Lesson Plan for Developing Kennings

Standard

The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of the structures and elements of
British and Commonwealth fiction and provides evidence from the text to support
understanding; the student:

a. Identifies, responds to, and analyzes the effects of diction, tone, mood, syntax,
sound, form, figurative language, and structure of poems as these elements relate to
meaning.

Goals

Upon completion of this unit, students are expected to have a working knowledge of the
interpretation and creation of kennings, a type of metaphor used prominently in Old
English poetry.

For the first half hour of the block, I will provide direct instruction on the translation and
creation of kennings using the following thinking frames:

Interpreting
1.) Identify a kenning by looking for its two-part signifiers. (Beowulf called the
ocean a “whale-road.”)
2.) Define the relationship between the first and second words in the kenning to what
it might be describing. (He refers the ocean a “whale-road” as a descriptor for one
of its purposes, a means through which whales travel. Because whales are
typically only found in the ocean, this is likely the most correct interpretation.)
3.) Consider other possibilities and evaluate our results. (Is this the best translation?
Are other possibilities more likely? What other kennings could there be for
ocean? Does our interpretation fit the context of the story?)

Creation
1.) Select a thing or idea that you would like to turn into a kenning (i.e. Piano).
2.) Brainstorm for possible images that might have enlightening or descriptive
associations with your original idea. (Hammers, other instruments, natural
features that make noise, etc.)
3.) Pick an image that you feel best represents your idea and break the image into two
parts to describe that idea. (If we select hammers or percussion for the piano
example, we might call it a “string-striker.”)
4.) Evaluate your results for effectiveness. (Does it describe what I want it to
describe? What are the implications of using this particular image? Does it fit my
purpose and style? What might be amusing or significant about calling the ocean
a whale-road?)

We will spend approximately half an hour going over examples and taking students
through each process. Students will provide suggestions so that they have guided
practice in a whole-class setting. I will initially model a kenning of my own creation
and have students look over the process and evaluate my work. Afterwards, we will
create a new one together and repeat the critique.

After initial instruction, students will break into groups of three or four. Each group
will be assigned a passage in the text to interpret. I will tell them that there are a set
number of kennings in each passage for them to find. Afterwards, students will be
asked to create alternate kennings for each of the assigned metaphors. This section
will last approximately forty minutes.

For the last twenty minutes of class, students will work individually on a short writing
assignment. In the beginning of the poem, Beowulf stands before the king and brags
about his prior adventures to show that he is the right man for the job. Students will
create a short resume under the guise of one of the characters, and under the
experience section, he or she must list his or her accomplishments. Students will be
required to list at least four achievements with a kenning included in each.

Differentiation
For some students, the creation of new metaphors might be challenging without
additional scaffolding. For their individual efforts I will provide passages that give
clear context clues concerning the meaning of the kenning. To create metaphors, I
will also provide a list of suggested images that might work well for their example.
For the individual work, I can hand out sheets with a brief outline of a few archetype
characters for them to work with, and a few ideas about images that might be matched
with various accomplishments.

Assessment
The assessment for this portion is completely formative. I will take up their individual
work to look for trends and individual problems. This information will direct my
review of the exercise the following day.