Lesson video

Hi, welcome to today's English lesson.

I'm Mr. Posthill, and this is the first lesson in a series of lessons on The Knight's Tale, part of the Canterbury Tales' by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Today, we'll be focusing on Frame Narrative and Poetic Form in The Knight's Tale.

For today's lesson you're going to need a pen and a paper or anything to write on and write with.

If you want to take a couple of moments to go and find those things and to take a moment to clear out any distractions, turn off any notifications or apps that you might have in the background that are going to distract you as we go through this.

If you want to pause the video to get that sorted, and that will be great.

All ready? Brilliant, let's begin.

The Canterbury Tales' is an epic poem written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Middle Ages.

It is the story of a group of Pilgrims on their journey from the Tabard Inn, in Southwark, London, to visit the shrine of Thomas a Beckett, a Canterbury Cathedral.

This journey is called a pilgrimage.

Along the journey, the pilgrims hold a story-telling competition.

Each Pilgrim tells a story, with the best storyteller winning a prize on their return.

Look at the three sentences on this slide.

Copy them out on your paper and complete the sentences, filling in the gaps, using the words highlighted at the bottom of the page.

In order to do this, pause your video now.

Great effort, let's have a look how you've got on.

So sentence one, an epic poem is a long poem that uses lots of elaborate description.

We often refer to this as grandiose description.

Sentence two.

Pilgrims are people who go on religious journey to visit a holy place.

There are 31 Pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales though we only actually get Tales from some of them.

Sentence three, A shrine is a holy place that Pilgrims visit to show their faith in God.

In the Canterbury Tales, the shrine is the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury.

If you got all three of those right then really well done.

If you didn't quite manage that, then don't forget you can always go back in the video and review what those difficult new terms mean.

So let's have a little go at a true or false reference.

We have four sentences here, some of them are true, some of them are false.

You can either put a T and an F next to the letter for true or false, or you can of course do this in your head.

A, the oral tradition is when stories are passed on through word of mouth.

True or false? B, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales' in old English.

C, The Canterbury Tales was written in the Middle Ages.

D, The Canterbury Tales is a single story told from one character's point of view.

If you want to go back through these, pause now.

Okay, let's see how we got on.

A, the oral tradition is when stories are passed on through word of mouth? Yes, that's true.

Very few stories were written down at this time as literacy was rare around the people of England.

B, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales' in old English? No, this is false.

Geoffrey Chaucer was writing in middle English, a type of English that actually is quite familiar with some of the key words that Geoffrey Chaucer was using.

C, The Canterbury Tales' was written in the Middle Ages? Yes, indeed it was.

It was written in the 14th century, a time that we now know as the Middle Ages.

D, The Canterbury Tales' is a single story told from one character's point of view? Very much not, that is false.

The Canterbury Tales' is a collection of short stories with an overriding story arc.

This is referred to as a frame narrative, which we're going to be coming on to in just a moment.

So let's think about that term frame narrative.

The way that the Canterbury Tales' is structured is known as a frame narrative.

A frame narrative is when an overall story such as the Pilgrim's journey and storytelling competition contains one or more smaller stories within it, i.

e the Pilgrim's individual tales.

It is essentially a story or set of stories within another story.

Let's see what that looks like within The Canterbury Tales'.

So our overriding story is the story of the Pilgrimage.

Geoffrey Chaucer and his other pilgrims going on a journey to Canterbury Cathedral to visit the tomb of Thomas a Beckett, and in that they're telling smaller stories.

Those other stories contain The Knight's Tale, The Prioress' Tale, The Wife of Bath's Tale and The Miller's Tale as just some of those examples.

This is what is known as a frame narrative.

We see frame narratives in many other forms of story, literature and even in modern day film.

For example, in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, as I'm sure many of you have read, the main story is of Harry's ongoing battle with Voldemort.

However, at the same time, we have a sub story or a story within a story of the tale of the three brothers that describes how The Deathly Hallows become a part of the mythology.

Similarly in the Odyssey, so the story of Odysseus returning home, the overriding arc is Odysseus's recounting of his return home to Ithaca.

He's telling the story of his journey.

However, within that, he explains the story of how he met the Cyclops, how he visited the Island of Circe, amongst various other smaller stories.

The Odyssey is the overriding story arc while story such as the Cyclops and the Island of Circe are the shorter sub stories, the stories within a story.

So let's check your understanding.

In a moment, I'm going to ask you to pause the video and complete this sentence by writing it down and filling in the blanks.

A frame narrative is? Pause the video now and complete the sentence.

Okay, let's see how you got on.

A frame narrative is when a main story or narrative contains one or more shorter narratives as part of the overall story.

You could of course have said, one or more smaller narratives, rather than shorter, both would have been a perfectly fine answer.

Effectively, a frame narrative refers to a bigger overriding story with one or more shorter stories as part of that narrative.

Let's have another go.

An example of a frame narrative is? Complete this sentence by filling in the blanks and pause the video now.

Okay, let's see how you got on.

An example of a frame narrative is, an example of a frame narrative in The Canterbury Tales' is The Knight's Tale.

The Knight's Tale is one of several short stories that fit into the overriding story of The Canterbury Tales' and the pilgrims travelling to Thomas a Beckett shrine in Canterbury.

Okay, so we've looked at frame narrative within The Knight's Tale, now let's think about the poetic form.

In The Knight's Tale and The Canterbury Tales' overall, the form that is used is Iambic Pentameter with Heroic Couplets.

We're going to explain what these two things are shortly.

But to start off with, let's read the first four lines in middle English of The Knight's Tale.

Whilom, as old stories tellen us, ther was a duc that highte Theseus, Of Atthenes he was lord and governour, And in his tyme swich a conquerour.

You may already have started to see the rhythm of the line structure and rhymes at the end of the line, but let's have a look at it in modern English.

Once upon a time, as old tales tell us, There was a duke whose name was Theseus Of Athens he was lord and governor, And in his time was such a conqueror.

Take a moment now to think about the rhythm of the lines, the number of syllables, and also how the end of the line rhyme together.

So let's think about what iambic pentameter is.

The Canterbury Tales' is an epic poem that follows the poetic form of iambic pentameter.

Iambic pentameter.

There were two parts to the term, Iamb and pentameter.

Iamb meaning a pair of syllables, I am, two beats to the word, and pentameter, meaning five lots of pairs in each line.

So each line of iambic pentameter contains five pairs of syllables or five iambs.

Now let's look at that term iambic pentameter used in a sentence.

Iambic pentameter is when a poet uses five pairs of syllables called iambs, in each line.

Iambic pentameter can be seen in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales'.

Many poets use iambic pentameter in their poems, such as William Shakespeare in his sonnets.

If you want to write down these meanings of iambic pentameter, then feel free to pause the video now.

So let's take a look at how iambic pentameter works in the opening four lines of The Knight's Tale.

Once on a time as old tales tells to us, There was a duke whose name was Theseus Of Athens he was lord and governor, And in his time was such a conqueror.

Now you can see there are back slashes separating out pairs of syllables here, and we can count out those syllables as we go.

Once on a time as old tales tell to us.

So we have five pairs of syllables, one two, one two, one two, one two, one two.

Once on a time as old tales tell to us.

We've done the next line for you.

There was a duke whose name was Theseus.

So we have five pairs of syllables in each line.

If you can see, we call these pairs iambs.

Of Athens and as he was lord and governor.

Five pairs of five iambs pentameter.

And in his time was such a conqueror.

So when we read this and it flows as normal, once upon a time as old tales tell to us, There was a duke whose name was Theseus Of Athens he was lord and governor, And in his time with such a conqueror.

We see that the iambic pentameter allows this to flow as we read.

Okay, now it's time for you to have a go.

In a second you'll see the next two lines of the introduction to The Knight's Tale.

The first is split into iambs pairs of syllables.

What I'd like you to do is to copy out the sentence and add the syllables, one two, one two, one two.

The next line isn't split, I need you to split that one up please and to put in the iambic pentameter pairs, five pairs of syllables.

When you're ready to have a go at that, pause the video.

Fantastic effort.

Let's have a little look at what it should look like.

That greater was there not beneath the sun Full many a rich country had he won.

So we have the first two syllables, that grea ter was, there not beneath the sun.

Full ma ny a rich coun try had he won.

We have those five pairs of syllables in each line.

Fantastic effort, if you think you've got close or all of that.

Now we're feeling more confident with iambic pentameter, let's move on to the second part of the poetic metre, the poetic form that is Heroic Couplets.

Iambic pentameter and heroic couplets are used throughout The Knight's Tale.

Once upon a time, as old tales tell to us, There was a duke whose name was Theseus Of Athens he was lord and governor, And in his time was such a conqueror.

You should by now be happy picking up the two syllable pairs, five times in each line, the iambic pentameter.

But what else do we notice? At the end of each line, we have some rhymes, to us, Theseus, governor, conqueror.

So we can see here that the first line and the second line, the last syllable on each of those lines rhymes, and the third line and the fourth line, the last syllables also rhyme.

A heroic couplet is when a poet rhymes the last syllable of two lines by iambic pentameter.

Once on a time, as old tales tell to us, There was a duke whose name was Theseus.

Okay, let's check your understanding.

In a moment I'm going to ask you to pause the video and copy and complete the sentences below by filling in the blanks.

A heroic couplet is? Pause the video now and have a go at the two sentences.

Okay, let's see how you got on.

So sentence number one.

A heroic couplet is when a poet rhymes, the last syllable of two lines of iambic pentameter.

So the first and second lines rhyme, the third and fourth and so on and so forth.

Heroic couplets can be seen being used throughout The Canterbury Tales' and in this particular case, The Knight's Tale.

We label these heroic couplets using the letters A B, C and so on and so forth.

So for example, once on a time, as old tales tell to us, There was a duke whose name was Theseus.

The first and second lines, last syllables rhyme.

Of Athens he was lord and governor, And in his time was such a conqueror.

The third and fourth last syllables also rhyme.

So we refer to lines one and two as A, and we refer to lines three and four as B, lines five and six would be C and so on and so forth.

Let's take a look at the next section of The Knight's Tale.

What with his wisdom and his chivalry He gained the realm of Femininity, That was of old time known as Scythia.

There wedded he the queen, Hippolyta, And brought her home with him to his country.

In glory great with great pageantry.

In a moment I'm going to ask you to pause the video and add the labels, A, B, and C to the boxes at the end of the lines.

If you wish, you can simply label them one A for example.

Pause the video now and have a go.

Fantastic effort.

Let's see how you got on.

So line one and two were A, chivalry, femininity, lines three and four were B, Scythia, Hippolyta, and lines five and six were C rhymes, country, pageantry.

If you've got all of those, correct, then fantastic effort, if you weren't quite there, then perhaps think about going back in the video and going back across this section to just review your learning.

So, we've looked at the possibility of what a heroic couplet is.

In a moment, I'm going to ask you to pause the video and decide which one of the four options best describes what a heroic couplet is.

So is it option one, any pair of rhyming syllables? Is it option two, when the rhyme is about something heroic? Is it option three, when the last syllable of two lines of iambic pentameter rhyme? Or is it option four, when a poem is written in iambic pentameter.

Pause the video now, reread the four options and make your decision.

Great effort.

Let's see which one you chose.

And the correct answer here is option three.

A heroic couplet is when the last syllable of two lines of iambic pentameter rhyme.

If you've got that correct, brilliant effort, well done.

Okay, let's put all that learning together, both iambic pentameter and heroic couplets.

In a moment, I'm going to ask you to pause the video and complete exercise two on the next slide.

What I need you to look at is the next section of The Knight's Tale.

With each of those lines, I would like you to label the end rhyme, so the heroic couplets, AA, BB, CC, DD, et cetera, but also to label the five iambs, so the five pairs of syllables.

The lines are as follows, And, too, her young sister, Emily And thus, in victory and with melody, Let I this noble duke to Athens ride With all his armed host marching at his side.

And truly, were it not too long to hear, I would have told you fully how, that year.

Pause the video and have a go at those two things now.

Great work.

Let's see how you got on with that.

Each of the paired syllables or iambs can be seen to be separated by a backslash.

And you can see at the end there, we have the line rhyme syllables marked A, B, C to show the heroic couplets.

And, too,/ her young er sis/ter, Em/ily.

And thus,/ in vic/tory and/ with mel/o/dy.

Line A and A.

Let I/ this no/ ble duke/ to Ath/ens ride With all/ his armed/ host march/ing at /his side.

Heroic couplet B.

And tru/ly, were/it not/too long/to hear, I would/ have told/ you ful/ly how,/ that year.

A pair of C heroic couplets.

If you manage to get those correct then that is a fantastic effort, very well done.

If you want to go back across the video and look at that again, then feel free to do so.

Okay, now we've learned an awful lot here about heroic couplets and iambic pentameter.

We're nearing the end of our session now, and we want to check your understanding.

So in a moment, I'm going to ask you to pause the video, and there are three sentence openings here.

For each I'd like you to expand the sentence, explaining what it is that the reference means.

So, number one, a frame narrative is when? Explain what a frame narrative is from what you've learned from the video.

Number two, an iambic pentameter is when? Explain what you've learned about an iambic pentameter from the video.

Similarly, number three, heroic couplets are when? Explain what you understand by heroic couplets.

Pause the video now and complete these three expanding sentences.

Well done, you've worked incredibly hard this lesson.

In a second, I'm going to show you some examples of what you could have written for those three sentences.

Please don't worry if your wording isn't exactly like the examples you see here.

They are of course many ways that we could have described these three different types of writing.

So let's have a look.

Sentence one.

A frame narrative is when there is a story within another story.

This would have been an acceptable answer.

It's perfectly legitimate and absolutely correct.

However, if we wanted to improve that answer further, we could have said, a frame narrative is when the main narrative frames one or more shorter narratives within it.

You could have even gone on to give an example if you wished.

Let's have a look at sentence two.

Iambic pentameter is when there are 10 syllables in each line.

Correct answer, perfectly acceptable.

If you wrote that very well done.

However, if you pushed yourself, you could have written, iambic pentameter is when there are five pairs of syllables or iambs in each line of poetry.

This uses the terminology pairs and iambs that we've talked about doing this lesson.

If you've written a good answer, then really well done.

Sentence three, heroic couplets are when the ends of each pairs of lines rhyme.

This is a perfectly acceptable answer, completely correct.

Well done if you've got that.

However, if you've gone one step further, we might've written heroic couplets are when the last syllable of each pair of lines written in iambic pentameter rhyme.

Because it is in fact an iambic pentameter line that needs to be the case for it to be a heroic couplet.

If you've written that, then fantastic effort, you've done ever so well.

And that brings us to the end of our lesson today, a huge well done for everything you've achieved.

This is not an easy first section in our Canterbury Tales', The Knight's Tale journey, but you have worked brilliantly.

Couple of things I'd like you to do before when we finished this video.

Firstly, go back through your notes from today's lesson and highlight for me the three most important things that you've learned.

These might be key terms or information that you hadn't previously known, but it will help you to review your learning for later sessions.

Secondly, it would be fantastic if you could get a parent or carer to take a photograph of your work or scan it in and share it with your teacher back at school.

I know that they want to know the work that you've been putting in and the fantastic effort that you've gone to.

If you can, it would be great to get a parent or carer to also share that work to our Twitter account @OakNational, the information you can see on the screen with the #LearnwithOak.

Then I can see as well, the great efforts that you've put in in this lesson.

I can't wait to see you in the second lesson in our Canterbury Tales', The Knight's Tale series.

But until then, many thanks and bye for now.