Lesson 1

Objectives: Students will compare their interpretation of the witches’ scenes with what they have seen in the Macbeth stage performance.

Aim: How would you describe the effects of the witches in Macbeth performance we saw yesterday at LCT? Was that what you had anticipated?

Motivational Activities:

What do your imagined witches figure look like? Describe the image.

Texts: Act 1 Scenes 1 & 3, Act 3 Scene 5 ( 3rd murderer), Act 4 Scene 1

Learning Sequence

1. Describe all you remembered about the witches in the stage performance of Macbeth.
2. Respond: Did you anticipate to see the images to be portrayed in the ways you saw in the production? Why or why not?
3. What was so amazing or shocking or surprising about the witches?
4. What do you think their functions are in the play according to this particular production?
5. Ink-Pair- Share.
6. Share in class your responses.
7. Find all the scenes abut the  witched in the play and identify words that you believe helped the director portray the witched the way he did. Be specific about the act, scene and line numbers. Make specific references to the words.
8. Also identify evidence you believe that director went off with his own “interpretation” spree or scenes where Shakespeare does not mention in his play at all.
9. Ink-Pair-Share.
10. Share in class.

Homework: Write a full-page response based on the discussion. How effective is director with the portrayal of the witches? How does the depiction help reveal Macbeth’s character and contribute to the themes.

Lesson 2

Objectives: Students will be able to respond to a specific part or element of the  stage performance of Macbeth they have seen at LCT

Aim: Which specific part or element of the Macbeth play still lingers in your mind and follows you everywhere? Why?

Motivational Activity

Let’s do round robin several times commenting on the play and each time we’ll use a sentence starter to begin our statement. You can comment on the staging techniques, props such as the rose bouquet, choice of actors, costumes, witches,, etc.

1.  “I’m still thinking and talking about ________________in the Macbeth show because I ___________________________. It really helps understand/see that ____________.

2. It is strange that ______________________________________.

3. It is fascinating that ____________________________________.

4. I don’t understand why ____________________________________.

5. I think the director’s intention is _________________________ when he makes the choice of ___________________________________________.

Learning Procedure

Foe each activity, we’ll do ink-pair-share –

1. Based on the round robin activities, which specific detail or element truly has made an impression on you? Describe it in details, for example, how is it seen or heard or felt or smelt etc.
2. Locate the scene or lines in Shakespeare’s play that has given the director the inspiration or stage directions.
3. Read the original lines or scene and compare the director’s intention or understanding with your own. How does the director effectively or ineffectively portray the scene or detail?
4. How does Shakespeare’s language create the magic we see?
5. (Introduction) What’s your overall impression of Macbeth after seeing the play? How does this play speak to you? Whom would you be if you were to select one of the characters in the play to represent you? Why?
6. How do you feel about Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s deaths? Triumphant? Pity? Purged? Poetic justice?
7. (conclusion)How does the play change your views on certain worldly issues?

Enrichment Activity

Other suggestions of Topics for Writing your LCT Responses to the Macbeth Stage performance

1. Respond: How does the “Tomorrow ,and tomorrow,and  tomorrow” soliloquy reveal Macbeth’s devoid of emotions and impasse to conscience?

Text: Tomorrow , tomorrow, tomorrow soliloquy Act 5 Scene 5 What is that noise? SEYTON It is the cry of women, my good lord. [Exit] MACBETH I have almost forgot the taste of fears; The time has been, my senses would have cool’d 10 To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir As life were in’t: I have supp’d full with horrors; Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts Cannot once start me. [Re-enter SEYTON] Wherefore was that cry? SEYTON The queen, my lord, is dead. MACBETH She should have died hereafter; There would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day 20 To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

2. The shadow as motif

3.Violence in Macbeth

4. Does Shakespeare use Lady Macbeth to warn people of the 1st sin? Shakespeare, uses Lady Macbeth to illustrate his belief ‘Frailty ,thy name is woman”?

5. Haunting images in Macbeth

6. Natural disasters in Macbeth

7. Macbeth’s Perversion of Manliness

8. Why Macbeth is Hitler or Stalin

9.Fear  in Macbeth

Homework: Write a one or  two-page  response to show your in-depth understanding of a specific detail or element in the play Macbeth. Be sure to mention how that detailed is portrayed by Shakespeare originally in the play and whether there are any differences between your interpretation and the director’s. How does this particular detail or element help you understand the play as a whole or Macbeth or Lady Macbeth as a character?

 

AP Lit Open-Ended Question

Identify a motif in the play Macbeth that contributes to the character and theme development. Be sure to describe the motif and how Shakespeare uses it to create a complex character and develop the theme.