Creating convincing characters using ‘The Canterbury Tales’ as stimulus
I can write a description of a character who is convincing and intriguing, inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's character descriptions in 'The Canterbury Tales'.
Creating convincing characters using ‘The Canterbury Tales’ as stimulus
I can write a description of a character who is convincing and intriguing, inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's character descriptions in 'The Canterbury Tales'.
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- Chaucer creates 30 convincing characters in the opening section of his poem, 'The Canterbury Tales'.
- To create each character, Chaucer describes how they look, how they speak, how they act and how others respond to them.
- Chaucer also includes intriguing details so that we are curious to know more about each character.
- These methods of characterisation are employed by many writers and can be used in your own writing.
Keywords
Intrigued - the emotion someone feels if something is strange or mysterious and they want to know more about it
Invariably - always, or almost always
Furtively - secretly
Vacuous - empty, shallow
Audacious - bold, brave, outrageous
Common misconception
You have to include each aspect of characterisation in the same paragraph, and always in the same order.
Chaucer has a particular way of introducing and describing his characters. However, this is one way to do it, amongst many. You will see lots of different writers use the same methods of characterisation, but in different orders and structures.
To help you plan your year 8 English lesson on: Creating convincing characters using ‘The Canterbury Tales’ as stimulus, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 8 English lesson on: Creating convincing characters using ‘The Canterbury Tales’ as stimulus, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
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The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
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Explore more key stage 3 English lessons from the Myths, legends and stories that inspire unit, dive into the full secondary English curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
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- Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
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Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
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Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Who wrote 'The Canterbury Tales' ('Myths, legends and stories that inspire')?
Q2.In 'Myths, legends and stories that inspire', we read sections of 'The Canterbury Tales'. What type of text is 'The Canterbury Tales'?
Q3.What do we learn about the character of the Miller when he is first introduced in 'The Canterbury Tales'? ('Myths, legends and stories that inspire').
Q4.Match the subheadings to what we learn about the Miller in 'The Canterbury Tales' ('Myths, legends and stories that inspire').
large, muscular, red beard, sword and shield by his side
enjoys wrestling, steals corn, breaks down doors
accuse him of being drunk and ask him not to tell a rude story
loudly, and tells rude jokes
Q5.In 'The Canterbury Tales' ('Myths, legends and stories that inspire') a large number of characters are introduced in the first section of the poem. What are the characters all doing?
Q6.Chaucer wrote 'The Canterbury Tales' Shakespeare wrote his plays and sonnets ('Myths, legends and stories that inspire').
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Match each word to its definition ('Myths, legends and stories that inspire').
always, or almost always
secretly
empty, shallow
bold, brave, outrageous
Q2.Match each character from Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales' ('Myths, legends and stories that inspire') to what we find out about them.
loud, violent, strong, sneaky
polite, gentle, tattered clothes, successful warrior
tattered clothes, very silent, extremely thin
good judge of beer, open wound on shin