Teaching Strategies
The Performance Triangle
In the 'Presentation of Self' section of this unit, I discussed the three major aspects of performance inherent in the study of Macbeth: character, self, and player. Each of these focal points will be represented in what I call the performance triangle. The performance triangle is a paradigm upon which each of the strategies in the unit builds. It is the framework for reading, discussing, and writing about Macbeth, which are the chief objectives of the unit. This concept can also be seen as a building block that will guide students to identify, interpret, and analyze three aspects of performance. Specifically, these three aspects are: 1) the character of Macbeth performing various roles within the play; 2) the role of the actor in performing the characters in Macbeth, from text to stage; and 3) the concept of performance used by the individual reader/audience member in his everyday environment.
The performance triangle will be introduced to students at the start of the unit, so that each of the strategies described in this section can be guided by this paradigm. Furthermore, each of the specific activities in the unit is an extension of this concept of performance, whether it be of self, player, character, or the relationship among these. A poster of this graphic will be produced and placed on the classroom wall, so that it will be constantly available as we study the play.
Activation of Prior Knowledge and Experience
Before handling the actual text, it is important to lead students into a particular work of literature when beginning a new unit. A time-honored method of creating relevancy for students is to activate student prior knowledge about a subject or field of study. It creates relevancy by allowing students to make personal connections, and, in literature, this is especially helpful. In reading Macbeth, students will be able to continuously draw connections between the themes and motifs in the play and their own lives. In addition, activating prior knowledge increases interest. When students are interested in a particular unit topic from the start, they are motivated to learn; this is important because student motivation is key in their successful mastery of the skills promoted and the content embedded in the unit.
Activities such as anticipation surveys and visual literacy exercises will set the tone for the first lessons of the unit. An example of an anticipation survey is an exercise in which students respond to statements relating to the themes of the literary work. In this case, it will be the concepts of selfhood, performance, and moral or ethical ambiguity. Students will respond in writing and then share their responses orally in small groups. These are meant to challenge students to think deeply about their own selves, which would be the focus of this unit. Also, an excellent visual literacy exercise that I use is to show students paintings inspired by Macbeth, and to have discussions about details in the artwork, helping students develop predictions about the play.
Annotation
This strategy is key for students to master in this unit, especially because Shakespeare's language is very dense and laden with multiple ideas and rhetorical devices. By 'annotation' I mean marking insights and reactions on the actual page with a pen or pencil. Although students are not allowed to write in the texts they receive from my particular school, sections of the book can be easily photocopied and disseminated to students. Annotation of Shakespeare's language will facilitate a much closer reading by students than that which they are normally accustomed to. It is a skill that will benefit students by giving them a way to both identify the literary devices learned throughout the course, and to jot down personal reactions, all of which is very useful in the study of poetry and poetical language. Interestingly, AP exams in the past have presented speeches from Shakespeare plays in the poetry essay section, accentuating the deeply poetic aspects of his language.
Through annotation, students will focus on identifying the tone and diction of the characters, leading to the concept of performance, but also such devices as imagery, metaphor, and symbolism. After annotating the text, students can begin to form opinions and arguments about the sincerity of each character's presentation of themselves to others. Using the above example of Lady Macbeth's dialogue with Macbeth, students will learn to discuss what the ghastly imagery she employs says about how she wants to present herself to her husband. Additionally, students will be able to mark the meter and rhythm of Shakespeare's language, after the concepts of 'iambic pentameter' and blank verse have been introduced to them earlier in the course.
Staged Readings
As we begin the play as a whole class, it is important that students feel as though they have firm footing as they enter the study of a work that is new to them. In order to foster this confidence, we will engage in class read-alouds. These are exercises in which we straightforwardly read the text as a class, usually for no more than ten minutes. As we read, I model the sort of close reading that is encouraged. I will pause intermittently while reading, asking the class for reactions to the text or inferences they might make. In this way, the teacher 'reads aloud' as one might 'think aloud.' After the initial teacher modeling exercise, students are prepared to perform read-alouds on their own in small groups. As students become more comfortable with active reading and thinking critically about the text, they will be ready for the staged reading strategy.
A staged reading is a more considered version of a read-aloud. Students are divided into small groups of three or four students. Then, they are assigned a specific passage from the play to prepare for a mini-performance. They are not required to memorize any lines or use costumes or props, because they will have had only fifteen to twenty minutes to prepare their scenes and to think about the way they will present them. This strategy is closely tied to the 'player' aspect of the performance triangle paradigm. I will use the example above, in which Lady Macbeth convinces her husband to assassinate Duncan, as a good model for a staged reading exercise. Students will have to synthesize many skills and tools they are learning in order to interpret the scene between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
Guided Discussion
There are three main avenues of discussion that students will experience in this unit. Specifically, these are: in-class oral discussion (both in small groups and as a whole class), the gallery walk, and an online discussion group.
Teaching students how to engage in discussion is vital, because oral expression is important to develop as a skill, especially for these students. Many of my students lack the confidence, for one thing, to express their own opinions about challenging material. Also, many students have not had much practice in listening and responding in a discussion about literature in a small or large group setting. For discussion to be meaningful in this unit, I will encourage all students to voice their opinions and reactions. Written responses to bell ringer prompts that relate to the text are a good strategy to start students' thought processes in the direction of critical analysis.
The basic premise of the small-to-large-group discussion strategy starts with small groups of three or four students. They are allotted time, usually fifteen minutes, to discuss and take notes on a specific prompt regarding a passage of the play. Then, the whole class comes together and shares in a large group discussion. Note taking during small group discussion is useful because it gives students a starting point, or something to say. Making even just one point or stating a personal reaction is encouraged, because it may trigger ideas in another student, and, in this fashion, every voice contributes to the discussion.
For the gallery walk strategy, which will take place twice during the unit, students engage in a 'silent discussion.' Several posters are placed on the walls of the room, each with a quote from the text or a specific thematic element of the text. Students walk around the room contemplating the posters, as they would in an art gallery, and write a short response on the poster. Students are encouraged to respond to every poster, as well as respond to the opinions that other students are putting in writing. Gallery walks are helpful in giving every student a chance to contribute to the discussion, particularly a student that is still in a developing stage of his or her skill in vocally expressing themselves. This strategy leads to high levels of student engagement, because it promotes thinking about high interest aspects of Macbeth. Students will draw upon both the oral discussion and gallery walks when forming their original theses for their essays at the end of the unit, and the gallery walk contributes in bolstering the quality of their writing.
Students will have an opportunity to discuss the play or any relevant class work online. It is fairly easy to set up an online listserve. For this course, I will use Yahoo! Groups, which will serve the purpose of the course quite well. Basically, the listserve is a forum that students log on to using their email addresses. I will take each student's email address and register it as part of the online group. No one else besides the students in the class and the teacher has access to the discussion forum. I will periodically pose guiding questions, homework help, and links to helpful websites (including a blog I have developed for my AP course). Students will have the option to speak to the entire group, or to send a message to just one or more particular students. By utilizing each of these avenues of discussion, students will strengthen their prospects of succeeding in meeting the critical thinking and writing objectives of the unit.
Intensive Writing
Writing will be based on close analysis of the text's performance aspects, thematic issues, and social and historical value, as well as the figurative language, tone, diction and imagery- which they will have been learning through annotation exercises, guided discussions, and read-alouds. Students are expected to complete bell ringers at the start of each class session. These bell ringers will be written on the front board as students walk into the classroom. They will have the first five minutes to write a quality paragraph reaction in their journals. The bell ringers are in the form of prompts. One example is, "In your opinion, which character is most responsible for the death of Duncan? Give reasons and examples from the text to support your answer."
The purpose of these written bell ringers is twofold. One, the prompts are closely linked to the material to be studied that day in class. This way, they can be a springboard for discussion, and always a good way to link back to our all-encompassing framework of performance. Secondly, these timed bell ringers are good practice for the AP exam, in which they will be required to write coherently and think critically about a prompt related to a literary passage, all under a strict time limit.
This unit will also include a formal critical essay of three to four pages, due at the end of the five weeks. Throughout the course, students will learn the format of writing high-quality, college-level pieces that demonstrate logical essay organization. The essays will require one draft, to be handed back with teacher notes and corrections. I will stress the idea of how drafting, something my students are not familiar or even comfortable with doing, can improve the quality of expression in writing.. For example, they will learn how to construct a thesis, and use varied sentence structure and relevant textual support to form a strong argument. The topic of the essay will be performance and the presentation of self, and how Shakespeare makes us aware of this phenomenon. Students are strongly encouraged to choose at least three passages including various characters in Macbeth, and demonstrate a close reading of these passages. Graphic organizers and various note-taking strategies will be taught to students during the pre-writing stage. This will teach students to organize their thoughts and create a structurally sound essay. A five-point rubric will be used to assess the final drafts of these essays.
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