Lesson Reflections

I haven’t uploaded my lessons in a while,  so here’s two and a half weeks’ worth:

January 21-25

January 28-February 1

February 4-8

 I will upload some pictures later–wish I had the cord right now!

Thinking Through Assessment Through My Students’ Eyes

In order to make this assignment most useful for me, I decided to twist it to resemble an essay my students will be writing at the end of this month.  They will have the option of choosing between four prompts.  I chose the following:  In your essay, your job is to put Macbeth, Lady Macbeth on trial for the murder of Duncan.  Develop an argument in response to following question: If the main theme of Macbeth is ambition, whose ambition is the driving force of the play—Macbeth’s, Lady Macbeth’s, or both?  Once you determine who is at fault for the murder, act as the prosecuting attorney for the murderer, and prove who they should be convicted of the crime.  Note: Because the answer to this question is not clear cut, you may find it useful to discuss Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship in order to build your argument.  

1. Form an opinion:

While Lady Macbeth fueled Macbeth’s growing ambition to become king of Scotland, ultimately Macbeth’s desire for power was the driving force in the play.  Not only did he share his ambition with his wife and give in to her goading, but he was ultimately responsible for acting against the natural order by committing regicide, thus setting off a chain of unnatural events. 

1.  
   1. Five reasons: Macbeth’s ambition

                                                               i.      He begins to entertain the idea and shares it with Lady Macbeth in I.iii.                                                             ii.      He gives in to Lady Macbeth’s berating (I.vii.).                                                            iii.      He allows Malcolm and Donalbain to be blamed, giving him clear access to the crown.                                                            iv.      He plots to murder Banquo and Fleance in order to overturn the second part of the witches’ prophecy—without his wife’s suggestion.                                                              v.      He commissions the death of Lady MacDuff and her children.                                                            vi.      He leads Scotland into war without any concern for the state of the country or for his suicidal wife.

1.  
   1. Five reasons: Lady Macbeth’s ambition

                                                               i.      She goads Macbeth on in I.vii by calling him less than a man.                                                             ii.      She uses guilt to manipulate Macbeth by saying that she is going to measure his love for her by his willingness to become king (I.vii.38-39).                                                            iii.      She comes up with the plan to murder Duncan and plants the knives on the guards (I.vii.59-72).                                                            iv.      She encourages Macbeth to put on a façade in order to maintain his authority.                                                              v.      She is embarrassed by Macbeth’s behavior at the party. 

1. Audience:

My audience for this essay would be both fictional and real.   In the play, I might be trying to convince the people of Scotland that Macbeth was truly responsible for murdering Duncan—and is definitely not fit to be the king.  I might also be trying to prove the innocence of Duncan’s sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, since they were originally accused of murder, by proving that Macbeth was the real murderer.  Outside of the text, I would be trying to convince my teacher—in order to receive a good grade—as well as my classmates.   

1. Evidence:

My evidence for the people of Scotland would be the dialogue between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as well as Macbeth’s inner thoughts and actions.  Normally, these things would not be as easy to support, but in the case of this essay, that means I will be using textual support.  This evidence will also prove to my teacher that I have developed a well-formed argument based on my familiarity and engagement with the text.  In both cases, I will be looking for textual support that shows how Macbeth’s responsibility for Duncan’s death grew through the play.  For example, I would cite the scene where Lady Macbeth comes up with the murder—but Macbeth actually goes through with it.  I would also cite his the two soliloquies that appear early in the play (1) right after he talks to the witches, and (2) right before he murders Duncan to demonstrate that he had entertained the idea even without Lady Macbeth’s goading.  I would also cite his dramatic change after the murder, particularly his lack of remorse and his other murders to prove that he knew what he wanted and knew how to get it.  All of this things would demonstrate that Macbeth’s heart was set on being king—and knowing the people of Scotland and my teacher, the idea of regicide and murder would be unacceptable.  Ultimately, I need to paint Macbeth in a very dark light.   

1. Using Writing to Persuade:

I need to make sure I’m gradually building my argument.  I need to connect my audience to the essay from the start by showing them why they should care about reading my writing.  I should take a clear cut stand on the issue and should support that issue with three or more strong statements.  I should develop these statements with textual support and additional elaboration.  I should also paint Lady Macbeth in a more appealing light to make her a more sympathetic character; in connection to this, I should also address the counterargument.  Finally I should bring my argument to a close, being sure to come back to my original claim.  Besides following this process, I should also make sure that none of what I say is counter to my original argument.  I should also make sure that I follow proper grammatical and mechanical conventions to demonstrate that I am a reliable writer.  Related to this, I must also cite my textual support to show that I am giving credit to my sources.   

1. Outline:

Thesis Statement: While Lady Macbeth fueled Macbeth’s growing ambition to become king of Scotland, ultimately Macbeth’s desire for power was the driving force in the play.  Not only did he share his ambition with his wife and give in to her goading, but he was ultimately responsible for acting against the natural order by committing regicide, thus setting off a chain of unnatural events.

1.  
   1. Body Paragraph #1: Macbeth originally entertained the idea by giving into the witches’ suggestion, continuing to consider it and then sharing it with his wife. 

                                                               i.      Macbeth’s reaction to the witches’ prophecy (I.iii): 1.       “Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
By Sinel’s death I know I am thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; and to be king
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.”                                                             ii.      Macbeth undoubtedly desires to be the king (I.iii): 1.       “If ill, why hath it given me earnest of success.”                                                            iii.      Macbeth commits to the suggestion by putting it to paper, sharing it with his wife, calling her his “dearest partner of greatness,” and asking her to consider it (I.v.)

1.  
   1. With full knowledge of the consequences of regicide, Macbeth responds to his wife’s goading and his desire for power by murdering Duncan—rather than following his conscience.

                                                               i.      Macbeth knows that killing Duncan is wrong as demonstrated in his soliloquy at the beginning of I.vii.                                                               ii.      He shares his doubt with his wife, but after she goads him, he decides to prove his manliness and love for his wife—as well as to fulfill his desire for power—but committing to murdering Duncan in the second part of I.vii.                                                            iii.      Macbeth killed Duncan: “I have done the deed” (II.ii.15).

1.  
   1. Rather than demonstrating regret for killing Duncan, Macbeth pursues his quest relentlessly.

                                                               i.      He allows Malcolm and Donalbain to be blamed for the murder, giving him clear access to the throne.                                                             ii.      He plots the murder of Banquo and Fleance in order to get them out of the way, anticipating the fulfillment of the second half of the witches’ prophecy. (III.i).                                                            iii.      He commissions the murder of MacDuff’s family (IV.i).                                                            iv.      He leads Scotland into war in order to protect the throne for himself (V.iii).    

Beginning Macbeth

This past week, I officially started Macbeth with my students. To a certain degree, I feel a great amount of pressure to plow through it since according to the pacing chart, we should have done it back in December–but I can’t do that to my kids. It’s not their fault that testing and snow days and block scheduling and more has slowly eaten away at our class time. And one thing I have definitely taken away from my own education is that often times a depth over breadth approach is much more productive.

But anyway.

I have tried to plan out our unit on Power and Ambition to make it manageable and to ensure that I am really scaffolding students’ learning–and interest-throughout the unit. This past week, our lessons built their general understanding of the plot of Macbeth through a rap song and predicting about the story–as well as by connecting it back to our previous weeks’ discussion of of power in society today and back in the Renaissance.

We also got up on our feet this week with some acting and playing with Shakespearean language (thanks Shakespeare Set Free!). This coming week, we will be moving through Act I, and my intentions are to develop their understanding of the characters, setting and plot. I’m also planning to bring in some of the vocab terms and literary terms, which I will build on the following week. Too much? I hope not…

For the characters and setting, we will establish this together as a class and will construct a character wall showing connections between characters as well as adjectives associated with each character. I’m hoping it will be a useful resource that we can continue building as we move through the play. For the setting, this is fairly straightforward–I can connect it back to our previous discussion of the Middle Ages, show a short clip of the beginning of Macbeth (a little teaser for later), maybe do a quickwrite about what they imagine the setting looks like and feels like, and make sure to emphasize the weather and darkness. I’m really hoping they connect with the imagery in the play since this will make it much easier to visualize and therefore relate to. Out of all of these things, the vocabulary part is the least interesting and most challenging part for me–and to be honest, may well have been neglected had we not discussed it recently with Of Mice and Men. I definitely see the importance of foregrounding new vocab and using it to build reading fluency–and like the fact that I can connect it back to our school’s increased emphasis on test-prep. Here’s what I’m thinking

Reference OMM Lesson: Day 1
Objectives: SW connect new vocabulary words to existing knowledge; SW use vocabulary words in context

1. [continue from yesterday...]
2. QW: What is/are the purposes of learning new vocabulary?
3. discuss their (students’) purposes in learning new vocab – in connecting this to reading a story – in connecting this to writing or speaking -
4. pass out vocabulary list – talk through each word – what does it remind you of? How can we remember it? How is it used in a sentence?
5. Show models of past vocab paragraphs – especially models where past students used words well together
6. Some writing time – use first 8 words in a vocab story or paragraph – due on DAY 3.

I like all of this; for my purposes I intend to adapt this and to do the following as a mini-lesson:

1. QW: What is/are the purposes of learning new vocabulary?
2. Discuss their (students’) purposes in learning new vocab – in connecting this to reading a story – in connecting this to writing or speaking -
3. Pass out vocabulary list – talk through each word – what does it remind you of? How can we remember it? How is it used in a sentence?
4. To build on the acting we did last week in class and that we will continue doing, I will incorporate word charades with words from Act I and II in the same vein as the TE 804 session from a couple weeks ago. Do I want to do this as a whole class activity? Or since I already have group work, have two groups prepare their versions of I.iii while the other groups prepare for charades? And then do the small group question activity with everyone after? Bridge this to a discussion of the rest of Act I. Then the Reading Check Quiz then begin Act II? This could work…

Another idea:

1. act out pages 4-6 (half of room watch Lennie, half watch George – students taking notes on observations of what actors do to bring the characters to life)
2. Discuss what we learn about these characters – what is significant?
3. Act out pages 13-15 – repeat above –
4. create 2 column character chart (character, description) to use as reading guide
5. predict about future –intro chapter 2: why is this chapter going to be important to the book? Why are this chapter’s events going to be important to George and Lennie (possibly tie to imagining yourself entering a new school – you are looking for who may or may not be good friends)

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While I have the two groups performing I.iii, I could have the rest of the class watching Macbeth, Banquo and the witches and creating a list of adjectives to describe them. Prior to this, we could return to a discussion of scenes i and ii and begin constructing a list of adjectives for Duncan and Macbeth. Then after the acting we could post the characters on the wall and then post some of these adjectives around the characters.

OR

 

1. assign key characters (possibly not George or Lennie) to small groups to become experts for: [half page handout: for your assigned character, come up with at least 2 pictures

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I could do the same thing after we move into Act II–we could construct our character wall since the major characters will be introduced by then…So I could save the character wall to aide our analysis of Act II towards the end of this week/beginning of next. My lesson for Mon/Tues could look like this:

1) Students will discuss the following question in their journal: What is/are the purposes of learning new vocabulary?2) As a whole class, we will discuss the students’ purposes in learning new vocab – in connecting this to reading a story – in connecting this to writing or speaking.

3) Pass out vocabulary list for Acts I and II; discuss how knowing this terms will aide their reading; talk through each word – what does it remind you of? How can we remember it? How is it used in a sentence?

4) To build on the acting we did last week in class and that we will continue doing, partners will receive a word from the vocab list and must prepare a short skit to illustrate the word. Everyone will have five minutes to prepare. Then the class will be divided into two halves; each partner set will present their short skit and teams will have a chance to guess the word. After guessing the word, they must justify their reasoning.

5) We will return to Act I with our new knowledge; we will watch beginning clip of Macbeth to discuss setting and what the setting of the play suggests about how the story will unfold.

6) In small groups, students will receive an envelope with instructions. They will either (a) respond to five questions and post their responses on the appropriate butcher paper, or (b) prepare a short skit of I.iii. They will have 15 minutes.

7) We will reconvene as a class to go over the answers to the five questions, using this to build our understanding of Act I.iii. We will also discuss the remaining scenes in Act I.

8) Our acting groups will perform their skits; during their performances, the remaining groups will be responsible for watching an assigned character: Macbeth, Banquo, or the witches. They must focus on two things (a) how their characters are portrayed differently in the two versions, and (b) how they would describe their characters. We will return to this discussion in the next class period.

9) Students will complete Reading Check Quiz I.

10) We will begin listening to/reading Act II in class.

HW: Students will read II.1-2; they must come up with a list of five adjectives for Lady Macbeth.