This week has been pretty knarly. It's one thing to watch a person die, but to disassemble that person's living space with a broken heart is something I would wish on no one. Jesse's mom passed Saturday night and I will be in North Carolina all week helping the family to close up her affairs. Thank you for your patience. I miss your faces!
About Macbeth... You will need to guide yourselves through it. There is no way I can properly assess you for understanding considering that I haven't been there to teach you. Let's approach it in a non-traditional way.
Everyday this week during class, you should...
- First, talk about the previous night's reading for 15-20 minutes (make sure everyone talks.)
- Second, sus out the next scenes and decide together what is manageable for the evening. I'm thinking at least 10-15 pages, but I don't have my copy with me, so use your best judgment.
- Last, take time to either read out loud or on your own for the last 10-15 minutes.
- Each night, annotate your script and keep a small journal that includes
- the Act/Scene #s
- at least one question per scene,
- a record of what you believe are the key lines for that scene with a short explanation of why you chose them.
- Make sure that on block day, you also address specifically 1) What themes you see emerging in the play, 2) What recurring motifs you see and guess at why they are significant 3) Talk about things that don't make sense or seem fuzzy to you.
To keep it fresh, let's also have each student prepare a job to enrich understanding beyond reading comprehension. You can claim these jobs. If you can fulfill them on block day, go for it! If it needs to wait until next week, so be it. You may decide.
- Director's Role - This person finds the top two thematically significant scenes (or pieces of a scene) and facilitates the class to act out the scenes in a way that students will grasp something they might have missed when reading it (think about how reading Julius Ceasar's death is pretty chaotic until you realize they are kissing his hand not really to beg for the pardon but to actually get physically closer to him).
- Theme Finder - This person does some research to find at least two possible themes in the play. Then facilitate the class to discuss the probable scenes, guiding them to the interesting ones from your research. Then facilitate student to hunt down at least ten quotes to support that theme (students may work in pairs for the last part).
- Discussion Sizzler - This student needs to do some research to find out why Macbeth has become so significant. Then lead the class in a discussion by introducing key questions that not only analyze the play, but also help the class to apply the truth of the play to modern life.
- Comparison Analytic - This person must find something from current life that compares to the theme, story, meaning, or other comparison with the play.
- Art Director - This play is full of emotions from wild ambition to extreme fear. Choose two or three of the highly emotional sections and read them out loud, explainging why we need to process these emotions more rather than make fun of them or flippantly write off the extremeties and unrealistic. Then facilitate students to create a small art piece to discplay the complexity of the emotions from chosen scenes.
- Historical Researcher - Research the historical context of the play. What inspired Shakespeare and what was he getting at by writing this tragedy? Create an informational powerpoint with at least 10 slides with 3 bullets each to teach the class about your findings.
- (Yes, I know there are six. Choose one ya like and leave one for dead :)
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