For Students
Welcome students past and present! Below I have linked some resources I use for teaching and a way to schedule a meeting with me in person or over Zoom.
If it’s been a while since you were in my class and we haven’t been in touch, please don’t let that stop you! I’d love nothing more than to hear from you
Canterbury Tales resources
These are the resources I link when I teach Chaucer. They are by no means exhaustive, but they give you a good start on the language and manuscript.
-
This edition provides a very good (literal) interlinear translation, as well as introductions to each Tale. This is very useful but can become a crutch. As I talk about in the lesson on getting started with the Miller's Prologue, try to read the interlinear translation first to grasp the sense, and then read the original text (next link) with as few references to the translation as possible. This is not just to force yourself to get used to the language, it is also the only way to access the poetry of the text, as opposed to just the content.
If you have not bought the Norton edition, this is the best freely available glossed version of the Middle English text. Although it is not as slick as the METRO site, it is better for learning Middle English.
This is a collection of scholars reading a great deal of the Canterbury Tales aloud. For some sections, like the opening of the General Prologue, there are several different recordings. You will notice that no one pronounces every word exactly the same; this is because we do not have recordings of the language itself, so we are all making our best guess. Keep this in mind and take heart when you are submitting your own recordings!
-
This is the best and most complete Middle English Dictionary, online or in print. Keep in mind, when you are searching for a word, that Middle English spelling was not consistent, so if you can't find it under one spelling, try different spellings or the first few letters of the word followed by a * to indicate a wild card.
This provides a thorough, step-by-step introduction to the language and its pronunciation in the context of Chaucer. It is not necessary to go through all of these steps for the purposes of this class, but this is an excellent and very thorough resource.
This is an app designed for students that provides a full, Middle English read-through of the General Prologue; you can follow along in Middle English, modern English, or the original manuscript pages. The web version is linked above, the apps are available to download in the Apple and Google Play Stores.
-
Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales
This is a spectacular, free resource developed by Chaucer scholars to offer entry-level, high quality secondary scholarship to anyone. It has an entry on every tale.
This resource offers a database of everything published on Chaucer since 1974. It is maintained by the New Chaucer Society and can be unwieldy for students to use, but it will list everything you could possibly want.
The hidden Curriculum
These are resources for the (very opaque, not all logical) expectations of a humanities college classroom. Here’s a quick definition of the term.
-
There is a division of responsibility in a college-level humanities classroom that might be different than other classrooms. Here is a list of primary obligations.
Professor:
Convey the information in a way that is accessible and appropriate to the level of the course.
Set a reasonable workload for the number of units and level of the course.
Clearly specify grading requirements and standards.
Reply in a timely manner to student communication.
Create an equitable and accessible environment for student participation.
Organize the course materials in a rational way.
Students:
Attend class whenever possible and do as much of the work as you can.
Read the syllabus carefully, identify areas you don’t understand, and raise your questions through email or in person.
Keep track of deadlines, readings, and assignments so that you are not surprised by your workload.
Take notes during lecture or work out a way to delegate this among several classmates.
Whether on the syllabus, in lecture, or during discussion, figure out what you understand and what is unclear as you go. Raise questions in class or through email after class.
-
Discussion
The heart of a humanities classroom is not the lecture, it is discussion. At base, humanities are the skill of learning from connection and community with other people. Discussion is how we practice this skill. Therefore, while speaking in class is more difficult for some than others, discussion is not optional. The focus of discussion should be to communicate with your classmates; your professor will not be with you after college, but your peers will, and they are your best resource for the rest of your life. Here is a good guide to classroom discussion etiquette, and some ideas on how to break the ice on speaking in class.
Lecture
Professors work hard to make their material accessible and useful, but they do not always do this well for all students. It is your responsibility to figure out what you do not understand and try to remedy this. We genuinely hope there will be questions after the lecture, because that will help us understand whether or not we have communicated well and what we need to clarify. You should almost always have questions, by the way. Nothing is completely self-explanatory.
Group work
From a student perspective, this can seem pointless or like busywork. But professors use group work to help students who struggle to participate in large groups engage with others, and to give everyone a trial run at their ideas before they share them with the class. We also use group work as way to jumpstart a discussion, and when we come around to your group to eavesdrop, we are not grading you (unless that’s the exercise), we genuinely want to hear your ideas so we know where to take discussion.
-
Emailing professors
This is a quick guide to the bare minimum, and this is a very good one that explains the (sometimes silly) logic with which a professor will receive your email.
Office Hours
We really really really want you to come. Really. Otherwise we are just sitting there waiting for you and your wonderful questions. This is a very good and clear guide to going to office hours.
Recommendation letters
Many positions and programs you apply to will require letters of reference, or recommendation letters. Professors expect to write these, so your asking is not an imposition, but there are some ways you can make the work less onerous on us and more effective for you. Here is a basic guide on how to do this.
Set up a meeting with me
This link offers 15-minute increments when I am available; please feel free to sign up for more than one if you will need more time. As I said above, if you are a previous student please be in touch. I would love it. If I do not have a time available that works for you, please email me directly.