MACBETH. Mrs. Lana Stevenson is the new junior and senior English teacher this year. She’s keeping most of the English assignments, books, and projects the same, however she’s added a few changes to the curriculum. Instead of reading Anne Frank with the junior class, she decided to do something different and have the juniors join the seniors in reading Macbeth. Macbeth is a tragic play by famous playwright William Shakespeare about a Scottish general who is filled with ambition and greed. A fun activity the classes took part in was taking a scene out of the play and interpreting it into a modern day text message conversation. This is a great way for the students to learn how to understand Shakespeare’s writing.
While reading Macbeth, Mrs. Stevenson provided students with various ways to comprehend the story. It can tend to be an advanced read and hard for some to understand at times so Mrs. Stevenson makes sure to help interpret the text into a more modern tone. One way she gets students to remember characters and their role is by having a character chart with each character’s personal description.
Shakespeare is known for creating plays filled with complex language and poetic wordplay. Mrs. Stevenson has been stressing to her students that knowing and understanding the dialogue is extremely important while reading a play like Macbeth. To understand the complex dialogue and figures of speech used consistently throughout the play, the students filled out a worksheet focusing on dramatic and structural vocabulary. In a play with five acts and 28 scenes it can be easy to get lost or confused while reading, however with their Macbeth action summary paper they can easily keep track of what’s going on in each scene with summaries and checklists as to what themes were shown. To finish off the unit the seniors will be acting out scenes from the play and the juniors will be writing an essay.
Article by Chad Bargdill