The border between fact and fiction becomes blurred in legend, stories which themselves have a history, and in their evolving shape they carry the imprint of all the hands that passed them. Through the Internet, students can track the growth of a legend like that of King Arthur, from its emergence in the so-called Dark Ages to its arrival on the…

Argues that medieval drama in performance suggests a number of important issues about the nature of literature, particularly about the way narrative and dramatic art can express the life of a community. Presents a series of exercises that start with familiar, nonthreatening situations in order to approach the richness of medieval plays and the…

This lesson plan highlights one episode in the "Divine Comedy" to provide students with an introduction to Dante's poem. After a brief introduction to the opening of the "Divine Comedy," which portrays Dante as a pilgrim guided by the poet Virgil on a journey through the Christian afterlife toward God, students read Canto 5 of…

It is suggested that a secondary school vocal or instrumental music director, even one with a limited background in early music, can establish a successful early music consort, but before establishing such a consort, the director should review thoroughly the main historical sources. These sources are listed. (KC)

This lesson introduces students to one of the most admired characterizations in Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales," the Wife of Bath. Students read Chaucer's description of the Wife in the "General Prologue" to consider how he represents her, both as the poet of "The Canterbury Tales" and as a character in his own poem,…

Describes three humanities activities, designed using the 1981 "California History/Social Science Framework," in which seventh-grade social studies students study medieval culture. Students design personal coats-of-arms, play a typical medieval game, listen to medieval stories and myths, and draw or illustrate stories using medieval…

Discouraged and dissatisfied with their students' responses to a compilation of Arthurian legends, two ninth-grade teachers developed an approach to teaching the legends that exposes students to numerous versions (including those written and illustrated for children) of the legends and allows them to pick their own Arthurian legend for reading and…

Reviews "The Oxford Companion to Spanish Literature," edited by Philip Ward and published by Oxford University Press (1978). The work is compared to two other similar materials. (AM)

A context-based framework for teaching the history of Portuguese is presented. It incorporates passages from a medieval Galician-Portuguese work to illustrate diachronic linguistic processes in the evolution of the language. Advantages of the approach, prerequisites, text, and syllabus are described, and a sample analysis is provided. (53…