Power Up Plus! Unit Template
for 21st Century Teaching and Learning
Unit Plan Title: Middle Ages and Canterbury Tales Unit
Developed By: Megan Jones
Grade Level: 12
Length of Unit: 1 week
Standard: What standards will provide the focus for this unit? Choose one core content and one educational technology.
12.R.2.2 Students can read fluently to comprehend grade-level text.
12.R.4.1 Students can evaluate the depiction of human experience in literary works from diverse
cultures, locations, and time periods.
12.LVS.1.3 Students can narrate a multimedia presentation that combines text, images, and sounds to
reflect, to inform, to persuade, or to entertain
9-12.CT.1.1 Incorporate knowledge and enhanced usage skills to create a product.
Essential Questions: What essential questions will focus this unit?
How do the pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer represent the society during the Middle Ages? How did Chaucer use
satire to comment on the church during this time?
Academic Vocabulary: List the key terms students will need to know in order to understand the content.
Satire, Irony, direct characterization, indirect characterization, vernacular, iambic pentameter, couplets, frame
story, pilgrimage
Learning Targets: What are the knowledge, reasoning, skill, and product targets unpacked from the standard or benchmark?
Create
Evaluate
Content (nouns)
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy
Analyze
Apply
Skill
Understand
Remember
Assessments
(verbs)
What topics do students need to know?
What should students be able to do to
process and retain the knowledge?
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What could students do or create to
demonstrate their understanding?
Middle Ages
Geoffrey Chaucer
Middle English
Roman Catholic Church
Characterization
Satire
Read critically
Evaluate Text
Identify direct and indirect
characterization
Connect to modern life
Identify the use of satire and irony
Stand and Deliver Presentations:
Middle Ages background
Prologue Study Guide
Create and present a pilgrim on
blabberize.com
Pilgrim study guide
Middle Ages/Canterbury Tales test
Book questions for “The
Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of
Bath’s Tale”
Planning the Learning Experiences: What learning experiences will equip students to demonstrate the targeted learnings?
In other words, what instructional strategies can be used to facilitate students’ ability to successfully complete the assessments?
Learning Cycle
Tech Integration
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Reading Strategies (KWL Charts, Concept
Where: How will you let participants know the
expected outcomes/purpose of the work?
I have a handout describing the expectations. I
also tell them when introducing the assignments.
Hook: How will you engage participants?
Students really enjoy creating avatars. I also try to
compare Chaucer’s work to modern satirists such
as Steven Colbert or the creators of South Park.
Once students understand that he was
commenting on corruption in the church, they are
more interested.
Explore: What activities will provide experiences
and explorations to equip participants for
completing the final performances?
Blabberize.com or Voki.com
for the presentation of a
pilgrim.
In each unit of study, I have
presented tools like
blabberize, animoto, and wiki
spaces to give students
options for their senior
project. The project
culminates with a
presentation in front of a
panel of judges, and I do have
students who are using these
sites to help them prepare for
the presentations.
I show students examples of past projects to help
them prepare their pilgrim projects.
Maps, Paragraph Outlines, etc.)
Before
Students will research an aspect of the
Middle Ages history, prepare a visual aide,
and present it to the class
During
Students will answer questions on a study
guide while reading.
Students will create an avatar representing
one of the pilgrims in Canterbury Tales.
After
Students will take a unit test on the middle
ages and Canterbury Tales.
Reflect: In what ways will participants be
encouraged to dig deeper through feedback and
self-assessment?
21st Century Skills: Information, Media and
Technology Skills
Information Literacy
Access and Evaluate Information
Use and Manage Information
All of the technology and presentations done in
English 12 are an introduction, and I intend for
them to use the feedback and tech tools when
they are creating the 8-15 minute presentation
they are required to do on the senior project. A
number of students did use Animoto and movie
maker. I believe that the would have used
blabberize and animoto if they were more
accessible at our school.
Research a topic using acceptable online
sources and create a presentation
Media Literacy
Analyze Media & Create Media Products
Exhibit: How will participants show their level of
understanding? Evaluate their strengths and
challenges?
Create a product using blabberize.com or
voki.com
There is a presentation at the beginning
and the end. For the pilgrim presentation,
students have to exhibit that they
understand the work, and they also
connect it to modern people and identify
the satire and irony in the story.
ICT Literacy (Information,
Communications, and Technology Literacy
Apply Technology Effectively
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Lessons/Activities: Use this space to describe sequence of learning activities, materials/resources needed, time frames, etc.
Day 1: Stand and Deliver: For this, students sign up to give a short presentation on any aspect of history from the middle ages. There
is a long reading on this in the text book, and I make sure that those things are addressed at some point in the presentations. The
students use the internet or their text books for research, and they are required to use some type of visual aid for the presentation.
Examples of topics include: Robin Hood, medieval fashion, medieval weaponry, the Black Plague, etc.
Day 2: Stand and Deliver presentations: These are short, informal presentations. I tell the students that they are good practice for
the senior project presentations at the end of the semester, and the other students and I practice giving constructive feedback, such
as “don’t watch the power point as you are presenting”, or “don’t put too much text on the power point.” I also give essential
historical input between the presentations. I find this practice is much more effective than lecture or assigning reading. The
presentation is worth 30 points, and they are graded on information, delivery, and visual aide. When we finish these, the students
are given a short group test to check what they learned, and what background information is still lacking.
Day 3: Geoffrey Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales: I start by presenting a power point about Chaucer’s biography and the
Canterbury Tales. It is important that they have some idea of how English has changed since Chaucer’s time. I always ask a student
to read the prologue in Middle English before they realize there is an easier, translated version. The students are usually relieved!
We read the prologue aloud and discuss a number of study guide questions, so they have an idea of how the story is structured.
Then, students get together with a partner, and they choose one pilgrim to do a presentation on.
Day 4: Students come to class today with their pilgrims chosen. There is a short description of each pilgrim in the prologue. Students
are required to answer a number of questions about their pilgrim that deal with direct and indirect characterization as well as satire.
Then they prepared a presentation of their pilgrim using either Voki or blabberize.com. These programs are perfect for creating
characters! The characters were required to dress as the character described as well as look and speak like those characters. The
avatars had to introduce themselves and tell a few things about themselves. Then the students had to explain any irony in the
characterization and compare the pilgrim to someone who is alive today such as a politician, teacher, etc.
Day 5: Students presented their vokis to the class. We had a lot of difficulties getting the technology to work, so some had to present
with power point or pencil drawings, but the ones that worked were neat. Students were graded on their understanding of the
prologue, delivery, and their visual aide. By the end of the presentations, all of the major pilgrims in the prologue were discussed.
Day 6: Along with the prologue, we listened to and discussed both “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” These stories
give an excellent example of irony as well as the way that Chaucer was satirizing the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. At the
end of this unit, students took a test on the Middle Ages, Chaucer, and Canterbury Tales.
Modifications: In what ways will the learning experiences be differentiated to meet student needs?
Far Below Standard
Approaching Standard
Meeting Standard
Students are able to get
information from their
classmates and in an
informal setting
conducive to questioning
as needed.
Exceeding Standard
The Canterbury Tales pilgrim
presentation give lots of
opportunities to be creative and
go above and beyond the
assignment.
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