Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales"

 

Lesson Plan II

This lesson plan is designed for students to understand the writing style Chaucer choses to use. Since the style of writing isn't often used anymore, students will learn about marginalia (artwork in the margins) and be able to create their own. Students will be able to interpret the literature on their own and learn about medieval literature. This is important to teach because it not only helps on their understanding of Chaucer's life and type of writing mood, but to gain better technology skills.

Chaucer's Ancient Manuscript

The Objective

Students should take a short 1 page passage from their favorite tale and copy/paste it onto another sheet of paper. They are then able to chose their own font, keeping in mind that it should be a style that should illustrate Old English text. They will also need a picture that resembles their Chaucer piece. Lastly, they will need medieval margin art. Students will need to search for different forms of marginalia artwork. Students should look at actual pictures from The Canterbury Tales.

The Process

It will be important that students look up the original artwork and fonts used in The Canterbury Tales. Drawing the pictures themselves or printing them off will be fine. There will be websites available to the students, but not mandatory to use. The following sites will be available:

Manuscripts:
http://www.cmi-lmi.com/kingdom.html
http://students.washington.edu/mroland/Elwife72rdone.jpg
http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/elles.htm
Passages:
http://www.canterburytales.org/canterbury_tales.html
http://www.librarius.com/cantales.htm

Once a passage or manuscript is determined, a student should change a font to a represented medieval style. Then, add medieval marginalia artwork and decorate the first letter of the text (like Chaucer did).

The final product should include the following:
A passage from the student's favorite tale. Printed out in a proper font with the first letter decorated. Marginalia artwork should be used somewhere on the page.

When all is complete, students will have the opportunity to present their manuscript to the class and explain why they chose the certain passage and artwork. This will help their presentation skills as well as show their comprehension.

Grading Rubric

Grading will be based off mainly the delivery of the passage. The marginalia artwork should be understandable along with the font. There should be a reasoning behind why the student chose that certain passage. When presenting the passage to fellow classmates, the student will be graded based off a clear explaination and understanding.

The grade will be based off how well they followed directions, how well they used technology and resources, and how well they illustrating their understanding of medieval artwork that pertains to Chaucer's literature.