actually, the students do pretty well with the Middle English. We start with short Middle English lyrics "Foweles in the Frith" with good cribs under them, then read  Chaucer aloud from an interlinear text, lifting up those 'e' s at the end, et cetera. But you are right--it is pretty imposing for them at first. 
   I would be glad to lose this exercise to appease my colleague, and will suggest it. I think his issue, however, has to do with wanting to give some blanket coverage of Western civ to students who only have to take one more class in the Humanities to get their degrees. I see his point, but at the same time, think that working over specific texts not only allows students to acquire a sense of the work, its times, but that doing so also develops critical skills that will be important to them wherever they go. Second hand information is just not that conducive to the development of critical thought. And perhaps that is the issue--should the course ben an informational one for 200 level students--something to make them wonder, perhaps--or should it be making them think?
   I will offer this change to see if it is enough of a compromise to allow the two of us to agree to disagree (as I said, I am already there). Thanks.  
 
>>> Tim Romano <[log in to unmask]> 09/01 7:05 PM >>>
Reading Chaucer, Middle English lyrics, or even Shakespeare, is no breeze,
especially for students unused to reading poetry in modern English! It's
much easier to read the dialogues of Plato in translation than Shakespeare
in his Elizabethan English. So let's give Robert's colleague the benefit of
the doubt and credit his opinions. Robert, what if you selected
well-annotated student editions of the texts you want your students to
read--with "beginners" notes. Might that allay some of your colleague's
concerns?
 
Tim Romano