Over the past few weeks, we have been developing our persuasive writing skills through our Beowulf unit. Having explored Beowulf’s character and reputation, we imagined ourselves as Beowulf, preparing to address the warriors of Heorot before facing the terrifying ‘Sea Hag’.
We explored what makes a speech powerful by watching and discussing famous speeches, including Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Greta Thunberg’s “How Dare You” speech and Winston Churchill’s “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” speech. We thought carefully about how speakers use language, repetition, rhetorical questions, direct address and powerful vocabulary to influence the feelings of their audience.
We then began building our own speeches, thinking carefully about our audience and purpose. As Beowulf, our aim was to acknowledge the warriors’ fear, remind them of what they had already overcome and build their confidence so that they felt inspired and prepared to face the Sea Hag.
Today, we became editors and performers! We carefully checked our speeches for spelling, punctuation and sense before reading them aloud. We experimented with emphasis, pace and pauses to make our words as powerful as possible. We practised with two different partners, using their feedback to refine our performance.
This afternoon, it was finally time to enter the mead hall! We delivered our persuasive speeches in our very own armour. It may not have been completely historically accurate, but it certainly helped us feel mead hall ready!
We have worked hard to become confident speakers who can use language to inspire an audience.
If you were one of Beowulf’s warriors, which speech would have given you the courage to face the Sea Hag?
I loved making a speech!! My partners’ were really good too!!