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Year 8 - English

Creating convincing characters using 'The Canterbury Tales' as stimulus

Myths, legends and stories that inspire

Unit Summary

In this unit, pupils read and explore a range of text types in connection to classical myths and legends. They first look at poetry before doing some descriptive writing inspired by poetry and paintings. They then explore Chaucer and modern retellings of myths to inspire their narrative writing.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to write a description of a character who is convincing and intriguing, inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's character descriptions in 'The Canterbury Tales'.

Key Notes

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.

Vocabulary To Learn

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 Mistakes To Avoid

You have to include each aspect of characterisation in the same paragraph, and always in the same order.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain this English learning goal in two key 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.

2. Define this language term and use it in a sentence. 'intrigued'

the emotion someone feels if something is strange or mysterious and they want to know more about it.

3. Correct this common English misunderstanding.

Mistake: You have to include each aspect of characterisation in the same paragraph, and always in the same order. Correction: 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.

More Lessons In This Unit

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