Ardath+Runion


 * Reflection Assignment: Introducing the Witches in //Macbeth// **


 * 1) What was your original intent or goal for this lesson?

Students began reading the play on audio. I don’t prefer audio for the whole play but my intent for the first act was to use audio in order for students to familiarize themselves with the language of the play and easily start and stop the tape to discuss the important elements at the begininning.

My original intent was to personify the three weird sisters ( witches) for the students. Most students think about witches as old hags with warts. I decided to challenge their point of view by looking outside the box and finding a different version of a witch.

2. Were you successful in reaching that goal? How?

Yes, I feel like this lesson went above and beyond my original thought process for the assignment. I gave my students a scenario: The Cobb County Playhouse has appointed you as an assistant to the director for their upcoming performance of //The Tragedy of Macbeth//. The director has told you to present an image for the three witches for the Costume Department. The director wants a modern version of //Macbeth// and is considering other options than the traditional “ old crone witch ” . Among the four choices, decide which image will be appropriate for the upcoming performance. Support your decision. Students were given the description from the text and four pictures of “modern day” witches (lumber jacks, attractive young women, children, and old men). With the evidence from the text, they had to choose the witch image and support their answer. Each image had at least one support from the description but students had to justify the other 4 descriptions with their chosen image. Students applied their skills accordingly. They analyzed the characteristics, the images, what was known about the characters and the time period. Then they applied them all in this activity. By assessing the images, we briefly talked about each one. Students used the images as a jumping off point in their discussion and were able to connect them freely to past information.

3. What specifically went well with your lesson?

Students were able to apply their past learning experiences without many prompts of discussion by the teacher. Many were able to state a claim and support it with prior knowledge.

4. What did not go well with your lesson? Why?

I don’t think I had a bad moment for this. I think in the future, I would like to connect it later in the unit plan. I would like students to come back to this idea and use it in a future project. Maybe as a final grade, I would have the students complete a video project with modern //Macbeth// characters.

5. What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson?

I made an adjustment on the time for discussion. Originally, I planned the writing prompt to last 10 minutes but as I experienced the students’ enthusiasm, I extended the prompt to 20 minutes.

6. How does this lesson find its way into your unit and how well does this lesson scaffold and/or integrate into the next lesson?

Students are expected to learn character development through literature. I decided to think about the character and its modern spin. How can the character develop with-in the text and out of the 16th/ 17th century?

7. What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework?

Personify the characters in a modern spin from the text.

8. Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? Yes, I think it is important for students to think outside the box. This lesson applied the text, past knowledge, analysis, and justification all in one brief 15 minute lesson. It helped bring the characters alive in the text.


 * Reflection Assignment #2: Subtext with the Hexed **


 * 1)  What was your original intent or goal for this lesson? Originally I wanted students to study the Banquet Scene in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In groups, students should have used the original text and study the subtext of the characters in the scene.


 * 1)  Were you successful in reaching that goal? How? I don’t think we were successful in reaching the goal during the class period. We ended up losing time in class to the discussion over the Tragic hero. Through class, we only had about 15 minutes in class to complete the subtext assignment, however it was a very tough idea for the students to grasp. First, students needed to understand the lines in Shakespeare in order to understand the character’s subtext. Then they had to converse with their classmates about the character evolution before tackling the subtext. I believe this is a higher level of thinking that the students didn’t have the time or understanding to figure out the subtext in class. However, the students tried and thought about the task in class.


 * 1)  What specifically went well with your lesson? By the end of the lesson, students wrote the subtext for a ticket out the door. I’m glad that they completed a couple lines of the assignment. It gave me the opportunity to discover how my students were doing while analyzing the text. Through the exit out the door, I learned that some of the students knew the subtext and some students weren’t “quite there”. It gave me a chance to see how my students were doing with the dialogue and the character development through the unit and to think about how I was going to plan my next lesson.


 * 1)  What did not go well with your lesson? Why? Bad timing and more consideration earlier in the unit.


 * 1)  What adjustments will you make or did you make during the course of your day to replicate the lesson? I want to teach the concept earlier with character development lesson instead of trying it cold.


 * 1)  How does this lesson find its way into your unit and how well does this lesson scaffold and/or integrate into the next lesson? It’s a great way for student to think under the surface of the dialogue and get in the mind of the character. It can be used more through out the unit and the story from the script.


 * 1)  What theoretical principle and/or project did you tie to this lesson from your coursework? Literary analysis. Group work. Character Development.


 * 1) Will you use this lesson again? Why or why not? Yes, but I would like to think about it in a different way. I was thinking about putting it on its feet. Maybe as a class, have the students take on the characters and do the scene through the lines in the play and then another person as the actual thought or intention of the character. Instead of reading from script, maybe paraphrased lines of dialogue because most people stumble over the thou’s, thee’s, and doths.