Make your teacher proud: Create the greatest Canterbury Tales videos on YouTube

I get pretty bad envy.

Whenever I'm researching something and I find a good example online, I think to myself "Why aren't my students doing this myself?" For example, while looking up some Canterbury Tales videos, I found some pretty cool examples of videos made by students from all over the world and from different grades (from 10th grade to college). As I watched these, I sat there, salivating at the awesomeness, thinking to myself "My TAPA students are waaaay more talented than these kids! They could do, like, a million times better than this! The world must understand their genius."

Prove me right. In this project, you'll be taking one of Chaucer's tales, as a group, assigned to you, and filming a 5-10 minute video adaptation of that story. Details:

1. Read. As a group, read your assigned story. Together. They're a bit difficult to understand, so read the version I provided you, and feel free to check out a few of the other translations.
2. Brainstorm. I'd like for your version of the script to be close to the original. For example, if you were doing the Nun's Priest Tale, I don't want you to change Chanticleer from a rooster to a person; I want him to be as written. However, you may decide how you want to present the video. Maybe you make it live-action, like with costumes. Maybe it's a silent film. Maybe you create puppets to act it out. Maybe you use stop-motion animation and Legos. Maybe you use 3D animation like XtraNormal.com. I'd love for everyone to try a different method of filming!
3. Write. Develop a script. Everyone must contribute, but everyone doesn't have to type it up. However, your script should look, pretty much, like the following:
   

   [Scene: Mr. B is sitting in a chair, reading a book.]
   Mr. A: [Walks into the room and looks at Mr. B] Dude, what are you doing?
   Mr. B: [Throws his book at Mr. A] I'm throwing books at you!

   When your script is completed, one member should upload it to Scribd, and then every other member should embed it into a blog post.
4. Film/Upload. Make it awesome. When you're done, one group member should upload the video to .
5. Post. Each group member should post the video to their blog.

Here are the groups:

• The Knight's Tale
  Group: Enoch, Jonathan, Nadia, Yalisa
  | Harvard's Summary/Translation | eChaucer |
• The Wife of Bath's Tale
  Group: Esther, Linda, Sean
  | Harvard's Summary/Translation | eChaucer |
• The Friar's Tale
  Group: Angel, Angela, Tristan
  | Eleusinianm.co.uk | eChaucer |
• The Summoner's Tale
  Group: Emily, Ivy, Jason
  | Harvard's Summary/Translation | eChaucer |
• The Clerk's Tale
  Group: Emmanuel, Jane, Vivien
  | Harvard's Summary/Translation | eChaucer |
• The Merchant's Tale
  Group: Elaina Elaine, Justin, Kotomi, Tim
  | Harvard's Summary/Translation | eChaucer |
• The Franklin's Tale
  Group: Kevin, Michael, WinWin
  | Harvard's Summary/Translation | eChaucer |
• The Physician's Tale
  Group: Beverly, Sky, Timmy
  | Harvard's Summary/Translation | eChaucer |
• The Shipman's Tale
  Group: Andrew, Cynthia, Florence
  | Harvard's Summary/Translation | eChaucer |

Any other questions? I didn't think so.