Macbeth Long-term Web Quest
Introduction: Welcome to the Undiscovered Country, a realm of unchallenged seas where knew knowledge and experience exists just over every horizon. This particular web quest is designed as a long-term web quest (LTWQ) unit of instruction for a 9-week course. It is designed to acquaint students with the power of the Internet to study literature. Prepare yourselves to embark upon the study of Macbeth: to improve your understanding of several literary devices, to enter the world of this tragic hero by reading and examining the play for theme and imagery, to perform Shakespeare, and to present Shakespeare in another genre. Enjoy your journey, and let me know, via the “Mail Me!” link on the home page, about any tempests or fair winds you may experience along the way.
May all your dreams blow hard upon your swift sails!
Logistics:
Unit length: 50 min X 5 days X 9 weeks = 2250 minutes
Course Materials: text of Macbeth, journals, performance rubric, project rubric, routine for group work, and Internet access
Performance Standards: Visit http://www.georgiastandards.org/langart.asp for the British Literature and Composition Standards.
· This unit addresses all the Georgia Performance Standards for British Literature and Composition: ELABLRL1-5 and ELA12RC1-4
Lesson 1 (150
min): Identifying Literary Elements in Shakespeare
Objective: Students recognize, write, and evaluate literary devices toward an understanding of function, form, and effect in literature.
· Follow the WebQuest, TheUndiscovered Country ~ Unconfusing Four Common Literary Terms, written by yours truly.
· http://www.geocities.com/logichound/
· Write in your journal and explain to yourself the meaning and use of these four literary terms. Be sure to include examples, either form the text or of your making.
Lesson 2 (900 min): Read Macbeth. Monitor the four literary terms from the previous lesson—metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and simile. Discuss several themes within Macbeth: Motivation toward Evil, the role of a King, Succession, and Psychology of the Mind, Illusion versus Reality. Read the opening Act of Macbeth. Have the students highlight in their text.
Objective: Students read for comprehension, write to clarify and explore ideas, pace learning, and discuss British literature.
· Read two scenes the night before class. Write in you journal your impression of the scene, what you think will happen next, any difficulties you had with the text, and any personal connections you make with the scenes.
· Do the second bullet on the day following the end of each act.
· Divide into Investigative Groups of 4-5, Subdivide the group into a reader, a literary device team, and a theme team.
· Prepare a brief outline of the act. Rewrite the act, in brief, in modern language, using key lines from the scene. You will act these scenes at the end of the unit.
· Read two scenes each day in class, while taking note of the elements for which each subdivision of the team is responsible. Revisit the scene and be sure to include examples, citing each text.
· Discuss your findings.
· Reconvene with the whole group and discuss the literary devices and the themes.
Lesson 3 (150 min.): Limitations of Performance
Objectives are listed in the lesson plan.
· Follow the 32-Second Exercise
Resources:
http://www.folger.edu/education/lesson.cfm?lessonid=190
The handout:
http://www.folger.edu/education/pdfs/32-secondMacbeth.pdf
· Pair off into 2 groups with 9 actors each. Have them compete for brevity in three heats.
Afterward, talk to them about the confines of performing S’s plays in two hours and the technical difficulties of doing so. Discussion question: How did they overcome this?
· Write in their electronic journals about the effect limitations have on writing and performance (150 words).
· Objective: Students learn the value of working within conventions of time limitation and the importance of removing unnecessary elements.
· Rewrite your journal article in (100 words).
· Objective: Students learn to condense writing through sentence combining and evaluation of necessary/unnecessary words.
· Discussion: In groups of 4-5, share your brief journal entries and discuss how this exercise might help student writing skills.
Lesson 3 (200 min.): Fear and The Motives of the Mind: This lesson is complete
Objective: Students learn how language and symbolism is used to express emotion and develop character in literature.
· Click the link below and follow, skip down to the paragraph numbered 1 and follow the lesson plan from there.
Lesson 4 (250 min.): Analyzing Imagery with a Concordance
Objective: Students use technology to trace words in a text and research the importance of words in creating imagery and theme .
· Follow the lesson Plan at the link bellow. Use the Cooperative group Routine. Each group member must research one of the following terms: blood, death, dark, and foul.
· http://www.folger.edu/education/lesson.cfm?lessonid=173
· Reconvene and share your findings with your group. How do these images relate?
· Discuss your findings with the whole class.
· Write a one-page description of what you learned. Use examples from the text to support your findings.
Lesson 5 (500 min.): Act the play in 100 minutes.
Objective: Students evaluate the importance of character, action, and setting and learn the challenges and rewards of dramatic performance.
· Get the modern-language acts out of your portfolio. Now that you have finished the play and discussed themes and theatrical limitations, get in groups and, using your knowledge of the whole play, revise each act to better fit the overall mood of the play.
· Think about how you would portray each character. How would you convey this in tone, and body language?
· I will randomly assign each group an Act(s) to perform (depending on number of groups). Then, you will get up and perform your act. When all groups have gone, the entire play has been performed.
· Using two performance rubrics, use one to evaluate how you feel your group performed and the other to evaluate how you performed.
· Write a one-page journal entry to describe what you learned and what you thought of the experience.
· Reconvene to discuss the activity as a whole group.
· Revisit or revise the self-evaluations.
Evaluation
(150 min):
Objective: Students express understanding through creativity in other genres and to share their work with an audience.
Choose One.
· Draw an Open-Mind of Macbeth or Lady Macbeth (An Open Mind is an outline of a head that contains symbolic representations of the actions and themes of a
· Write a one-page poem about a scene in Macbeth
· Write a song about Macbeth
· Write a one-page essay describing your project and how you used imagery to bring Macbeth to life.
Do these:
· Present and defend your project to your peers.
· Complete a self-evaluation of your project.
Conclusion: Wow! Now that you have completed this unit you have crossed raging seas as new knowledge proved difficult to navigate at times; you have meandered through strange texts and learned to glean the deeper meaning just beneath the surface of story; And you have learned to cooperate with your shipmates and lead, at times, as you guide them across new waters of understanding. Before you began this journey, you thought the undiscovered country would yield all her secrets, but wisdom has taught you that there are always new horizons hiding yet more country that lies undiscovered, unexplored.
May your sunrises be many with blue oceans touching azure skies. And may your sunsets dazzle the mind’s eye and beckon you to follow the sun, for new realms await exploration just over the next horizon.
Other Resources for those who would know more!