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Classroom Activities for Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Three lessons based on "The Wife of Bath's Prologue" from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales offer scholars an opportunity to examine literary satire, medieval attitudes towards women, and the form and function of a frame story.
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Chaucer: Text and Contexts
Compare the Wife of Bath's text to the biblical verses she references. Much of Chaucer's Wife of Bath's words are direct reflections of bible verses; this presentation matches the Old English to the biblical references and helps explain...
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Chaucer's Wife of Bath
A thorough and well-designed resource for older students, this lesson focuses on Chaucer's character the Wife of Bath from his classic novel, The Canterbury Tales. As a way of understanding Chaucer's complex characterization and...
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Chaucer: Text and Contexts
Take your class through the Wife of Bath's Tale from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales with this slide show. First summarizing the events of this section, the presentation goes on to provide the supporting text for each plot point, from the...
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Medieval England: Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales
Build historical background for your medieval literature class with this presentation. Focusing on the characteristics of feudal society and religious influence, the slides are a good basis for starting your medieval literature class -...
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Chaucer: Text and Contexts
Guide your class through a lecture or lecture series on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales with this presentation. First summarizing the Knight's Tale and the Miller's Tale, the slides then provide the text for the Miller's Tale, linking...
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Chaucer: Canterbury Tales
A good addition to a class discussion of Canterbury Tales, this presentation guides students through a thorough plot summary of the Knight's tale and the Miller's tale. The final fourteen slides include passages from the Miller's tale....
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Chaucer: Text and Contexts
Providing the historical context of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, this slideshow would make a great addition to either a British literature class, a world history class, or a medieval history class. The first few slides present the state...
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The Canterbury Tales Study Questions & Essay Topics
In this online interactive literature learning exercise, students respond to 6 short answer and essay questions about Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Students may check some of their answers online.
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The Canterbury Tales Quiz
In this online interactive reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 25 multiple choice questions about Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. Students may submit their answers to be scored.
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The Canterbury Tales: Help the Host Quiz
In this The Canterbury Tales Prologue worksheet, students advise the Host by answering two questions about each pilgrim. Students complete a graphic organizer.
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Satire in Fiction
Twelfth graders identify satire in various fictional texts. In this language arts lesson, 12th graders will learn to define satire, parody, and caricature. Students will identify different forms of satire in historical and modern-day...
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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
High schoolers work in groups to imagine, research and simulate a dinner party involving an author, a fictional character, and a significant historical figure as dinner guests. The activity uses Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and...
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Details and Observations IQ or the Eyes Have it
Fourth graders study Chaucer as a master of details. Then, they create a short story linking unrelated details into a logical plot with a clear setting and established characters. This activity has some excellent worksheets attached!
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The Teller of the Tale, Part 2
Learners discuss character types and their qualities. They select two characters and write about their dress, speech, habits, attitudes and beliefs. They write a monologue as the characters presenting a moral theme.
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The Teller of the Tale, Part 3
Students practice use of volume, stress, pacing, enunciation, eye contact, and gestures needed to meet the needs of the audience when presenting their own tales based on Chaucer. They receive teacher and student feedback and prepare to...
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Playing Chaucer's Pilgrims
Students dress like Chaucer's pilgrims in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales and act out a skit revealing Chaucer's description of each pilgrim.
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Chaucer: Canterbury Tales General Prologue
Perhaps a companion to a class discussion about the general prologue (Parson and Summoner) of Canterbury Tales, this presentation simply presents students with lines 477-714 of the text. No additional commentary or annotation is included...
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Cliff Notes for The Canterbury Tales: Quiz
In this Canterbury Tales quiz interactive worksheet, 9th graders answer 12 multiple choice questions about the tales with immediate online feedback.
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Cliff Notes for The Canterbury Tales: Essay Questions
In this Canterbury Tales essay questions learning exercise, 9th graders answer 5 comprehension questions about several different tales.
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Chaucer's "The Prioress' Tale"
Students examine Anti-Semitism in literature. In this Chaucer lesson, students review the concept of blood libel and then identify and analyze the Anti-Semitic message of "The Prioress' Tale."
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Chaucer Web Quest
In this literature web quest worksheet, students research online the answers to the questions about Chaucer. Students answer 4 questions.
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Canterbury Tales, "The General Prologue"
In these Canterbury Tales worksheets, learners complete a chart of analysis about the pilgrims in the literature. Students also analyze the best and worst pilgrims.
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Writing Application: The Canterbury Tales
Students read stories from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and create their own tale. In this writing applications lesson plan, students read the tales and analyze the specific details that Chaucer use. Students work in groups...