Canterbury Tales Pilgrims Moral Rankings Project
• In your group, create some type of moral ranking visual on which to
place each of the pilgrims (thermometer, scale, steps, compass, etc.).
• You must rank the pilgrims described in “The General Prologue” (Total
of 22). Two may not share the same ranking.
• Decide from which critical lens you are ranking the Pilgrims: readerresponse, Marxist, Feminist, Chaucer’s preference, etc. Label this on
your poster.
• Label each character by listing the occupation and also create some
type of symbol that represents each character.
• Choose TEN pilgrims. For each of these ten pilgrims you will need to
give a rationalization for his/her placement in your moral rankings.
(Explain why you placed that particular pilgrim in that particular place in
your rankings).
• Your final product should be poster-board sized, neat, colorful, and
created with effort. The details of the assignment should be clearly
labeled and neatly written.
Application of critical approaches
1) With a group, pick a common fairy tale, a nursery rhyme or a
character from The Canterbury Tales. Whatever you pick should be
brief, and your whole group should know it. I have copies of a few
stories if you would like to have something tangible.
2) Pick two approaches that apply to that text. Compare:
A) What questions would each approach ask or look into for
your story?
B) What details would matter in each approach?
C) What conclusions might someone find about your story
using each approach?
• You’ll have 20 minutes. Then, we’ll discuss them.
• Tomorrow we will have 15 minutes of Reader-Writer time at the
beginning of class Bring a book or your journal!