Close reading Activity

                                                           LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

SUBJECT/COURSE:   College Literature                                                  DATE:  12-11-16

CONCEPT/OBJECTIVE:

Students will be able to close read a foreign piece of literature and translate the meaning into understandable content for the class members.

MATERIALS NEEDED FOR LESSON:

           (by you):

*A word cloud of the prologue for the Canterbury Tales. 

*A handout of the prologue for the Canterbury Tales written in Middle English.

           (by the students):

*Paper and Pencil

*Cooperative and investigative attitude

INTRODUCING THE LESSON:

Journal write: What is a pilgrimage?  What are their purposes?  Can you think of any examples?  The lesson will begin with a background introduction to Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales.  A word cloud will be used of the Prologue to display the important words used. 

INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURE:

Journal write

Powerpoint on Canterbury Tales background

Discuss how background knowledge is important when trying to close read and create a clear understanding of a text.

Display the Prologue word cloud and give students 5 minutes to quick write about the things that they notice in the word cloud.

Discuss with the class the things that they notice and how those thoughts will help analyze the Prologue.  Discuss how these elements and background knowledge on the subject aid in close readings.

Go over the close reading checklist with the students and handout a copy to each of them.

Model a close reading of the Canterbury Tales Prologue lines 1-18 with the class.

Separate the students into small group discussion group of roughly 4 students/group

The groups will close read lines 19-34 of the Prologue and write down a translation line by line of the section.

The groups will then share out their translations and why they went with certain meanings over others.

The class can then read a published translation of the work and write a reflection on which group’s translation they liked the best and why.

The students will end with a share out as a class of what close reading steps they enacted from the list and other processes their mind engaged in to make meaning of the text.  What helped, what didn’t?

ASSESSMENT: The students will be assigned a literature piece for the following class that they will close read.  They will read for meaning, themes, word choice, etc. and come to class with a 1 page write up of the close reading of the text and share out their thoughts and turn them in.

CLOSURE:

The students will end with a share out as a class of what close reading steps they enacted from the list and other processes their mind engaged in to make meaning of the text.  What helped, what didn’t?

Close Reading Handout

It will help if you read your lines aloud.  This often makes it easier to notice repetitive imagery and meter.  Pay special attention to what is happening if you see the imagery change – what is happening there.  When an author changes something such as meter or imagery, they are drawing attention to something!  Keep in mind, however, that Middle English syntax was different from ours. English and grammar were also different.  They did not have the fixed rules that we’re familiar with.  The spelling, and the order, of words will seem awkward to you.  As you construct your translation, keep that in mind.  Write in a way that is natural and which makes sense to you. 

Look up any words that you are unsure of!  Even if they mean close to what our modern word means, they may have other implications.  I have found the Middle English Dictionary in the website above to be a useful starting point.  For example, the words “shoures” and “soote” in the first line looked odd to me.  When I searched “shoures” in the OED, I didn’t find any entry.  I went to the Middle English Dictionary in the website referenced above and found that this is “showers.”  Then I went to the OED to see if there were any further implications beyond rainfall.  This is where reading aloud to others may help:  try reading “shoures” and you may automatically fall into saying something like “showers.”  You still need to make sure of the meaning, however. 

Check the meaning of any familiar looking word such as that “soote” in the first line.  It looks like the modern “soot.”  When you look up the word in the OED, you will see our modern sense of the word listed in the first definition – that is, a black carbonaceous substance or deposit consisting of fine particles formed by the combustion of coal, wood, oil, or other fuel (OED online, 1. a.).  However, in the next two entries we find references to something sweet, and the first one makes sense when talking about winds in April:  Sweet to the smell or taste; sweet-smelling, fragrant (OED online, 2. a. 1.)  That makes sense.  In short, what meaning works within the imagery?

Keep the author and context in mind and look up any references you are unsure of.  Just as we kept the context of the image within the text in mind, think of the author and his society.  Chaucer was much more aware of mythology and classic literature than we are.  We don’t universally study Greek and Latin as part of a University education anymore. You will need to look up references to figures such as “Zephirus” in line 5.  The modern spelling is “Zephyrus.”  He is the Greek god of the West Wind, and was thought of as a “fructifying” wind.  That is, Zephyr embodies the winds we see in Spring weather.  The implication that these winds help breathe new growth into life. How does that work throughout these lines?

The words and images we see above, Chaucer is consistently using the imagery of Nature in Spring.  As you work through your section, find any patterns of imagery, of character, of voice.  Trace the way that Chaucer builds those ideas and what you think their implications are.  Throughout the first 18 lines there are many images of nature.  How is Chaucer using them?  What else is he referring to (in language which may be more obscure to us then to his audience)?  HINT:  what is going on in line 11?  Who is acting and on what, and on who? 

For that matter, where are we?  What is the setting and why are we there?  Chaucer describes a natural world in lines 1-11.  In the next few lines, we suddenly see a destination.  Why is that important and what does that imply for the patterns we’ve seen so far?  Where are we going and why?  What is the tone of the language Chaucer uses in these descriptions?  Is this an active or passive voice?  What does that imply for the setting described? 

Watch for sudden changes.  For example, in line 12, people make a sudden appearance.  Ask yourselves why Chaucer chose to set the stage with the imagery of lines 1-11 before introducing the general type of character (“folk” and “palmeres”) and the action we will follow them on throughout the book (“pilgrimages”).  What is the connection beyond the practicality of travel to the imagery of spring and the idea of going to Canterbury “the hooly blisful martir for to seke?” (17).  What theme, then do we see in this connection and is that theme carried through the following lines?

In short, try to identify the theme or themes.  I see a connection between the images of renewal in Spring and religious pilgrimage within the first 18 lines.  What does that imply for the ways in which we look at these lines, and the following lines.  Does Chaucer continue with that theme? 

To sum up, we are looking for words and images, patterns and changes in patterns to construct a meaning.  We are trying to identify who is operating and what they are doing.  We are building an understanding based on:

            Word meanings, word patterns

            Imagery meanings and patterns

            Characters and their actions

            The tone of voice and the mood it creates

            Themes

PowerPoint

http://www.slideshare.net/ChristieZablocki/chaucer-history

"Real World" Assignments

     There is a push in education to make learning "real world" applicable, yet I think many times we still fall short of that mark because we make learning that "could" be applied to the real world, but the project does not require that component.  The article by Davidson called, "How to go from standard-issue term paper to social change", was an article that responded to and accomplished the task of real-world learning in school assignments.  The professor has the students create wiki pages for under-represented groups as a final project in the class.  This assignment is genius on so many levels.
     The first level of genius that is explicitly discussed in the article is the idea of no professor wanting to grade a paper that a student has hurriedly thrown together the night before it is due.  As a college student, I also know this struggle of managing your time trying not to do projects at the last minute but sometimes it's inevitable.  The assignment of creating a wiki page helps to eliminate this issue because rough drafts of work are not something that will meet the standards of publication to the site.  It also states that the edits are tracked and the professor can see those changes, so it is documented how often and to what extent each document is being changed.
     The next level of genius is that the students are creating a document that will be made public.  I do not believe that there is a college student that does not take more time on an assignment when they know that there will be more than just their professor's eyes looking at it.  It puts far more pressure on the student to engage in something that is high quality.  I find that it is a human quality that we want to present the best portrait of ourselves to the world, and this type of projects forces a student's hand to do just that.  This idea of wanting to put our best work out for the public leads back to the multiple corrections and the time that will be exerted on this type of writing assignment.
     The final level of genius is that it is actual "real world" writing.  It is writing that is done for the world and is public to the world.  It is not a piece of writing that could theoretically be useful to the world, it is useful in the production of the work.  It is something that they can take in pride in because they have made a useful contribution to the world.  They also can use the writing on their resumes for employers to see.
     All of these different levels of genius contribute to the formation of a "real world" assignment that hits the mark on many levels and creates transformational and empowering learning on the part of the student.  The impact of such an assignment will not be forgotten by the student.