Kennings

in Beowulf
Grade 12 Dual Enrollment
Lesson Components
What teacher and student behaviors are planned and expected
Context: Course name; grade level; length of lesson; description of setting,
students, and curriculum and any other important contextual characteristics
-This is for a 12th grade dual enrollment class at Albemarle High School with
Piedmont Virginia Community College
-Students have been reading Beowulf in class for two weeks
-Students come to class having read a few assigned sections of Beowulf
Virginia SOL(s):
VA SOL 12.3: The student will apply knowledge of word origins, derivations, and
figurative language to extend vocabulary development in authentic texts.
d) Identify the meaning of common idioms, literary and classical allusions in text.

VA SOL 12.4: The student will read, comprehend, and analyze the development of
British literature and literature of other cultures.
b) Recognize major literary forms and their elements.
f) Explain how the sound of a poem (rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition,
alliteration, assonance, and parallelism) supports the subject, mood, and theme.
Common Core State Standard(s):
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.10
Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live
production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version
interprets the source text.
Objectives (KUD format):
Students will understand
1. That figurative language adds
Students will know
2. That kennings are a descriptive literary device.
3. The value and descriptive power of kennings.
Students will be able to
4. Identify kennings in Beowulf.
5. Create kennings of their own.
Assessments: Methods for evaluating each of the specific objectives listed above.
Diagnostic: Students will demonstrate what they already know by
Identifying what words specific kennings replaced
VA SOL 12.3 d

Formative: Students will show their progress toward today's objectives by
Identifying kennings from the Beowulf texts. I will split students into groups and
each group will be responsible for identifying kennings in a passage from Beowulf.
VA SOL 12.3 d

Summative: Students will ultimately be assessed (today or in a future lesson) on
these standards by...
Creating kennings themselves. Some will be related to Beowulf, others will not.
VA SOL 12.3 d

Instructional Steps (Procedures): Detail student and teacher behavior. Identify
possible student misconceptions. Include:

Comments/Notes/
Reflections

I could not find any SOLs

for grade 12 that
perfectly fit this lesson.
I figured I would just
take a few pieces from a
few different standards
to make it work.

There are no Common

Core Standards that
specifically go with this
lesson; instead this one
applies to the overall
reading of Beowulf

I.
Welcome/greeting/announcements (2 minutes)
-Good afternoon, everyone! I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving. I also
hope you had a good snow day last week. Im sure you all were excited to have an
extra day off. I know you hall have been reading Beowulf as a class, so I wanted to
do an activity with you about this epic poem. Today we are going to work with a
specific literary device. I will post the word kenning on the board.

II.
Hook/ bridge/ opening to lesson (15 minutes)
-Has anyone seen this word before? I will assess to see who raises their hands.
Okay, heres the real question: does anyone know what this word, kenning, means or
what it is? I will wait for students to respond. If no one does, I will ask, Does anyone
know of an example of a kenning? If students give an example, I will ask them, What
does that specific kenning mean? To what does it refer? Why would you use a
kenning instead of the actual word? I assume students will not have much to say in
response to this, so I will post the definition on the board.
-A kenning is a form of concentrated metaphor often used in Old English poetry. It is
created from the compounding of words or phrases. They are found all over
Beowulf.
-Now lets look at a few examples of kennings. I will go to the next slide. All of these
come from Beowulf.
-Okay the first example is Storm of Swords. Does anyone have an idea what that
actually refers to? I will wait for a student to take a guess. I will aim to have at least
two students answer. Okay so we have one guess. Does anyone have another idea?
After a few minutes I will reveal the answer. So rather than just using the word
battle the reader really gets the sense of the violence, quick pace, power, and
intensity involve in a battle like this.
-I will go through every example I have and ask students to guess them.
-After we go through all examples, I will turn to the Why use kennings slide.
-After looking at these specific kennings, why do you think authors would use
kennings as opposed to the real world? Why would someone say Warfriend
instead of just sword? I will wait for a few different students to respond and state
why they think kennings are important to writing.
-Kennings were originally used as synonyms in writing so that there would be
alliteration in the poem. An example of this is The Hall of the Heart used in place of
Herot.

III.
Instructional steps
Kenning Identification 30 minutes
-Now that you know a little bit more about kennings, we are going to do a few
activities to get you more in the habit of looking out for them and using them in your
own creative writing.
-For this activity, I am going to spit you into groups of three or four to work together.
I will group the students have them draw numbers from a bag and tell them
where in the class to meet.
-Now that yall are with your group members, I am going to pass out worksheets
with a few excerpts from Beowulf on them. Please wait for my instruction before
you begin. I will pass out the papers.
-Does every group have a paper? Awesome. There is an excerpt from Beowulf at the
top of each paper. There is at least one kenning in that passage. Please find the
kenning(s) and then answer the questions at the bottom of the page. I want
everyone to fill out the questions on their worksheets. You will have 10 minutes to
complete this activity. Also while you are working, choose one or more group

members who will read the passage aloud when we come back together. You may
begin. Students will work on their worksheets for about 10 minutes. I will walk
around the room to make sure students are on track and to answer any questions.
-Okay everyone, the ten minutes is up. We are now going to go over each excerpt.
Do I have a group who wants to discuss their passage first? Students will volunteer.
If not, I will choose a group to share. Okay thank you Group 2. Who is your reader?
Awesome. Read away! I will post the passage on the board so that others can read
along.
-So what are the kennings used in this passage? The group members will answer the
question. Does everyone agree with their choices? Are there any they left out? I will
see if other students point out kennings not identified.
-Okay lets go through this kenning by kenning. For the first one, what word is it
replacing? Students will respond. Why is this kenning put into the work? What
images do you get from it? The group will respond.
-That is great. Does anyone want to add anything? Any more details that this
kenning elicits? All right. Good job yall. Lets move on to the next group.
-I will repeat this same process for each group.
Kenning Creation 20 minutes
-Thank you all for being cooperative and respectful during that activity. I hope this
helps you for the rest of your Beowulf reading so that you can identify them more
quickly. I also hope that you can incorporate your own into your writing. I mentioned
earlier that some kennings have been so incorporated into the English language that
they are now considered clichs. Can anyone think of any kennings that are still used
today? I will wait for students to respond. I will encourage everyone who can think
of one to share it with the class.
-Here are some that I could think of that are still used: ring giver (for a prince, as II
said earlier), beer goggles (when someones judgment of appearances becomes hazy
while intoxicated), surfing the web (which mixes the imagery of skillful motion
through large amounts of liquid, amorphous material with the imagery of an
interconnected net linked by strands or cables), Bible thumpers (to describe loud
preachers or intolerant Christians), rug rats (to describe children who often crawl
around on rugs), & tramp stamps (to describe trashy tattoos).
IV. Closing
-Now we are going to create kennings of our own. I am going to post a list of words
on the board that I want you to create kennings for. If you are inspired and want to
make one for another word, go ahead! I hope that some of you will share them with
the class. I will post the slide on the board with a list of suggested words for kenning
creations. After 5-10 minutes, I will stop students.
-I want at least 5 students to share a kenning with the class. Does anyone have
something they want to share? Students will share kennings.
-Thank you all so much! I remember when I was in high school I created painful
bliss for the word love, and we can all probably guess the state of my love life at
that point in time. Haha!
-Okay everyone that is all that I have planned today. I am going to turn it back over
to Mrs. Pavlo now. Thank you so much for a great class.
Materials:

-Numbers for students to draw (to split into groups)
-PowerPoint
-Projector
-Pen or pencil
-Worksheets, below
Attention to Individual Student Needs: Detail specific actions/materials you will

use to meet individual needs in this lesson.

I think that any students could easily participate in this lesson and get something
from it. It may be more difficult for an ESL student to understand kennings because
you have to have a good grasp on the English language to understand them. Perhaps
ESL students could think of their own kenning-type phrases from their native
language.
Also I could print out a copy of each excerpt if certain students need to have their
own copy when we go over it as a group.
Technology Use: Detail specific technology being used in the lesson with

explanation for why it is being used.
This is a low-tech lesson. The most technology that is needed is the PowerPoint and
projector. It is possible to even do this without technology.

Reflections

Right before I went into class, I had the idea to change the lesson a bit. I decided that, instead of working alone
for identifying kennings in the beginning, students would do more group work. When I introduced the different
kennings on the PowerPoint, like Storm of Swords. I created my own white boards with white pieces of paper in
between clear page protectors and handed out markers to each group. When I introduced a new kenning, I had the
students discuss in their groups for about 1 minute to think about what that was referring to. Generally everyone had it
correct and I chose a random group to explain why they thought their answer was correct and another group to identify
the images brought to mind for each kenning. Also at the end when we created our own kennings, I had students
discuss in groups and write a kenning to show to the group.

This lesson did not go as smoothly as the first lesson did. I kind of expected this because my CI told me two days
before I taught the lesson that she would not be in school. She gave me the option to teach it on Wednesday (the next
day), but I had class and was not able to make it. So I knew going into it that students would be rowdier than usual
because a substitute would be there also I taught the biggest class my CI has.

I think the best part of the lesson was the end when students created their own kennings for different things,
such as first dates and teachers. Each group had about 2 minutes to come up with a kenning for a specific word and
then they shared it with the class. Sometimes I even required them to put it in a sentence. Everyone was very into it.
They were a bit rambunctious and, despite my continual chiding, rather inappropriate. But the class seemed to be
engaged, so I figured that it was okay. They were always asking to do a different one next: Can we do policeman next?
No! I want to do snow! Can we do them both? And I took their questions as good signs. There was one group of
boys who were so into the activity. Every time they went to share their kenning, they would voluntarily use it in a
sentence and explain the meaning behind it. They really made me feel like the activity was worthwhile.

There were some students that were not engaged at all. I think that it would be better if I had my CI there to
help or if they were my own students that I knew a little bit better. If I had leverage like that, I would probably assign
groups myself rather than have them draw numbers from a bag. I tried to get the groups to switch who wrote on the
white board each time, but every time they got to a certain member, nothing would come from them. I remember I
tried multiple times to begin with one group of girls sharing their kenning, but they wouldnt have one in time. I told
them that I would come back to them at the end, and even after six groups sharing, they would still not have anything to
share. I bet if my CI was there they would have had something. I didnt know what to do. I tried to wait for them to
come up with an answer before we started the round, but it would take too long and the other groups were getting
restless. A separate group of girls was just as unmotivated; one round their sentence was A kenning for snow is school
canceler. I was very frustrated with these groups, but the excited students made up for it.

Next time, I would probably assign groups myself or have my CI do it. We would have a better grasp on the
students personalities, so we would know who worked well with whom. I tried to be random with my assignment, but
even with my drawing numbers technique, I still saw students trade with one another to be in certain groups. I also
think that next time I would have more passages from Beowulf. In this lesson we had 4 passages and 8 groups. So
whenever I had students share there was one group that didnt discuss their work, though I tried to get them both
involved.

I believe that students learned what a kenning was. I dont know if they could tell you today the definition, but I
bet they could come up with one. When we all discussed the kennings within the Beowulf passages, they came up with

a few that I wouldnt necessarily call a kenning, but they had great reasoning behind it, such as what it could stand for
and what the author could have said instead. They were thinking hard about it and had good rationales behind their
answers. They were all very engaged in writing their own kennings. They wanted to create one for almost every
example I had on the PowerPoint and got so excited to share them with the class. Like when they backed up their
reasons for choosing certain phrases as kennings in the passages, they had great descriptions for why they chose the
kenning that they did.

Passage 1
Instructions: Below is a passage from Beowulf. After reading it, answer the questions follow.

Outsiders from across the water,
I say it again: the sooner you tell
Where you come from and why, the better.
The leader of the troop unlocked his word-hoard;
The distinguished one gave this answer:
We belong by birth to the Geat people
And owe allegiance to Lord Hygelac.


1. Circle the kenning(s).
2. What word/noun phrase might the kenning replace?


3. Why do you think the poet used a kenning here? What does the kenning say that the word/noun phrase does not?


Passage 2
Instructions: Below is a passage from Beowulf. After reading, answer the questions that follow.

Then the gray-haired treasure-giver was glad;
Far-famed in battle, the prince of the Bright-Danes
And keeper of his people counted on Beowulf,
On the warriors steadfastness and his word.
So that laughter started, the din got louder
And the crowd was happy.

1. Circle the kenning(s).
2. What word/noun phrase might the kenning replace?


3. Why do you think the poet used a kenning here? What does the kenning say that the word/noun phrase does not?

Passage 3
Instructions: Below is a passage from Beowulf. After reading, answer the questions that follow.

He realized that the demon was going to descend on the hall,
That he had plotted all day, from dawn light
Until darkness gathered again over the world
And stealthy night-shapes came stealing forth
under the cloud murk.

1. Circle the kenning(s).
2. What word/noun phrase might the kenning replace?


3. Why do you think the poet used a kenning here? What does the kenning say that the word/noun phrase does not?

Passage 4
Instructions: Below is a passage from Beowulf. After reading, answer the questions that follow.

They knew too well the way it was before,
How often the Danes had fallen prey
To death in the mead-hall. But the Lord was weaving
A victory on His war-loom for the Weather-Geats.
Through the strength of one they all prevailed;
They would crush their enemy and come through
In triumph and gladness.

1. Circle the kenning(s).
2. What word/noun phrase might the kenning replace?


3. Why do you think the poet used a kenning here? What does the kenning say that the word/noun phrase does not?