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Reading schedule · Grades 6–9

Beowulf in 3 Weeks: A Reading Schedule

A three-week plan for reading Beowulf, one section a week. Each week gives the reading, a short summary of what happens, three discussion questions and the escape room that goes with it. For grades 6–9, in class or at home.

Pacing

Logic-stage readers (grades 6–9) can usually manage a section a week on their own, reading a few chapters most days. Use the questions to move from what happened to why it happened: motives, causes and consequences. A long section can take two weeks without spoiling the plan.

Each week ends with an escape room on that week's reading: seven self-checking locks that run in any browser, with no logins, and progress is saved, so a room can be finished another day. Every room has free taster locks to try, and members can open them all.

Print this schedule Escape rooms on Beowulf

Week 1: Beowulf and Grendel

Read: Beowulf and Grendel

King Hrothgar builds the great hall of Heorot, but the monster Grendel raids it night after night. Beowulf sails from Geatland to help, answers Unferth's taunts, and fights Grendel bare-handed in the dark hall, tearing off his arm; a feast follows.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Beowulf choose to fight Grendel without weapons?
2. What does the exchange with Unferth show about Beowulf's reputation?
3. What does Heorot stand for in the poem?

Escape room: Terror at Heorot (lockedlessons.com/rooms/beowulf-beowulf-and-grendel/)

Week 2: Grendel's Mother

Read: Grendel's Mother

Grendel's mother raids Heorot in revenge for her son. Beowulf follows her to the haunted mere, dives down to her underwater hall and, when his borrowed sword fails, kills her; Hrothgar warns him against pride, and Beowulf returns home to King Hygelac.

Discussion questions

1. Is Grendel's mother's attack revenge in the same sense that the humans understand it?
2. What warning does Hrothgar give, and why?
3. How is this fight harder than the first?

Escape room: Beneath the Mere (lockedlessons.com/rooms/beowulf-grendels-mother/)

Week 3: The Dragon

Read: The Dragon

Beowulf rules the Geats for many years until a cup is stolen from a dragon's hoard and the dragon burns the land. The old king remembers his past and fights the dragon with only Wiglaf standing beside him; he kills it but is mortally wounded, and is given a hero's funeral.

Discussion questions

1. Why does Beowulf insist on fighting the dragon himself?
2. What does Wiglaf's loyalty show, compared with the other warriors?
3. Is Beowulf's death a victory or a defeat for his people?

Escape room: Fire over Geatland (lockedlessons.com/rooms/beowulf-the-dragon/)

Nothing in this schedule is quoted from any translation, so it can sit beside whichever one your class reads.