Thoughts and reflections on Chaucer

Thoughts and reflections on Chaucer

I also have enjoyed reading Chaucer and I loved the drama activity in class. Dividing the story and sharing out the various scenes gave a good overview of the story and made reading the text easier. The class activity was a powerful example of how such stories can be adapted to modern day society and make learning fun and accessible.

I still think it would be a challenging text to bring alive in the classroom particularly as it is written in Middle English. Whilst the Canterbury rap and other modern interpretations of the text give a good synopsis of the tales, I think it’s important to use the original language and appreciate the beauty of verse and rhyme. Listening to the audio clip provided by the British Library proved very useful when following the text and it was fun figuring out the correct word and meaning behind the verse. Like Shakespeare, Chaucer was a genius with words and as stated on by the British Library website he “could see the language change even in his own lifetime.” There is value in examining the evolving of English and I think the activity of working out the modern day word and comparing it to the old sounds is a good way of exploring language and sounds and perhaps even a route into looking at metre and stresses.

The lesson plan on the Wife of Bath is a good starting point and I like the focus on character. I think it is important to set the context of the Tale and provide pupils with a brief overview of Middle English and Chaucer’s life. It would be easy to adapt the same approach with the Pardoner’s tale looking at the general prologue and the clues in the text to gain an insight into his character. Pupils could then examine the prologue to the Pardoner’s Tale and pick out the adjectives that describe him. A possible creative task could be to draw a picture of the Pardoner based on the clues in the text. I would then try and break up the Tale as told by the Pardoner and use drama to bring alive the story, perhaps in the Italian mafia style as carried out class as this was a great example of how the story is still relevant and being re-told today. I liked the comparison made by Pearsall of the Pardoner to a modern day politician or salesman. It could be used to discuss why the Pardoner chooses to portray himself as a fraudster, analysing what is his motivation for being so openly dishonest.

I would also like to explore the morality of the tale and ask the pupils whether Pardoner’s Tale is one which successfully examines the effects of greed and avarice and perhaps lead this onto a writing their own Tale on greed being the root of all evil using the same concept of re-telling a tale whilst on a road trip.

I really like your ideas about facing Chaucerian language with the children and not shying away from it. Looking at metre and stresses is a great idea, must find this audio clip from the British Library.