The Merchant's Prologue & Tale: Activity Pack AS/A Level (first teaching 2015)
- OCR AS & A Level
- Eduqas A Level
Bring Chaucer's rollicking tale to life and into the modern classroom. This invaluable activity pack provides a variety of ready-to-use handouts, covering the whole text, for you to mix and match to suit your class.
Students will grow to know and love the text through engaging activities and constant encouragement to explore the medieval world. Struggling students are supported and high-fliers are encouraged to dig deeper.I recommend it to all teachers who intend to teach 'The Merchant’s Tale' for A or AS level
Activities include:
- engaging questions
- critical thinking
- close reading
- pair and group tasks
- visual, audio and kinaesthetic tasks
- further research
Accessible for every level.
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Prepare
Pre-reading exercises provide a starting point for study -
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Explore
Appealing scene-by-scene tasks guide students through the text, allowing them to gain understanding and analytical skills while remaining engaged -
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Reflect
Whole-text activities show the bigger picture, exploring key areas of: Characterisation • Relationships • Genre • Themes • Attitudes and Values • Writer's use of language • Form • Structure • Context • Critical Reception
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What do teachers say about this resource? (923)
What do I like? Pretty much everything! I recommend it to all teachers who intend to teach 'The Merchant’s Tale' for A or AS level. It’s very reader-friendly, and sections could be given to pupils directly to use in their study lessons. The structure of the resource directs the teaching of the text logically from cultural context, through narrative, to character, tone and language. The Tale is broken into clear sections, corresponding roughly with a lesson per section, allowing the teacher to focus on specific areas each time. The variety of tasks makes this a very active resource, and I very much like the ‘Go Deeper’ sections to push the more capable pupils forward. Each task highlights the AO being addressed, which benefits the pupils’ understanding both of what they are learning AND why they are learning it! Thank you to the author for (a) such a great resource and (b) reminding me that there are still opportunities for fun in an A level classroom!
An excellent, carefully considered resource that really responds to the various weightings of assessment objectives. The encouragement to dig deep into the text and marry poetic devices to reader-generated meaning was very impressive. There is an intensity of engagement with Chaucer's text that is both stimulating and exemplary – showing students the type of close textual skills they must develop. There is constant encouragement to dig deeper for those students that require further deep-level exploration of the text, its author and its social context, while always ensuring that all students can be both stretched intellectually and safely supported through insightful commentary and explanation.
Really clear and well organised – good level of differentiation for students of all abilities... Clear and builds up in challenge... Really helps weaker students.