Richard Gent | Friday September 30, 2022
Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Poetry, Chaucer
Excerpt from The Introduction Geoffrey Chaucer wrote 'The Canterbury Tales' at the end of his life and career in the 1390s, the end of the C14th. He was a scion of the post conquest upper middle class, now integrated and 'modern' in the context of the time. He had been a soldier and diplomat and was later a royal servant and pension holder. He was married but lived apart from his wife for most of their married life. He wrote the Tales to amuse himself and his friends: it was…
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jennywebb | Thursday September 01, 2022
Categories: Archived Resources, KS5 Archive, AQA A Level, AQA A Level Pre-2015 Resources, AQA A Level English Language & Literature A, ELLA4, AQA A Level English Language & Literature B, ELLB4, AQA A Level English Literature B, LITB3, EDEXCEL A Level, Edexcel A Level Pre-2015 Resources, EDEXCEL A Level English Language & Literature, 6EL02, Hot Entries, Poetry, Chaucer, Writing, Literary Analysis
Chaucer can be a daunting prospect for many 17-year-olds. His medieval 14th Century historical, cultural, religious and literary context is so far removed from anything else they have come across before; and the likelihood is that they will never have come across even his name in their earlier school career. By the time they hit A Level, Shakespeare is familiar territory, having been studied at GCSE and KS3 in most schools, but Chaucer remains a dark, mysterious figure, further back in the…
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jennywebb | Monday November 11, 2019
Categories: Archived Resources, KS5 Archive, AQA A Level, AQA A Level Pre-2015 Resources, AQA A Level English Language & Literature B, ELLB3, EDEXCEL A Level, Edexcel A Level Generic Skills, Edexcel A Level Skills Resources, EDEXCEL A Level English Literature, 6ET03, OCR A Level, OCR A Level Pre-2015 Resources, OCR A Level English Literature, F663, WJEC A Level, WJEC A Level Pre-2015 Resources, WJEC A Level English Literature, LT4, Hot Entries, Poetry, Chaucer, The Pardoner’s Tale, Writing, Literary Analysis, Prose Analysis
click on image to enlarge Introduction When Chaucer is to be taught, then ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’ is something a gift for an A Level student: it is short, simple and highly accessible; and yet it simultaneously offers a wealth of rich language for analysis. Themes including greed, death, betrayal and blasphemy are ripe for advanced level discussion and I have always found that, despite the 14th Century setting, the story is a universal one which students find easy to understand…
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Richard Gent | Tuesday September 29, 2015
Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Poetry, Chaucer
Lesson Plan Five Essay and Indicative Responses New PDF In this lesson we will look essay responses to the question posed in Lesson 4 and discuss what other questions could be posed. Question What do these extracts from the Merchants' encomium and Justinus's withering criticism of Januarie's intentions tell us about The Merchant and his attitudes to marriage and in the Tale? Do alway so as women will thee rede. Lo how that Jacob, as these clerkes read, By good counsel of his mother…
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Richard Gent | Tuesday September 29, 2015
Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Poetry, Chaucer
Lesson Plan Four Testing Time Essay Activity New PDF Spend the lesson planning and writing your answer this question:- What do these extracts from the Merchants' encomium and Justinus's withering criticism of Januarie's intentions tell us about The Merchant and his attitudes to marriage and in the Tale? Do alway so as women will thee rede. Lo how that Jacob, as these clerkes read, By good counsel of his mother Rebecc' Bounde the kiddes skin about his neck; For which his…
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Richard Gent | Tuesday September 29, 2015
Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Poetry, Chaucer
Lesson Plan Three His final lines form a sort of disclaimer: that the tale will not be connected to his own experience of marriage. That his head will rule his heart: but plainly it doesn't. In lesson three we will look at the points in the tale where his feelings inform and direct what the characters do and say. The learning objective is To understand the richness and variety of the narrative, which is, let us remember, a condemnation of wives and marriage. An important part of that variety…
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Richard Gent | Tuesday September 29, 2015
Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Poetry, Chaucer
Lesson Plan Two This lesson is all about the first of the two aspects of the Tale we looked at last time: commerce, profit and the Merchant's number one priority of 'th'encrees of his wynnyng'. The learning objective is To see the extent to which the characters are driven by the lust for money as well as the lust of Januarie, Damyan and May for sex. And consequently their concern with appearances, which mask this and seem to want to imply conventional respectability, especially…
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Richard Gent | Monday September 28, 2015
Categories: KS5 Resources, KS5 Literature, Poetry, Chaucer
Lesson Plan One In this lesson we will look at our introduction to the Merchant in the General Prologue and the Prologue to the Tale and then trace the ways in which commerce and commercial activity: the profit imperative, underpin the Tale itself. The learning objective is To develop our understanding of the ways in which the Merchant's own character and attitudes shape and colour the narrative and the big ideas he deals with. By the end of this lesson we should be able to answer the…
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Paul Merrell | Tuesday April 01, 2014
Categories: Drama, The Rivals, Hot Entries, Poetry, Chaucer, The Wife of Bath’s Tale, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue, Writing, Comparing & Contrasting, Drama Analysis, Poetry Analysis, EDEXCEL A Level English Literature, AQA A Level English Language & Literature A, AQA A Level English Language & Literature B, AQA A Level English Literature A, AQA A Level English Literature B, EDEXCEL A Level English Language & Literature, OCR A Level English Literature, F663, WJEC A Level English Language & Literature, WJEC A Level English Literature, KS5 Archive, AQA A Level, EDEXCEL A Level, OCR A Level, WJEC A Level
click on image to enlarge The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale with Comparative Notes for Sheridan’s The Rivals Introduction This guide covers Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath, both the Prologue and Tale, and focuses of the A2 OCR unit F663, Section B – but the guide should prove very useful to anyone teaching these Chaucer texts for any other exam board. The OCR unit itself requires a comparison with another text, and in this guide, that text is Sheridan’s The Rivals – thus, teachers…
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