Plan of attack for The Canterbury Tales
Michel Herzog and Manon Geimer
Based on: The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer (Longman Classics)
Stage 2: 900 words
The lesson plan is divided into 9 lessons, consisting of the Introduction, Prologue, the seven
stories told on the way and a wrapping-up lesson.
Lesson 1: Prologue
On an OHT show different places of pilgrimage, Lourdes, Mecca, … What do you know
about these places? Why do people go there? How do people go there?
Read the first paragraph of the Prologue. Then show where Canterbury is. Where do the
pilgrims come from? How long would it take them for that journey?
Introduce vocabulary, inn, tale,… Read the reminder of the Prologue. Answer the questions at
the back.
Historical Background
HW: Read ‘The Knights Tale’
Lesson 2: The Knights Tale
What words related to war did you come across in the reading?
In pairs, match the definitions to the words related to war: rule over, soldier, conquer, fight,
kill, prisoner,… Make a sentence with these words.
Answer questions at the back.
Give the students strips of paper with parts of a summary. Put the strips in the right order.
Then tell each other the story without looking.
HW: read the next story
Lesson 3: The Clerk’s Tale
Vocabulary related to family. Discuss about the meaning of marriage. How do you think the
importance, institution of marriage has changed over time?
Answer the questions at the back.
Moral of the story: Would you act like Griselda? Were her actions right?
HW: read the next story
Lesson 4: The wife of Bath’s Tale
In pairs students summarise the story in 5 sentences.
Do the activities in the back.
Discussion about beauty: What is beauty? What makes a person beautiful?
Look at metaphors and idioms about beauty.
Do you know similar stories? Which ones? Moral of the story?
HW: no homework
Lesson 5: The Pardoner’s Tale
Put the picture on an OHT and students have to describe it.
Read the story to the students, stopping several times, to give students the opportunity to
predict and summarise.
HW: read the next story
Lesson 6: The Franklin’s Tale
Tell each other the story. Would you have reacted the same way?
Do the activities at the back.
Reading The Bridge. Who is responsible for the woman’s death? Why? Discuss. What does it
say about you?
HW: Read the next story.
Lesson 7: The Friar’s Tale
Do the activities at the back.
Can you think of a similar job today? Would you want to do that job? Make a list of jobs with
positive and negative connotations and discuss.
HW: read the next story
Lesson 8: The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
Do the activities at the back.
Animal vocabulary and metaphors.
Moral of the story, what is it?
Do you know other similar stories, fables, where animals are personified and carry a
message?
In groups retell each other on of these stories, then choose one that you tell in class.
HW: think of a short story, 2 minutes long
Lesson 9: Wrapping-up
Which story did you prefer? Why?
Students have their own story contest. In groups of four, everyone tells a story, about 2
minutes long. Then they choose the best one, which will be told to the whole class. The
winner is chosen by the class.