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Macbeth
Lessons and projects by students and teachers on Shakespeare's Macbeth. If you are looking for audio related to Macbeth, it has its own link at the top menu.
Macbeth Made Easy - Group Work
A lesson as tied to the idea of the "text centered classroom" as anything else you will find at this website. It also owes most of its ideas to Stephen Booth. This group work (designed for 4-5 students) tries to show students in three parts (one done in front of the other) -- exactly why it is not a good idea to paraphrase Shakespeare --and why the actual words (as opposed to the ideas, plots, or themes) of Shakespeare's works are paramount.
Each part of the lesson is designed to be done before the other. It helps if you have a color printer to print out the last part which shows the rich word textures present in Shakespeare (and absent from paraphrases). This lesson is also a good way to prepare students for some of the "text-centered" ideas that will come later in their unit on Literary Criticism.
Bloody Resolve: A Macbeth Illuminated Text by Elizabeth Mucha and Renee Leber
The first Shakespeare Illuminated Text on our site and one of the best. The students use Macbeth's own words to indict his bloody intentions -- the movement of the words, the letters, and the music create a masterful impression of Shakespeare's words. [We now have a Flash Video version of this presentation - if you've had any trouble hearing the sound and/or video choose that version.] Shakespeare works wonderfully for these Illuminated Texts -
Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot - PowerPoint Presentation
A presentation on the "Life is a Tale told by an idiot" speech from Macbeth. In this case, it is designed to illuminate my very particular take on the soliloquy -- that Macbeth is in fact, devestated by his wife's death -- and that all they have done, which was originally for her, is utterly without (like life) purpose or meaning. There is an audio discussion on this idea - and one of the things that amazes me is that the book takes this as a given (that Macbeth was too busy to care about the death of his wife). I hope this presentation shows another possibility. Note, like all Power Point presentations - you will need to be running Internet Explorer to hear the sound.
Macbeth: "Is this a Dagger that I see before me" - Performance
This short little excercise (10 minutes to rehearse in groups [about 1/4 of the class], 10 minutes to perform [for all 4 groups]) has students act out the "Is this a dagger..." soliloquy. They should try to use movement (ie all of them forming a dagger) or action (ie having a good and a bad Macbeth torn in 2 directions) to explicate the text. The handout gives them a lot of direction but I still find it necessary to move from group to group (no sitting!) and the time runs out fast.
Macbeth - Act IV, scene 1 questions for partners
Some questions for partners to help them understand the setup for one of the most difficult scenes in the play. The questions also build on what has come into the classroom up to this point. I've designed this to be done with partners - it is difficult but by reading the lines and working together - they should find the scene not only "knowable" but very worthwhile indeed.
Macbeth - Act I - scene 7 - A close reading
A sheet to help students focus on Act I, scene 7 of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Students are given a set of questions and are expected to work in small groups - I find 5 - 6 students ideal (as opposed to normal group work, for which I think 4 is the ideal number). If possible, there should be a group leader who facilitates the movement of the text - that group leader shouldn't actively read parts but should have the questions in front of her. It is also helpful if they mark some times where they should be at any given moment in the text.
Macbeth Written Response - Digital Edition
Click Here to Go to the Macbeth Scene Assignment Forum
What follows are links to the various parts of your written responses:
I. Macbeth Annotation (remember - you need to post 2 annotations - and respond to 2)
Actors who have a Clue: A Director's Notebook (Prompt Book) for Macbeth Act 2, Scene 3
This director's notebook was created by Devin Jankovich, Vaishak Babu, Amalia McCallister, Luis Barragon, Sybelle Cano, Grace Batiste, and Ashley Doruelo. One of the many valuable techniques that I learned at The Folger Shakespeare Library's Teaching Shakespeare Institute, was to have students create a prompt book or director's notebook. Students first do this for an earlier scene (the banquet scene) and it is mostly a theoretical construct. They will never put on the scene -- though we will read it through and sometimes watch it and talk about the choices that they made in their own production (prompt book). However, this director's notebook is for real and is used in conjuction with the scene that they put on (for Macbeth Day when we are all in the theater).
Macbeth - Director's Notebook Instructions
Specific instructions for students as to what is expected in their director's notebook (much like a promptbook) for their performances of Macbeth. Much of this is based on the work of Shakespeare Set Free and the Teaching Shakespeare Institute at the Folger Library. This excercise is a natural outgrowth of much of what we do while we're studying Macbeth - from simply taking notes in their scripts while we go through a scene to the promptbook exercise and watching Looking for Richard. There is an example of a student produced Director's notebook that really stands, in my mind anyway, as the archetype for this kind of project.
Macbeth--Soundtrack/Playlist
In this assignment students must create a soundtrack/playlist for Macbeth. The soundtrack must have at least two songs per act and the student must summarize the action occuring in each scene and then provide a rational for why the song fits into the play. Songs must be based on thematic connections they can make between the action in the play and the lyrics of the songs.
Making Equivicating Noise: Macbeth, the Three Weird Sisters -- and a class of dogs, owls, and wind.
LISTEN TO AUDIO In this exercise taken directly from Shakespeare Set Free Volume 1 (Peggy O'Brien ed.), the students are given a number of one to three -- and depending on their number they make sound effects: 1) the wind 2) owls 3) dogs. Whilst they are making their effects the witches are reciting their spell (toil and trouble and all that jazz). Sometimes the effects are singular -- at times one, two, or three effects are heard at the same time. The overall effect is powerful and a lot of fun! There are many other activities like this in the Shakespeare Set Free series and I recommend them wholeheartedly.
Macbeth - Act IV - scene 3 - group work
Group Work. In class work designed for 3-4 students on Act IV, scene 3 of Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Macbeth - A cut scene exercise
This exercise has students decide what to cut from a very difficult scene -- then they go to other groups (this is a jigsaw group work) and share what they came up with and why -- then they go back to their groups and share what they learned from the other groups -- how the other groups cut the scene. Finally, they perform the scene. Because the scene is so dense - each group is also broken up into two parts - which at the end of the excercise is great - because it gives them a chance to perform their new revised scene for each other and to see if it still makes sense.
Macbeth - Act II, scene 2 thru Act III, group reading
Group Reading. A group reading through Act III of Macbeth. See earlier group reading for specific instructions.
Macbeth - A detailed chart of scenes for student performance
A detailed chart to be used with student performances of Macbeth. The chart includes the number of players required in the scene, the amount of lines, and any other notes that would help students choose a scene for their particular group. (I let students choose their own groups, and group size so there are many options here). I also only allow one group to do any given scene -- first come, first serve (it really does build the excitement). Scenes range from 1 to 8 or more players. Larger scenes have been broken up into logical, managable, parts.
