Objectives
I love teaching Shakespeare's plays to high school students. The plots are exciting, and I get to see my students progress from needing every single line explained in detail to being able to get the gist of the play on their own by the time we are half way through. This is exciting to me. In the past, when we finished reading the play, as a reward and as a method of reviewing, we would watch at least one screen adaptation in full. This curriculum unit is intended to try another approach. It would never be possible to show more than two films in class in their entirety. With all there is to accomplish, even that much is most likely too much. With the use of film clips that focus the attention of students on particular elements of study, we have a case of "less is more."
I have several specific objectives for this unit. All of them involve increasing students' critical thinking and skills of analysis in one way or another. It has been my experience that by asking students to compare two things - two characters, two stories, two poems, two styles of writing, or in this case, two versions of the same work of literature (one a play, the other a film), more becomes apparent in each. Someone once said that to know happiness, one must also know sadness. It is through comparison only that each is knowable. When Lady Asaji is as still as marble, Washizu looks that much more anxious. When we look at a picture of Dame Judith Anderson as Lady Macbeth, Francesca Annis's beauty, youth and sexuality become that much more apparent.
The primary objective of this curriculum unit is to provide a means of further analyzing the characters of Shakespeare's Macbeth through the use of comparison. We will have already read a good portion of Macbeth. Watching, analyzing, and comparing clips of four film adaptations will enhance my students' ability to listen, and to think critically about what they are watching. Students will be asked to attend to details beyond their usual practice, so an additional objective is to make more informed and active moviegoers of a previously passive audience. As part of the follow-up to the unit, students will have an opportunity to enhance their analytical writing skills.
This unit is designed to develop students' skills in "reading, analyzing, and interpreting literature" as stated in Pennsylvania State Standard 1.3. In particular, State Standard 1.3.E. is to "analyze drama to determine the reasons for a character's action taking into account the situation and basic motivation of the character."
The particular objective of Lesson Plan One is to prepare students to begin thinking about gender issues. Just what does it mean to be a man or a woman? In Lesson Plan Two, it is my objective to consider gender issues, but also to give my students perhaps their first experience of a close reading of a film. Students will be introduced to a new vocabulary of film techniques. Then they will be asked to apply these definitions and point out how the director has placed the camera, used the lighting, decorated the stage, etc. to portray his vision of the play. In Lesson Plan Three, prior to viewing Throne of Blood, I believe it is important to acquaint students a bit with Noh Theater and the Samurai Warrior tradition. We will then slowly watch a clip of the film and do a close reading of a scene between Lady Asaji and Washizu. How has Kurosawa skillfully used the techniques of film to express his point of view? In what ways do we see Lady Macbeth anew after watching Kurosawa's version? In Lesson Plans not fully elaborated in this unit, I would continue the process with Men of Respect and Polanski's Macbeth. We would also consider how the time period of each film has impacted the director's vision.
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