ELA UNIT PLANNING
UNIT: __The Canterbury Tales/Chaucer ______TIME FRAME: ___3 Weeks__ TEACHER/GR:Jarrell/Honors English IV______
Unit Summary and Rationale:This unit centers around medieval Britain; the history, the people and the culture that influenced Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales.” The students will obtain base knowledge on the Middle Ages and then will apply that knowledge to why and how Chaucer wrote about the different people on their Canterbury Pilgrimage.
UnitConnection/College and Career Ready Descriptions: Teachers will select at least one of the following lenses to act as the overlay for the unit. These are the descriptors that must be included to ensure the unit is fully aligned to the CCSS and relevant to the college and career ready student.
£Students will demonstrate independence.
X Students will value evidence.
X Students will build strong content knowledge.
£ Students will respond to the varying demands of audience, task, and discipline.
£ Students will critique as well as comprehend.
£ Students will use technology and digital media strategically and capably.
X Students will develop an understanding of other perspectives and cultures.
Unit Standards: Teachers should list the standards to be addressed within the unit.
Reading
Literature _X_ Informational Text___
RL.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
RL.11-12.2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
RL.11-12.3 Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).
RL.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful
RL.11-12.5 Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
RL.11-12.6 Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant. / Writing
W.11-12.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
W.11-12.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
W.11-12.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
W.11-12.5 Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.
W.11-12.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
W.11-12.8 Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation. / Speaking and Listening
SL.11-12.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
SL.11-12.2 Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) in order to make informed decisions and solve problems, evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source and noting any discrepancies among the data.
SL.11-12.3 Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.
SL.11-12.5 Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
SL.11-12.6 Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. / Language
L.11-12.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
L.11-12.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
L.11-12.3 Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
L.11-12.4 Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 11–12 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
L.11-12.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
L.11-12.6 Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
Essential Questions: / Big Ideas:
Why was Religion such an important part of the Middle Ages? / Due to dire situations people found themselves in (hunger, disease, etc), religion became a driving force of Britain’s medieval era.
Who was Geoffrey Chaucer and what drew him to the pilgrimage? / The Estate system/Class system of these times created very intriguing types of people; some of whom went on the Canterbury pilgrimage.
What caused the different pilgrims to go on their pilgrimage?
How did their social status/estate level impact who they were?
Why does Chaucer use poetry and rhyme instead of prose to write the Canterbury Tales? / Chaucer introduced a type of satire, comedy, bias and innuendo that was not often found in 1300 literature/writing.
Learning Targets:
· Students will become familiarized with Britain’s Medieval times
· Students will learn the basic history of Geoffrey Chaucer
· Students will study the popularity of pilgrimages and the significance of the Canterbury pilgrimage
· Students will deduce meaning and draw inferences from Chaucer’s writing
Learning Tasks: Teachers list the various tasks students will engage in throughout the unit, include use of media/other forms of information.
Reading Tasks
• Summarize
• Perform close reading
• Infer
• Analyze story/literary elements and text structures
• Identify and interpret figurative language and literary devices
• Analyze author’s purpose / Writing Tasks
• Create and complete study guides
• Develop a clear visual aid (power points/prezis, cartoons, fakebook pages, etc) with use Standard English
• Use text to support arguments
• Write reflective responses
• Compose compare/contrast responses
• Write letters as different characters in the story
• Complete a final project with the following options: Soundtrack with written explanation, Fakebook page, Menu set-up, Scrapbook, Children’s book / Discussion Tasks
• Work/present in pairs and small groups to identify key ideas
• Predict, infer, explain Chaucer’s choices in words and stories (or the omission of stories)
• Discuss allegory/frame narrative
• Prepare and participate in a Socratic seminar / Language/Vocabulary Tasks
• Employ conventions of modern English in all writing/reading/speaking activities
• Create vocabulary lists directly from their texts
• Consistent reading/growing understanding of Middle English
Assessments: List types of assessments that will be used throughout the course of the unit.
DIAGNOSTIC / FORMATIVE / SUMMATIVE
• Pre-reading discussion of the formation of the English Language from Beowulf (Old English) to Chaucer (Middle English) / • Medieval/Chaucer WebQuest
• Study guide review
• Tickets in the door/Tickets out the door
• Socratic Seminar
• Pardoner’s Tale allegory cartoon
• Wife of Bath Letter to the queen / • Canterbury Tales final project: Students will choose one of the following options: Soundtrack for characters(with written explanation), Menu for the Pilgrims, character Fakebook, Scrapbook, or a Children’s book. Each items has creative writing/visual and presentation element.
Text(s) Selections/Resources(generated by both teacher and student)
Teachers will list the genres/titles/resources for study and indicate text complexity:
• The Canterbury Tales: In Senior English Textbook or at
http://www.enotes.com/canterbury-tales-text/when-april-with
• Canterbury Webquest available at http://mjarrellenglish.wikispaces.com/English+IV
then download WebQuest document
• Study guides (available upon request)
• Microsoft word
• Microsoft Power Point
• Soundtrack can be produced on youtube.com by creating a channel
• Fakebook can be produced by visiting http://www.classtools.net/fb/home/page
• Scrapbook can be produced by visiting mixbook.com
• Prezi.com