Both groups of students, the AP students and the sophomores and juniors, read Shakespeare’s tragedy in class and at home. To help them understand the text, the characters, Shakespeare’s style, and the literary techniques that Shakespeare uses to convey meaning, students will take notes on a worksheet that can be used as reference for a closer analysis. Specifically, they will take the following notes:
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Title, author, time when the text was written or produced
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Biographical information about the author
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Historical information about the period of publication
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Genre and its characteristics
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Plot summary
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Memorable quotations and significance (each quotation has to be analyzed for significance)
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Description of Shakespeare’s style
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Specific examples that demonstrate the author’s style
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For each character students have to write
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Name
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Role in the story
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Significance
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Adjective (this request of find an adjective that defines the character is important to improve vocabulary and analysis)
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Setting – place and time (time in this tragedy is the most relevant aspect of setting)
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Symbols and their significance and/or relevance to better understand the characters
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Internal conflicts and significance
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External conflicts and significance
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Significance of opening scene
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Significance of ending-closing scene
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Possible themes
Modification for Struggling Students
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Title, author, time when the text was written or produced
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Biographical information about the author
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Historical information about the period of publication
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Genre and its characteristics
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Plot summary
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Memorable Quotes and why this quote is important
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Name of each character and role
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Setting – place and time
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Symbols
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Conflicts
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Significance of opening scene
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Possible themes
Modified Reading Strategy to Address Struggling Students
This strategy is appropriate for those students who are not motivated and are struggling readers. The teacher should NOT model it because “not knowing how to do it” triggers more thinking.
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Select ten to fifteen phrases from the scene or excerpt of scene that the students will read as homework or in class and will analyze (if the activity takes place in class, divide the students in groups and assign different phrases from the same scene or excerpt of the scene to each group)
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Give them ten minutes to discuss what they think the phrases refer to. The teacher can ask to identify the character’s traits, conflict(s), symbol(s), or theme that each phrase may convey
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After ten minutes, ask students to write their reflections/conclusions/ wonder why questions and possible answers
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Share the students’ responses
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Read the scene or excerpt of the scene aloud
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After reading the text, compare and contrast the students’ predictions and the text.
Analysis or Close Reading Strategy
This teaching strategy is appropriate for AP students but it may be used with students who do not struggle with reading comprehension.
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Read the assigned scene or excerpt of the scene
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Annotate it (the teacher decides the purpose of the annotation; the students may be expected to annotate for diction, or figurative language, or syntax, or theme)
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Write a brief summary (just two or three sentences)
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Read the scene or the excerpt a second time and add other annotations for the specific literary techniques that the teacher suggests
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Discuss the various interpretations as a class and take notes of the different views
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Write two or more pages analysis of how the author uses the indicated literary technique to convey meaning, or characterize a specific character, or theme.
Character Analysis
This teaching map can be used to analyze Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, the Witches, Duncan, and/or any other characters in the tragedy. It is appropriate in this unit too because it allows students to decode the hidden thoughts and feelings of the character leading them to the discussion of gender identity. The teacher should use this strategy immediately after reading the selected scenes and characters so that students can easily respond to the leading questions included in the Teaching Plan Session. The various body-parts represent the external clues that open the character’s mind to the reader. It can be used with all students, AP students and regular sophomores and juniors, to understand and discuss the gender identity of the character.
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Head: intellectual side of the character. What are his/her dreams? Visions? Philosophies he/she keeps inside?
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Eyes: seeing through the character’s eyes. What memorable sights affect him/her? How?
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Ears: hearing through the character’s ears. What does he/she notice and remember others saying about him/her? How is he/she affected?
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Mouth: the character’s communication. What philosophy does the character share? What arguments/debates? What images would symbolize his/her philosophy?
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Arms: working – for the tragedy of
Macbeth
‘work’ refers to ‘ruling’ and “being the king or leader of a nation.’ What is the character’s relationship to ‘work/being king’ in general?
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Hands: the practical side of the character. What conflicts does he or she deal with? How?
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Heart: the emotional side. What does he/she love? Who? Whom? How?
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Torso: the instinctive side of the character. What does he/she like about himself/herself? What does he hide? What brings the character pain? What does he/she fear?
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Legs: the playful side of the character. What does he/she do for fun? If the character does not have a playful side, then students have to pay close attention to determine the motivations behind this fact.
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Feet: the character’s mobility. Where has he or she been (literally/figuratively)? How has he been affected by time - setting and/or travel?
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Wings: the character’s future. Where is he/she going?
Modification
The AP students have to identify four to five meaningful quotations for each body part and write an evaluation/analysis of each quote. The college students have to identify two important quotations for each part followed by commentaries. The weakest students have to identify one quotation for each body part followed by commentary. Also the struggling students can even draw the image of the quotation they are referring to.
Prompt for the AP Final Assessment
After reading and discussing the tragedy of
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare, excerpts from Michel Foucault’s “History of Sexuality,” Judy Butler’s “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution,” Judith Halberstam’s “Female Masculinity,” and any other texts, both fictional or non-fictional, that you have read in the course of this unit, write a twenty page essay in which you discuss how Shakespeare conveys the gender identity of his major characters and the relative implications. Your argument has to discuss the complexity and ambiguity of gender identity, the societal construct that affects the characters’ identity in Macbeth. You should also discuss whether Shakespeare wanted to challenge the societal constructs for gender or whether his representation reflects the weaknesses which derive from the same societal expectations. Is Macbeth weak because he does not comply with the societal expectation for masculinity? Does he murder Duncan because he is under the strong and negative malevolence of the witches and Lady Macbeth?
Prompt for Sophomore and Junior Students’ Final Assessment
After reading Macbeth, interviewing peers and/or friend, researching about gender identity, write an essay in which you discuss Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s gender identity. Support your argument with specific references to the Shakespearean tragedy and any other texts your have analyzed or read in the course of this unit. Students can also choose to write an editorial or an Op-Ed instead of the essay.
Modification for Struggling Students
After reading the tragedy of Macbeth and the various class discussions on gender identity, write a monologue, or a scene, or a lyric/poem, a brief short story, a documentary and/or short film (this is appropriate for struggling students and those who have any kind of special needs as indicated by Strassman in the article, “Differentiated Instruction in the English Classroom”),
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in which you convey your own interpretation of Macbeth’s gender identity.
