We're just giving some examples to assess the students referring to the Units on Anglo-Saxon Britain presented in this site.
Naturally, every teacher knows his/her students and he/she will find the best way to assess them.
Here are some suggestions:
Literature
1. Write a short paragraph about the most common rethorical figures used in Anglo-Saxon poetry.
2. Write a short paragraph about the most important features of Anglo-Saxon poetry and prose.
3. What's the difference between an epic poem and an elegy? Write no more than 150 words.
4. You've studied an extract from the poem Beowulf called "Beowulf's death" and you've also watched the same scene from the film by Zemeckis. Can you find any differences? Explain your ideas using no more than 150 words.
5. Beowulf is a hero. Can you find any other examples of heroes in literature or in the tradition of your country?
Linguistics
Multiple choice or True / False questions could be helpful to assess your students.
Sample open questions could be:
- What is the difference between a language and a dialect?
- Define dialect (or language)
- How are languages coming from a common ancestor called?
- How many languages are there in the world?
- Where are Indo-European languages spoken?
- How many dialects were spoken in the Anglo-Saxon period?
- what branch of Indo-European does Old English belong to?
- Who lived in Britain before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons?
Exercises of recognition, transformation and translation can be used to fix the features of Old English and to check if Grimm's and Verner's laws have been understood.
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A cloze test could as well be useful to have a more thotough evaluation of what has been understood.
History:
- How did the Anglo-Saxon conquest of the British isles start?
- Was the conquering of Britain sudden or gradual?
- What happened to the Romano-Britons ?
- Why war was such an important aspect of Anglo Saxon life and culture?
- What the Danelaw was? When was it established ?
- What are the most important written sources of Anglo-Saxon history?
- What was the equipment of an Anglo-Saxon warrior ?
Civilization
- How did Anglo-Saxon consider the forest?
- Describe the Anglo-Saxons’ way of cultivating the land.
- Describe the story of the Witan and its functions.
- Describe the main characteristics of Anglo-Saxon religion, before the coming of Christianity.
- Describe Welsh society during the Anglo-Saxon period.
