What would you like to teach through this educational scenario?
How important it is to belong
Which subject and which part of the curriculum does this educational scenario address?
Social sciences
Which work of Art have you selected to use your lesson?
The old saga Grettissaga, story of a boy that doesn’t fit in when he is a kid and later becomes an outlaw. Grettir’s saga is considered one of the Sagas of Icelanders which were written down in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and record stories of events that supposedly took place between the ninth and the eleventh centuries in Iceland.
Grettis accidentally kills a guy that he has some conflict with and later on he accidentally kills people in a hut by unintentionally lighting it on fire. For that he becomes an outlaw. This outlaw status forces Grettir to live on the edge of society and opens him up to being hunted by others and being betrayed by other outlaws.
Grettis lives in various places running from enemies and slaying more monsters. In the end of the saga he lives with his younger brother on the island Drangey off the northern tip of Iceland. Part of the reason for this if that the island has steep cliffs and can only be climbed up on with the help of a ladder than can be withdrawn. Grettis eventually becomes the longest-surviving outlaw in Icelandic history, spending over 19 years as an outlaw.
Which are the main discussion points on which you are going to focus
How important it is to belong, especially when situations change in peoples life. Belonging is one of the strongest feelings you can have as a human being. If you don´t beling to anyone or any environment, you don´t really have a home.
Why is it important to belong? What happens when people don´t belong?
Which theatre techniques are you going to use in the classroom. How are you going to organize the activities of the children? Please describe what you are going to do in phases (phase 1, phase 2 etc)
Phase 1
Presentation by the teacher about Grettir and how he became an outlaw.
Phase 2
Discussion about why it is important to belong? what happens when people don´t belong?
What is similar to Grettir the outlaw in the old days and the situation of immigrants in many countries now?
Phase 3
Students get different roles and some time to prepare their character
Phase 4
Staging and forum theater feature: Some students play immigrants settling down in a new country – experiencing that they don´t belong. Other play natives are harsh or ignore them.
Teacher stops and asks questions like; who does the country belong to? Why are natives so defensive towards new people like immigrants? How is it possible to change that attitude? What does it cost to be kind?
Phase 5
Students are divided into groups and works on projects to disseminate what they have learned.
How are you going to organize the debate following the artistic activity? Are you going to organize any follow up activities?
Debate: What is the right of the natives to defend their land from those who do not have a homeland?
Has the mankind not changed since Grettis was up and about 1000 years ago?