noise it might be.

Maybe it's almost the hiss of a snake.

Maybe it's more of a growl like a bear.

Can we make that noise after three? One, two, three.

Fantastic.

You did a fantastic job.

We added sound to our movement and you created three different archetypes.

How did "leading walks" help you to create a character? Did they help you to think about the way that you might move, or the way that you would stand? Did you prefer to create the archetype of the hero, or the monster? Why? Have a think to yourself, what made something more exciting to play? We've done the movement activity, really well.

Well done, everybody.

We're now going to move on to creating the character of Grendel, physically and vocally.

We're going to listen and read along to these rhyming couplets.

So, please say them with me, if you can.

"I smell sweat through the marshland mud.

I will now imbibe their blood.

Limb from limb, I'll devour each bone.

They will succumb, their lives I own." Now, there are some words in there that might be a bit tricky, so I'm going to highlight them now.

So, first of all, Grendel says, "I smell sweat through the marshland mud." Now, the marshlands we've talked about, are these great big long fields that are very muddy and boggy.

Okay? So, Grendel can smell these people, from a very long distance.

The next line is, "I will now imbibe their blood." What Grendel is talking about here, is being able to drink the blood of the people he kills.

The next line, "Limb from limb", our limbs are our arms and our legs.

So, he's going to pull off the limbs, "Limb from limb, I'll devour each bone".

That means to eat really quickly and hastily.

And then you've got the next line, which is "They will succumb, their lives I own".

When you talk about someone "succumbing" to something, they are admitting defeat, they are giving up, they are relenting to you.

So, they're going to give up their lives, to Grendel.

We're going to now go through a performance checklist, because I would like you to perform this, in a moment for me.

First thing that you need to do, when you do this performance, you need to use your "still image" of the monster at the start.

So, don't start by moving, start in a frozen, still image position.

Then, when you are doing this activity, I want you to make sure you are stressing important words.

These might not be the tricky words I've talked about, these might be different words.

Find a voice that matches your archetype.

Finally, keep it really simple and clear.

So, now's your chance to have a go at performing as Grendel.

Please pause the video while you have a go at that and press "Play" when you finished.

well done! Did creating that still image of a monster at the beginning help you to begin your performance? Did you use stresses on the important words? Which were the words you chose? Did you find a voice, that matched this monster archetype? What was it? Was it grumbly and low, or was it high and pitchy? How did you create your voice? And did you keep it simple and clear? Fantastic.

We've now done our movement activity and we've created the character of Grendel, physically and vocally.

We're going to move on to developing rumours about Grendel and Beowulf.

I am going to be demonstrating some of the rumours about Grendel and I'd like you to come up with some rumours about Beowulf, yourself.

What makes an interesting rumour? Have a think to yourself.

Is it maybe something which is a secret? "I've heard, that Grendel lives deep, underground and his only friend, is a blind rat." Maybe you have an interesting rumour that is all about, danger.

"I've heard, that if you touch him and you somehow survive, you won't last long, because his skin, itself is poison and it will kill you after just a few days." Maybe you have chosen a rumour that is completely over-the-top.

"I've heard, he's hairier than a thousand Yetis!" Maybe, you want to have a rumour that is scandalous and full of intrigue.

"His mother is a witch, who is in love with King Hrothgar." Maybe, you prefer a rumour that is funny.

"I've heard, that he smells of cabbage and that his poohs are bright green and cube-shaped." Maybe, you decide you simply want a rumour that sounds true.

"I've heard, his eyesight is terrible and he can't see you, but he can smell you and he can hear you.

So, if you don't want to be attacked, be quiet and try to smell like something else." Now, it's your turn to go on to performing some rumours, but your rumours won't be about Grendel.

I want your rumours to be about Beowulf.

What do we already know about Beowulf? Well we know he's a hero with superhuman-like abilities.

He was a hero before this story even started so, we don't know what happened, beforehand.

We do know that he's going to go on to kill Grendel later on.

So, here are some sentence starters, that might help you to create your rumours.

Have a think about what you want your rumour to be about.

Use your sentence starters to help you and come up with three to five rumours.

Please pause the video to practise that now.

Well done.

I hope your rumours were really great.

What was your best rumour? Why was it your best rumour? Was it, something that was scary, sounded too good to be true? Sounded true, maybe.

Maybe, it was something that was scandalous, or dangerous, or a secret.

Which of your rumours, do you think you could turn into an interesting story and develop further? Well done! We've done our movement activity, we've created the character of Grendel, physically and vocally and we've developed our rumours about Grendel and Beowulf.

We're now going to move on to hot-seating activity, but we are going to focus on the character of Beowulf, himself.

Before we begin, there's a hot-seating checklist that I'd like to go through with you.

"Closed questions", when you hot-seat a character, closed questions are questions which don't have a very long answer, they have a short answer.

Maybe something like "Yes" or "No", "True" or "False".

An "Open question", is something much more open, for someone to be able to talk at length about.

These are the questions that can really help us, get into character.

We need to make sure when we're doing hot-seating, that we stay in role.

We need to make sure that we listen carefully to the answers.

So, quick question, before we begin.

Closed questions, do they allow for long developed answers? What do you think, is that "True" or "False"? Point to the screen now.

Okay, let's see, are you right? Well done, if you've got that correct.

The answer is indeed, it is "False".

Closed questions actually only have one answer.

For example, a question like, "Where do you live?" or, "How old are you?".

I'm now going to show you a hot-seating activity, where I'm going to play both characters.

You will know who I am, because when I play Beowulf, I'm going to be wearing a scarf.

And when I play King Hrothgar, I'm going to be wearing a jacket.

So, "Who are you?".

"I am Beowulf".

"And why do you think that you can defeat Grendel?" "Me? Well, not to boast but, I am incredibly strong and I once defeated a tribe of giants and drove them from my homeland." "Oh, yes, that really is impressive.

But what do you want me to do about it?" "There's a great deal that you can do to help me.

You see, in order to defeat Grendel, I need to actually be with him.

So, I need to find an opportunity, for us both to be in the same room.

I know, how about you're having another party? I know it's dangerous, but I can guarantee you that I would simply defeat him, using my bare hands." "Can you promise me that you will defeat Grendel?" "Yes, I promise." So, did I follow the checklist? Did I ask any closed questions? Yes, I did.

I asked, "Who are you?" and, "Can you promise me?".

Did I ask any open questions? Yes, I did.

I asked, "What makes you think you can defeat Grendel?".

I also asked, what I, King Hrothgar, could do to help this happen.

I stayed in role the whole time and I listened to the answers.

Now, it's your turn.

I would like you to answer questions that I'm going to ask you, as a reporter.

You're going to create the character of Beowulf and answer me.

If you need to pause in between each time, you can do that.

So, make sure, although you're in a chair, that you're close enough to the screen to press "Pause" if you need to.

Press "Pause" now, to get yourself ready.

Okay, let's start.

"Okay, Mr. Beowulf, so thank you for, for meeting with me.

Now, could you tell me, why you are the greatest hero of them all? Fantastic.

Now, I'm going to ask you another question if you don't mind.

Um, why is it important to you, to be a hero? Oh, I see, I see, I see.

Okay, and my final question to you, Mr. Beowulf is, do you enjoy hunting monsters? Thank you very much for your time." Well done.

You answered those questions beautifully and stayed in role.

We're now going to move to a time after you have defeated Grendel and saved the Danes.

So, it's happened, you are now definitely the hero.

You're now going to hot-seat yourself and you're going to play a reporter and Beowulf.

You are limited however, to two closed questions and three open questions.

Plan your questions on paper before you begin the activity.

Pause your video now, to complete your task.

Press "Play", to resume once you've finished.

Well done! Did hot-seating help you to develop your character and think about it, in more detail? Did it help you to understand where the character was coming from, where he was going to? What made him tick? Fantastic! We've completed everything now.

You've done your movement work, you've created the character of Grendel physically and vocally.

You've developed rumours about Grendel and Beowulf and you've hot-seated Beowulf.

So, my big question to you before we end is, which character did you prefer to play, the hero or the monster? Why was that? If you'd like to, please ask your parents or carers, to share your work with Oak National Academy.

Thank you so much for today's lesson.

Well done.

Goodbye.