The SkyView Tales Project Clarified
DUE DATE: ___________________________
Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is about a group of 14th century pilgrims from all walks of
life who travel together for several days on their way to a shrine in Canterbury. They entertain
each other on this journey by telling stories. The person who tells the most entertaining story
wins dinner at the local tavern, courtesy of the other story-telling pilgrims
Your task for this project is to create a contemporary version of The Canterbury Tales based in
an American high-school. This means taking on a persona from the American high school. It
also means deciding on a theme for the competitive story-telling element, and creating your
own character and rhyming story. As in the original contest, whoever tells the most
entertaining story wins pizza and desert for lunch on Friday, May 24th.
Criteria:
Part I: Prologue (25 points)
You will write a 10-20 line prologue for your persona/character. Your description should
directly and indirectly characterize the character, tells of the character’s journey, and clues us
into the theme(s) or issue(s) relevant to the character’s life or social situation. For instance, if
you chose the English teacher, you might write about how many cats she has and how she’s
never been able to meet a man who matches up to the romantic heroes in British novels.
All parts of the Prologue must be in rhymed couplets. Couplets should be close to iambic
pentameter (10 syllables).
Part II: Individual Tale (50 points)
You will write a 40-50 line (60 lines total) modern tale that his/her character would tell. This
tale should reflect the character’s social status, values, and lifestyle. The story can be satirical
and criticize an aspect of the American high school society. For example, you might criticize
how much homework your English teacher gives…haha!
Notes on Taste and Appropriateness:
While humor, wit, and social satire are encouraged in this project, it is important to respect the
boundaries of appropriate and tasteful content; remember we are still in school. We want to
entertain our audience, not offend them. Good social satire is delicate: we want to illuminate
the quirks and flaws of our characters, but we also want to avoid vulgarity.
Inappropriate Content:
1. Excessive alcohol, drug, or sexual references (if it is relevant to your decade’s culture, it
is one thing. However, simply glorifying its illicit use for laughs is another thing).
2. Any comments that are derogatory or could be considered offensive to members of
racial, cultural, religious, sexual orientation, or gender groups.

Some creative leeway will be given under the pretense of relevance and context of the
decade your group is assigned to. If you are having a hard time determining whether
something is appropriate, ask me if it is okay before you start writing.
Part III: Performance (5 points)
Each group will perform their Tale in front of the class on our campus pilgrimage. Seeing that
the original Canterbury Tales was a storytelling contest, we will continue with this idea. On the
day of the performance, students are encouraged to dress like their character, bring in props,
or make visuals, etc.