Ms. MacGregor's ELA 4 classes enjoyed presenting a reader's theater in which they enacted excerpts from The Epic of Gilgamesh, the earliest known epic poem. Before performing this play, students wrote their names in cuneiform, learned about the Library of Ashurbanipal, and how Gilgamesh embodied attributes of epic heroes.
During this unit, students also learned about the Anglo-Saxons and read the epic poem, Beowulf, by Burton Raffel. This enabled students to explore these archaic heroes' evolution and compare the heroic attributes of heroes then and today. They also wrote about and discussed reoccurring subthemes, why societies elevate others to legendary status, and why societies must create and defeat literary monsters.
Ms. MacGregor's ELA 4 classes will continue to consider epic poems' cultural and literary significance when they read Le Morte d'Arthur and celebrate the golden era of Camelot through art, music, texts, and writing exercises.