Geoffrey Chaucerand

The Canterbury Tales

Learning Goals

• RI.11-12.2 – Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly, as well as, inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

• RI.11-12.4 – Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text.

You need

• Label a clean sheet of paper:– Canterbury Notes at the top

• A copy of the assignment guidelines

• A copy of the storyboard worksheet (squares)

• For your group: ONE fun-color piece of paper and a marker

• A literature book

• Each team has a slip of paper with directions.

• Complete your part of the activity in your notes.

• Share descriptions with your team.

How did you do that?

• Now that you have shared, write down the types of things you used to describe your person.– EX: clothing, job, demeanor

• Have the youngest member of your team hold the results up.

• What is similar between the groups?

• What is different?

Pre-reading

• Consider the title The Canterbury Tales.

• Logically, what might this tell us about the story we are going to read?

In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer writes about a group of people going on a trip to Canterbury. Most of them have never met. And yes, they will tell each other “tales.”

Making connections:

Let’s start with the “group of people”•Why did I ask you to describe a bunch of people?

•Chaucer starts his story by describing all the people who will be traveling together, just like you described the people you “saw” in your scenarios.•As we look at the next screen, put checkmarks next to the ones that you used, as well.

Chaucer described his characters by:• Their job• The type and color of their clothing• Their “accessories”

– (jewelry, pets, other objects)

• The way they act• Their income• Their “secrets”• Their status in society as a whole• The way they speak

– their slang or accent

• Their mode of transportation

Think about our questioning technique from a couple of weeks ago.

• What are some logical questions based on what you know so far?

• Jot at least two in your notes.

• Share with your tablemates.

Why go to Canterbury?

Canterbury was a pilgrimage sitePeople of all classes went on pilgrimages to holy sites to ask

for help with medical, financial or other problems.

What are the tales about? Why tell them?

For them:

•Entertainment

•To pass the time along the road

•Contest

For Chaucer:

•To entertain and inform (purpose)

Chaucer’s Plan • A prologue (introduction) followed by a series of stories and linking dialogues and commentaries

• Each character would tell 2 stories going to Canterbury and 2 stories coming home

THUS

The Canterbury Tales

Shrine of Saint Thomas à Beckett

Canterbury Cathedral

The Tabard Inn

Saint Thomas Becket• Born = 1118/1120 in London

– His father was a land owner

• School in London, year in Paris

• Father suffered reverses

• Worked as a clerk for the Archbishop of Canterbury

• Became Archdeacon of Canterbury

– Collected taxes for the King

• Became the Archbishop of Canterbury after his employer passed.

• Went against the King in an important bid for power.

• Faced a trial, rushed out and escaped to Europe.

• A compromise was reached.

• King promised Becket could return to England.

• Becket was then murdered in Canterbury Church

• Becket was wearing a special under-shirt that signified penance

• Seen as a martyr and then became a saint.

So, let’s travel back to London, to the area called Southward, and start at the Tabard Inn…

Where we meet the Innkeeper, our host

And then we meet the characters and hear their stories.

The story begins...