Knightly News

British Literature teacher Patrick Stephens recently challenged Upper School students to create a story inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales.” Stephens asked students to script and film a tale that could fit among the stories of knights, monks, merchants and clerks. True to Chaucer’s vision, the winner of the storytelling contest earned a meal.

A Creative Lesson on a Classic Tale

The assignment was tremendously successful. “They came up with pretty original stories,” says Stephens, who was “delightfully impressed” with the student work. “This was better than what a test could have been by far because it showed that they got what the book was about.”

The class, comprised of juniors, fanned out across the Episcopal campus to tell their tales on camera. Many students took advantage of the resources within the QUEST Center in Foster Hall. Stephens, who was excited about the QUEST Center before he joined the Episcopal faculty, was pleased to offer an experience in which Upper School students could use the creative space. “This is not a creative writing or acting class but it still brought out talent,” says Stephens. “It brought out the creative side of students.”

Once the writing, filming and editing were complete, a group of seventh period students was named the winner by a vote of the Upper School English faculty. Winning team member Reed McMains says the assignment boosted the learning experience because “it wasn’t your typical English class reading assignment. While we had some of those assignments to better our understanding of the book, this project allowed us to use our creativity with what we learned from the book. Our group enjoyed making the Canterbury Tale because we got to make up our own story and film it on different parts of campus.” He says winning a pizza party was also a great motivator to create the best video possible.

Check out a collection of the stories created by Upper School students.

Modern Technology Enhances the Lesson

With green screens, cameras, lighting and more, the QUEST Center Production Studio proved to be an ideal location for Upper School students to bring their stories to life. It was a great opportunity to introduce or re-introduce Upper School students to the space, which has been inspiring Lower and Middle School students for some time. While Reed’s group chose other places to film, he knows several teams that filmed their entire tale in the studio. “Those that I talked to thought it was helpful being able to film in there, especially in the green screen room where they could add backgrounds and effects to their videos,” he says.

“The Canterbury Tales” assignment has inspired Stephens to continue using the QUEST Center and to create more experiential learning opportunities in the English classroom. In the future, he hopes to expand the recent British Literature assignment to include props and costumes. In the meantime, he’s celebrating student success. “They all passed with flying colors,” says Stephens with enthusiasm. “Everyone got 100% on it.”

Classic storytelling and modern technology unlocked creativity among Upper School students. The assignment is a great example of the unique learning experiences that benefit Episcopal students and showcases the possibilities available in the QUEST Center learning spaces.

Check out the winning video.

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