How to Teach King Arthur Stories to High School Students
Teaching the King Arthur legends to high school students can be a wonderful way to help them connect with an "old" literature. You will have some students who are naturally fascinated by stories of knights and wizards, but others will need prompting. Here are some tips to help them both enjoy and appreciate this broad and deep part of our literary heritage.
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Things You'll Need
- Texts
- Film adaptations
- Willingness to allow students to explore their own interests
Instructions
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How to Teach King Arthur Stories to High School Students
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Use modernized texts. T. H. White's "The Once and Future King" is a wonderful retelling of the old stories which begins from the point of view of an adolescent Arthur. Many students can better relate to the stories when they are told from the perspective of one of their peers.
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2
Allow studies to watch and compare movie versions of stories they have read in class. Films like "Excalibur" (although you will have to edit out the nudity), "First Knight," and even "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" offer modern re-imaginings which students may find compelling.
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3
Have students write their own retelling of one of the adventures. They can either create another story about one of the knights, emphasizing the same themes of chivalry, loyalty, and honor. Or they can "modernize" one of the stories, attempting to see how the knight might function in today's society.
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4
Ask students to think about who today is like King Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, Guenivere, or Mordred. What are the modern analogues of kings, wise wizards, national champions, tormented queens, and traitors?
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Read how writers in other time periods have reinterpreted the stories. Good examples for high school students include Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” Edgar Lee Masters’s “Lucinda Matlock” and “Richard Bone,” and Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses.” Help them understand that people from different historical periods think differently about what the Arthur stories mean.
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Teach a small unit on Kennedy's Camelot. Ask students to explain why a modern president would use medieval imagery in his political campaigns.
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Tips & Warnings
Encourage students who are interested in modern fantasy works like Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" or C.S. Lewis' "Narnia" stories to present the similarities and differences of these works in class.
Do not allow students to romanticize the Middle Ages based on these stories. Remind them that real life in medieval times was far from an idealized adventure.
