The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

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Teacher Guides

Magill’s offers their familiar overview.

Masterplots, much the same.

Introduction by Phyllis Hodgson.

• Applied Practice -- Sampler available.
• Barron’s Book Notes -- characters, plots, tales, two quizzes. Removed at request of publisher.
• Course Hero Study Guide and Infographic -- 24 Videos are also available on-site.
• Enriched Classics -- Activities focus on “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” and original satirical writing.
• Glencoe -- focus on prologue and a few tales; auxiliary texts.
• GradeSaver -- summaries and analyses.
• Lit Plan Unit -- Vocabulary and Content quizzes at Recall & Comprehension level, puzzles, word searches, etc. Extensive.
• LitCharts -- Available overview includes good notes on characterization, theme, and quote discussion, but you must join to download teacher materials.
• Pink Monkey -- good summary of tales. Removed at request of publisher.
• Prestwick House -- Extensive materials. AP Teaching Unit (Sampler), Regular Teaching Unit (Sampler), Critical Perspectives (Sampler), Activity Pack (Sampler), and Response Journal (Sampler).
• Penguin Activities & Answers and Teacher Notes
• Shmoop -- Makes comections to contemporary media and explores why this tale is still worth telling. Engaging.
• Gothic Costumes
• “Avoid the Edifice Complex and Enjoy Teaching Chaucer” by Gary Baugh is an English Journal article presenting an approach that privileges creative writing.

PowerPoints

• Canterbury Tales Introduction & Note-taking
• Chaucer and Canterbury Tales Overview
• Canterbury Tales Test Review
• Canterbury Tales Jeopardy Games 1, 2, and 3
• Pilgrims Overview and Assignment

Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer: Founder of Our Language -- Biographical video overview emphasizing his impact on the English language.

A larger-than-life statue of Chaucer, dressed as a Canterbury pilgrim, stands in the Canterbury high street. Details from the Archaeological Society.

Westminster Abbey Poet’s Corner -- the tomb of Chaucer.
Click on image to see larger graphic.

Handouts

Daniel Pogebra’s Introduction includes a group assignment on a student-selected tale.

Background Information

My Background Handout

Note-taking Forms for Pilgrims -- Chart 1 or Chart 2.

Pilgrim Details -- summary for each pilgrim.

Medieval Job Descriptions

Moral Thermometer

Prologue Study Guide -- short answer questions.

Reading Chaucer Aloud

Assignments

Art Project -- create a revealing and accurate 3D representation of your character, perhaps a doll, a sculpture, a paper doll, or puppet. AND, your model should also somehow reflect something from the character’s tale.

Banquet Project -- a close reading, an individual character presentation, and a banquet appearance in character, with appropriate food.

Biography Tale -- Your turn to write your own character description, a prologue, and a tale for your original character -- all in rhyming couplets! (NCAE Character Guidelines)

Creative Projects -- A Baker’s Dozen! My favorites.

Dr. John’s Blackberry Jam -- a prewriting prologue construction. Fun.

Job Application -- kinda fun.

Medieval Tabloid -- Group project crearing a medieval newspepr based on The Canterbury Tales.

Modern Day Canterbury Tales -- Pilgrims and Tales appropriate to our time, but in the manner of Chaucer, rhyming couplets and all. Simpler assignment focusing on the modern prologue alone.

Prologue Group Work -- A dozen analytical questions to be answered as a group.

Personal Metaphors for Chaucer -- could also be assigned for well-developed individual pilgrims.

Where Are They Now? -- Small groups will use text-based details to create plausible futures for four pilgrims.

Articles & Criticism

“Geoffrey Chaucer: The Father of English Poetry” by John Fleming presents the College Board justification for teaching a medieval poetic text.

“Avoid the Edifice Complex and Enjoy Teaching Chaucer” by Gary Baugh is an English Journal article presenting an approach that privileges creative writing.

“Chaucer’s Discussion of Marriage” by George Kittredge focuses on tales by the Clerk, the Merchant, the Wife of Bath, and the Franklin.

“Chaucer the Pilgrim” by E. Talbot Donaldson explores Chaucer’s narrative roles.

“Dantean Burlesques in The Canterbury Tales” by Matthew Bolton connects The Inferno to The Canterbury Tales.

“A Feminist Perspective on The Canterbury Tales” by Rosemary Reisman.

Critical Analyses of individual tales --

• “The Knight’s Tale”
• “The Miller’s Tale”
• “The Pardoner’s Tale”
• “The Parson’s Tale”
• “The Squire’s Tale”
• “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”

Useful Websites

Harvard’s Chaucer Site -- Chaucer’s language and life, background information, sources and the site index, which links to hundreds of primary and secondary sources.

Johns Hopkins Chaucer Hub -- Comprehensive resources with tips on reading Middle English and a searchable Concordance.

Luminarium Chaucer Site -- includes biography, historical context, and works.

Open Access Companion to The Canterbury Tales -- introductory essays for first-time readers. Tools, Text, and Transformation for each Tale!

Visualizing Chaucer -- Site seeks to capture postmedieval illustrated versions of Chaucer’s work. Extensive.

Audio Files

LibriVox -- Several readers of the Prologue and the Tales.

England: Tales of Canterbury, Becket, and Chaucer -- focuses on the death of Becket and the origin of the pilgrimage.

Tests

Just the Prologue

• Multiple-Choice & True/False (25)
• Multiple-Choice & Matching (32)
• TF, MC, Matching, Composition (65)
• Pilgrim Match

Prologue & Tales

• Multiple Choice (61)
• Multiple Choice (63)
• Multiple Choice & Matching (50)
• Short Answer

Essays

• Essay Topics
• Interpretive Issues
• Satire
• AP Prompts

Illuminated Manuscripts

Google “illuminated letters coloring pages” and print the letter of your name to color. Have fun.

OR color this page from the Kelmscott manuscript illustrated by William Morris.

If you are really intrigued by medieval manuscripts, learn more from this PowerPoint, which traces manuscript development.

To the tune of “Nowhere Man,” History Teachers Music Video “Illuminated Manuscripts.”

The Animated Canterbury Tales

Academy-nominated Tales are not really for children. Each is illustrated in its own style -- Chanticleer in wood block format; the Knight in an eerie, ghostly style. YouTube has them in a three-part format, better because it includes each tale’s Prologue, as well as the Tale. Part One: Leaving London (Nun’s Priest, Knight, Wife of Bath); Part Two: Arriving at Canterbury (Merchant, Pardoner, Franklin); Part Three: The Journey Back (Squire, Canon’s Servant, Miller, Reeve). Also available individually...

• “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”
• “The Knight’s Tale”
• “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”
• “The Merchant’s Tale”
• “The Pardoner’s Tale”
• “The Franklin’s Tale”
• “The Squire’s Tale”
• “The Yeoman’s Canon’s Tale”
• “The Miller’s and the Reeve’s Tale”

Instructional Videos

Course Hero has a YouTube channel with 34 short videos on the background, each pilgrim, and various tales.

• The Prologue, Summary and Analysis
• The Characters
• Summary and Analysis
• Author Biography
• 10 Things You Didn't Know

First Rate Tutors, a British site, includes an Overview in its 24 short videos, but focuses on summarizing and explaining each tale. Simple visuals, but good notes.

TED Talk: Everything Yuu Need to Know to Read The Canterbury Tales -- This racy introduction, designed to intrigue the reader, starts with “The Miller’s Tale.”

TED Talk: Where Did English Come From?

Adaptations

Canterbury Tales Murder Mysteries by Paul C. Doherty -- These medieval murder mysteries borrow heavily from the original tales, as noted below.

1. An Ancient Evil (1994) - Knight (Read Opening)
2. A Tapestry of Murders (1994) - Man of Law
3. A Tournament of Murders (1996) - Franklin
4. Ghostly Murders (1997) - Parson and Plowman
5. The Hangman's Hymn (2001) - Carpenter
6. A Haunt of Murder (2002) - Oxford Clerk
7. The Midnight Man (2012) - Physician

One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakruni -- Not exactly an adaptation but certainly referential. 2020 AP Lit Prose prompt. Discussion Questions. Back cover notes below..

When an earthquake rips through the afternoon lull,trapping these nine wildly individual characters together, their focus first jolts to a collective struggle to survive. There’s little food. The office begins to flood. Then, at a moment when the psychological and emotional stress seems nearly too much for them to bear, the young graduate student suggests that each tell a personal tale, “one amazing thing” from their lives, which they have never told anyone before. As their surprising stories of romance, marriage, family, political upheaval, and self-discovery unfold against the urgency of their life-or-death circumstances, the novel proves the transcendent power of stories and the meaningfulness of human expression itself. (Good Reads Summary)

Texts

Spark Notes NO FEAR Side-by-Side Online Translation

Caxton’s Chaucer -- The British Library provides full access to both editions printed by Caxton. These are images of the actual pages, so, not really very easy to read. Interesting as reference.

Prologue Simplified -- Michael Murphy’s version modernizes spelling and punctuation and adds introductions and sidenotes, but does not change the text substantially otherwise.

Textbook Exerpt of Prologue -- includes side notes, footnotes, study questions, and illustrations of the Nevill Coghill translation.

Penguin Classics Middle English version is my preferred version, since it includes good footnotes and ample room for notation.

Oxford Illustrated Classics -- Modern prose version by Victor Ambrus, illustrated by Geraldine McCaughrean, offers an easy entrance to the tales.

The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling by Peter Ackroyd is modern, readable, thorough, covering 24 tales. It plods a bit, but is definiitely accessible.

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales by Marcia Williams -- A children’s book with excellent illustrations for the Prologue and nine of the Tales.

The Chaucer Storybook by Eva March Tappan is a simplified version of seven tales, accessible to even elementary students. Offered as part of the University of Oklahoma’s UN-Textbook Series.

Just for Fun

A Chaucerian Cookery -- Attend a medieval feast and check out the recipes.

Medieval and Renaissance Food offers more extensive recipes, not all actually in Chaucer.

NPR’s “Modern Chaucer: Street Talk and a Dance Beat” updates Chaucer, with a risqué language warning. Focuses on its contemporary rebirth.

The Onion’s “All Seven Deadly Sins Committed at the Church Bake Sale”. You know, it is The Onion.

History Teachers, famous for their historical music videos set to familiar modern music have a great one for The Canterbury Tales (Set to “California Dreamin’ ”).

The Canterbury Tales, retold in graphic novel format by Seymour Chwast, includes The Prologue and twenty-four tales.

Telling Tales by Patience Agbibi is a 21st century remix of the originals in vibrant, modern language. Not for everyone. Her Prologue.

John Derbyshire’s The Sacramento Tales is a hoot.

Evolutionist Richard Dawkins used The Canterbury Tales as a structure for his2004 book about evolution - The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution. His animal pilgrims are on their way to find the common ancestor, each telling a tale about evolution.

A little difficult to read, but this Medieval Price List is enlightening.

Canterbury Tales Clip Art

Enrichment

A Knight’s Tale -- This 2001 movie is an interesting source for medieval background, but NOT the Knight of the Tales.

• Review of the Movie: A Knight’s Tale Is the Best Medieval Movie (No, Really)
• A Knight’s Tale Viewing Questions
• A Knight’s Tale as Medieval Romance
• A Knight’s Tale Comparison/Contrast Paragraph
• A Knight’s Tale Essay

Becket -- Loosely based on Jean Anouilh’s play, this 1964 film is a showcase for two extraordinary actors, presenting a particularly vivid characterization of Henry II.

• Becket Introduction with Two Reviews -- Excellent materials by an unnamed teacher. Reviews offer contrasting views of the film.
• Becket Viewing Questions
• Knights of Columbus Movie Guide
• Guardian Review

Becket, or The Honor of God by Jean Anouilh Teacher Guide -- The original play is quite readable. This guide offers background, context, and criticism. Act-by-Act Study Questions.

Canterbury & Pilgrimages

Beautiful Canterbury Cathedral and The Canterbury Tales

Canterbury Cathedral Virtual Tour

Pilgrimage to Canterbury -- a modern re-tracing of the Pilgrims’ steps. Good photographs of contemporary Canterbury, with an insightful discussion of pilgrimages, in general.

Sacred Destinations Travel Blog -- take a modern pilgrimage to Canterbury and see the paths ancient pilgrims walked.

NPR 5-Part Series: The New Canterbury Tales:For the true Anglophile, this series explores how British people live and what they believe through a walk in the footsteps of Geoffrey Chaucer from London to Canterbury. The journey provides an overview of Britain, and the new dramas being played out on its streets and in its rural fields.

Pilgrim stairs at Canterbury Cathedral

Modern shrine at Canterbury Cathedral

Ezra Winter, Canterbury Tales mural (1939), Library of Congress John Adams Building, Washington, D.C., located on the west wall of the North Reading Room, features the Miller, Host, Knight, Squire, Yeoman, Doctor, Chaucer, Man of Law, Clerk, Manciple, Sailor, Prioress, Nun and three Priests. The other pilgrims appear on the east wall. Merchant, Friar, Monk, Franklin, Wife of Bath, Parson, and the Plowman shown in the partial image below.

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Updated 23 February 2024.