Lesson Plan: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

English IV or Senior English in the state of Mississippi is a class that encompasses British literature—beginning with the Anglo-Saxon work, Beowulf, and continuing through those works that were produced during the twentieth century. One the foremost works that was produced during the Middle Ages is Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. As this was and still is an influential work, teachers have a responsibility to include it in any curriculum that encompasses early British literature and to create quality Canterbury Tales lesson plans.

Because Chaucer’s work is written in Middle English, it sounds archaic to students today. Therefore, it is important that students pay close attention to details Chaucer incorporates to help students imagine Chaucer's pilgrims. If students are able to imagine these pilgrims and bring them to life, they are able to understand the tales and the rationale behind the specific tales they decide to tell.

You'll be amazed at how well this works and will eagerly add it to your Canterbury Tales lesson plans arsenal.

Requiring a Canterbury Tales analysis can be difficult. Making the Canterbury Tales analysis part of an art project makes it easier.

One way I enrich students with information contained in the Prologue is to make them draw the pilgrims according to the details and description that Chaucer sets forth in the Prologue.

Not only do students have to pay attention to the details that are presented, but I make them rewrite the description into modern language and attach that to their drawing of the pilgrims. In other words, students have to engross themselves into Middle English, understand the text enough to draw their own rendering on the pilgrim, and then, students have to translate the Middle English language into their own vernacular.

I require that students draw at least four pilgrims from The Canterbury Tales and require them to write a ten-line description of each pilgrim that they select to draw.

Make sure students’ drawings reflect the amount of detail Chaucer incorporates into his Prologue.