S3-Bellringer Option

Selection 3-Before You Read

For pages 125–132

12.5 Understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from text to support understanding.

Selection 3-Before You Read

In the Middle Ages, pardoners were licensed by the pope to grant indulgences, gifts of divine mercy to repentant sinners. By Chaucer’s time, corrupt pardoners were selling indulgences for personal gain rather than granting them to penitents in return for voluntary donations to the church. “The Pardoner’s Tale” is an exemplum—a brief story used to teach a lesson.

Build BackgroundLiterature and Reading Preview

Selection 3-Before You Read

Irony is a contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality. Situational irony exists when an occurrence is the opposite of a character’s expectations. Dramatic irony occurs when readers or audiences have information unknown to the characters. Verbal irony occurs when a character says one thing while meaning another.

Irony

Selection 3-Before You Read

As you read “The Pardoner’s Tale,” ask yourself, Is irony present here? Which type of irony?

And, there is a quiz over the tale following the reading but prior to the discussion. So read carefully.

Selection 4-Before You Read

For pages 133–151

12.3 Evaluate the changes in sound, form, figurative language, graphics and dramatic structure in poetry across literary time periods.

Selection 4-Before You Read

What are the benefits of submitting oneself to the superior arguments of another? Discuss this question with a partner, considering situations in which an insistence on getting one’s own way might be ill-advised.

Literature and Reading Preview

Selection 4-Before You Read

That the Wife has had five husbands would not have seemed remarkable to Chaucer’s contemporaries; in the Middle Ages, a woman with property was very eligible. What they might have found remarkable is her success in governing her husbands.

Literature and Reading Preview

Selection 4-Before You Read

“The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” like many other tales from Chaucer’s era, is told in the form of a narrative poem. Narrative poetry is verse that is specifically meant to tell a story. To analyze a work of narrative poetry, you can look at the ways in which an author combines structure, word choice, and literary elements (such as character, narrator, and conflict) to express a theme or idea.

Literature and Reading Preview

Selection 4-Before You Read

concede v. to admit as true; acknowledge; Reuben had to concede that Charles’s fundraising scheme was best.

reprove v. to scold or correct, usually gently or out of kindness; Felicia’s mother reproved her for not sharing her toys.

suffice v. to be enough; You said you hoped for rain; will this downpour suffice?

Selection 4-Before You Read

arrogance n. overbearing pride or self-importance; In his arrogance, the ruler built a monument to himself.

disperse v. to scatter about; distribute widely; After the family reunion, all the relatives dispersed to their homes around the country.

Listen carefully as you read along to the tale the Wife tells. She has before her the task of answering what brings happiness in marriage. Her tale belongs in a group of three tales called, appropriately, The Marriage Group. The three pilgrims answer the question quite differently. See if you can tell what the Wife thinks and if you agree!

And, yes, there is a detail reading quiz after the reading, but prior to the discussion!