Middle Ages Literature

This lesson is a final senior English presentation for the end of the year that asks students to chose a particular work they have studied, then relate it back to a modern times via a specific theme. The main point of the lesson is to teach students that literature, and its themes, are timeless and are consistently always relevant to any current situation. If you have not taught any of the attached pieces, then please replace them with what pieces and themes you have taught. Also, please feel free to adapt the lesson to fit your own curriculum.

I go through the attached PowerPoint to start as we talk about Chaucer's background and then we get into the plot of The Canterbury Tales. I tell the students we are going to be doing active reading by writing character snap shot as we go along to get a basic idea of each character that will help us understand the story was we read. The character snap shot is a few sentences describing physical characteristic of eac character along with their personality. Then the students have to place 12 of the travelers at a table for dinner based on who would get along.

I designed this pre-reading assignment to help students understand WHY the pilgrims' journey to Canterbury is so meaningful to them.  It's hard for media-living 21st century kids to "get" 14th century social, political and religious significance.  They also get hooked by the best buds breakup between Henry II and Becket, as well as discussing how "short" a time it takes for Canterbury and Becket to become such a significant destination for a pilgrimage.  It also gives them a better understanding of the connections between the Three Estates represented amon

I developed this lesson as a way to review irony in "The Pardoner's Tale." Students can either work together or individually to create their own paper pizza using greedy cheese and the other ingredients - peppers, pineapple, and pepperoni. The various ingredients represent the different types of irony - dramatic, situational, and verbal. I chose ones that started with "p" for the sake of alliteration.

 After my classes have completed reading the Prologue, the Pardoner's Tale and the Wife of Bath's tale, I assign "The Canterbury Tales" project. Students enjoy this assignment because they can choose any media to portray another tale, an original tale, a reenactment of the ones we've studied, a pilgrimage either serious or mock, and the list goes on. I have even had an original ballad written and performed with guitar and bass.

When teaching Medieval English ballads, I discuss what ballads are and that people today still sing ballads. After my introductory material, I ask students to name some popular songs today that are ballads. I give hints about popular children's songs that are ballads and have students guess what they are also. I then spend some time letting the students listen to "Lord Randall" and some other ballads on YouTube.