Summary of Project and Impact

Students will have been impacted by Chaucer’s poems long enough when this project is

implemented. The main focus will be on The Wife of Bath’s Tale and Prologue. By the time this

project starts, students should have their annotated notes, homework assignments and quizzes

to help guide them through this project. The idea of the project is that the class will be putting

the protagonist, the Wife of Bath, on trial for all Seven Deadly Sins and modern-day accusations

within the Judicial System that will be taught in the student’s History class. Students will be

performing the roles of a judge, jury, defense and prosecution. There will be two parts of each

performances, one part will be in the setting of a 1400’s trial, and the second will be a modern-

day trial. Students will have to research their roles from the 1400’s as well as modern-day. They

will also be using their evidence from the Canterbury Tales in prosecution and defense of the

Wife of Bath. This project would be very important, not only for the student’s understanding,

but for the school as well. Within this project, it will show that the students have mastered their

ability to understand the Canterbury Tales, but also be able to cover multiple standards in

multiple subjects. Students will also be working on this project in two of their required

classrooms, English and History to understand the text as a well as understanding the different

effects from the different trials. Students will also work with the theater class for a small

portion for theatrical understanding. If these standards are covered, met, and understood, this

shows that the school has an affective understanding of the students learning, leading to higher

satisfaction within the school.

Student Impact
 Students will be researching their own roles. If a student is a judge, they will research

the roles of a judge in the 1400’s and modern day and this is the same for all roles assigned.

There will be a total of 60 students in this project. They are split up between two classes. The

student’s that have the roles of the different husbands can research how marriage roles and

husband’s roles were represented in each time frame. Students will be acting this out in the

Performing Arts building on two different days and every student needs to be involved. This is

an opportunity for students to step out of their shells, and also make sure that some students

get to perform their best roles. Students will have the chance to work together to create their

performance and while they are researching their goals. Students will be able to look back at

this project and, not only remember a play that was performed in their junior or senior English

class, but also carry their knowledge of Wife of Bath’s and the justice system to different parts

of their educational and personal lives.

Teacher Impact

The teacher will be teaching Wife of Bath’s thoroughly so that the students have very

detailed notes to reference. Also, the entry activity of the Socratic discussion to the project will

give students a good example of what is expected of the students and what they should be

focusing on in their roles. While the research is being done in class, the teacher will be available

as another resource of knowledge and someone to point the students to the right direction of

the performance. When students are getting ready to perform, the teacher will be guiding

students to set up the stage accordingly to the space that the students may use for the

performance. The teacher will also give their feedback on the ideas and rehearsal parts of the

project as well as the finished performance to grade on how well they understood the topics
and reading that was provided. When the performance is being acted out, the teacher will

watch, grade, and give feedback towards the performance and the student’s roles that played

along in the trial.

Community Impact

This project will be a way for lower division students to look forwards to their upcoming

years as upper classmen. This project can also be a way to bring multiple classrooms together,

for example, the students can learn about European 1400’s history in their history class that

builds up to this project. The students will then take that knowledge into their English class for

the research portion of the project. This trial can also be a bigger performance than in the

classroom, it could potentially be set up in the theater of the school. This then brings in an

elective where the students learn stage direction, implement music and sound, and have a

bigger space for the performance. Because this is a bigger performance, families can come

support their students and this leads to the understanding of multiple subjects with multiple

standards. Faculty from the school will be interested to see what the students have learned

from this performance and it will determine if this is an affective project for the students to

learn about the justice system as well as a text that teaches students about relationships and

Middle English. This leave parents, teachers, and the district, confident in what the students are

learning and how this school stands out from the rest. This project has a lot of growing

potential that can lead to an important impact for the school. It has to start small and be

experimented with and accepted for it to grow bigger in the community. This also gives the

school credibility if this project can grow from a classroom topic to a performance for all to

witness.