Lesson Plan- September 23, 2007

Purpose/Rationale: The main purpose of this lesson is to help the students understand better the essence of what is really going on in the revenge tragedy Macbeth. However, I wouldn’t like my students simply to memorize the plot just because they have to and view the whole play as something quaint and detached from the real world. I want my students to think about the plot as something modern, something that is close to their way of thinking.

Objectives: Upon completion of this lesson, the students will be able to understand better all the political conspiracies that are happening all over the world. They will also learn how to report on something (in Shakespearean language, of course) and this will be a very good practice for those who want to study journalism in college. And, of course, they will be able to freely comment on what is going on in Macbeth.

Materials: Teacher will need a fake microphone, some improvised police line that says “Do not cross” and also, if possible, a camera to record everything. It is going to be something like a “live” reporting. I will also ask the student to take a look on the “Shakespeare” website and memorize some of his words and insults.

Procedures:

1. An improvised stage will be set. There will be picket line “Do not cross.” One student will play a newscaster sitting in front of the line. Another student will play Macbeth who will be lying dead on the floor. Some other students will play investigators around the crime scene. Another student will be Macbeth.

2. The student playing the reporter will depict, in Shakespearean language the aftermath of Macbeth’s assassination. He(Macbeth) will be a president of a fictional country that has been shot by his political opponent (Malcolm). The reporter will summarize the play by telling the public what has preceded the assassination.

3. The reporter will interview Malcolm (nobody will know yet that he is the killer) and the student who plays Malcolm will reply by quoting some lines from the play (e.g. We will perform in measure, time, and place:/So thanks to all at once, and to each one,/Whom we invite to see us crowned at Scone.(5.9. 43-45)

4. The reporter can ask the rest of the class, who will be just passer-bys about their opinion on the assassination plot. They will reply in Shakespearean language as much as they can.

5. Another student will be the cameraman who will tape everything. Afterwards, the tape will be displayed to the students. If the school has its own TV channel, the reportage could be shown there as well.

Assessment of Learning: The students will be assessed based on their creativity, enthusiasm and use of Shakespearean language. This mock live reporting will lead into the next lesson where the students will be asked to do research on political assassinations throughout history. In class, each student will have to give a 3 to 5 minute presentation linking the researched assassination to Macbeth.

Reflection: Very often people find something dull just because they either don’t understand it or they find it too detached from the real world. I am a living proof. When I was a teenager we were reading Romeo and Juliet in class. To me, that story sounded like something from Mars. It was all Greek to me. My grandfather was doing everything possible to explain the plot to me but I would only laugh at the names (I did find them very dull) and go out to play. Once a friend of mine invited me to her house for a sleepover and she told me that she had rented a movie starring Leo Di Caprio (she was in love with that actor). And the movie was….Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It presents the play in a modern version where there is a police commissioner instead of a prince, cars instead of horses and guns instead of swords. After seeing that movie I suddenly became a Romeo and Juliet wizard. It was all because I saw the play in modern terms. That was the incident from where I got my inspiration about the mock reportage.