Ballads Lesson Plan

Middle Ages: Ballads

1- Students should be able to recognize the common characteristics of ballads, and identify their use and non-use.

2- Students should be able to compare ballads with the more “formal”, epic poetry that they’ve studied earlier.

3- Students should be able to recognize the conventional nature of ballads

4- Students should be able to recognize that ballads are the means by which the people of the period spoke of it themselves.

Objective

Students can identify how ballads reflect those who performed them and to whom they were to be performed.

1- Examine repetition

2- The refrain

3- Figurative language / dialects

4- Subject matter

5- Rhythm

-Students will EXPLAIN their reasons for comparing the ballads to Beowulf and The Odyssey

-Students will APPLY their knowledge of the techniques and style of ballads to recommending subject matter for ballads dealing with modern issues and senses of entertainment.

Materials:

The Three Ravens

Lord Randall

Edward, Edward

Get Up and Bar the Door

Hard Rain by Bob Dylan

Ballads Detail Sheet

Day 1 –

Ballads: Introduction

-Pick up from where introduction to Middle Ages ended.

-Ballads born of oral tradition

-Memorizing ballads

-What kinds of texts are easy/hard to memorize?

-Common themes of ballads

-Why these themes?

-Similarity to Beowulf/The Odyssey

Ballads: Ballads Detail Sheet passed out and presented on overhead

Three Ravens

-Class discussion and possible clarification

-Who’s speaking?

-What’s going on?

-What kind of story is this?

-Which of the characteristics of ballads apply to Three Ravens?

-Marking of stressed/unstressed syllables – meter

Lord Randall

-Again, class discussion and possible clarification

-Who’s speaking?

-What’s going on?

-What kind of story is this?

-Which of the characteristics of ballads apply to Lord Randall?

-Audio, excerpt of Hard Rain by Bob Dylan, with lyrics projected

-What are the immediate similarities/differences?

- What about Hard Rain does NOT follow what you would expect from a ballad of the Middle Ages?

Homework: Generate a list of possible topics for a ballad addressing modern events

Day 2 –

Ballads:

-Sharing of ballad lists

-What themes/ideas would appeal to a medieval audience?

-What was recorded by the class that speaks of our time?

-What stories from the past few days were featured in the news? Which of those that you can immediately remember would be good for a ballad?

Ballads: Sheet presented on overhead

Edward, Edward

-Again, class discussion and possible clarification, though these third and fourth times students will be expected to identify similarities and differences to the other previous ballads reviewed.

-Who’s speaking?

-What’s going on?

-What kind of story is this?

-Does this sound like anything that was generated for homework?

Get Up and Bar the Door

-What happened in this ballad?

-Who is made the fool?

-Why the differences from the other ballads we’ve read?

-Why would this be a popular ballad? (sitcom?)

Either at the end of class or for homework:

Ballads Review Sheet (for use with eventual Middle Ages test)

Characteristics of Ballads : “Supernatural Events; Sensational, sordid, or tragic subject matter”

- The refrain (What purpose does this serve?)

- Question and answer sculpt narrative (why?)

- Beat (why?)

Three Ravens:

-Speaker(s):

-