Teaching

Hoccleve’s poetry, whether in translation or in the original Middle English, teaches beautifully in the primary school, undergraduate, and graduate classrooms. Unlike more canonical authors like Chaucer, however, there are comparatively few resources available to support teachers of Hoccleve. To that end, the International Hoccleve Society has begun to assemble materials, from one-day lesson plans to full modules and courses, produced by our membership. Those resources are compiled and freely accessible here.

Peruse the list below, and if you have anything to add, please let our organizers know!

‘Communing is the best assay’: Teaching Hoccleve’s Complaint Remotely

In a short essay, Dr. Brendan O’Connell, Assistant Professor of English at Trinity College Dublin, reflects on teaching Hoccleve’s “Complaint” during the Covid-19 pandemic:

Hoccleve’s ‘Complaint’, the first poem in his Series, was one of the defining works I encountered as an undergraduate studying fifteenth-century poetry, and I’ve often tried to find ways of including it in my undergraduate teaching. Over the years, this has presented challenges, due to issues such as the availability of the text, the accessibility of the language, or my own scruples about teaching the ‘Complaint’ independently of the rest of the Series. This year, however, the closure of my university (Trinity College Dublin) due to the Coronavirus pandemic presented a different set of challenges: how to teach the ‘Complaint’ remotely, when neither I nor my students had access to the usual resources. While my experience of online teaching during the closure has been challenging, teaching this text was extremely positive and will shape the way I teach it in the future.

View Dr. O’Connell’s further reflections here, and consult his teaching materials, study guide, and PowerPoint lesson for more on teaching Hoccleve remotely.