Aim: How can we familiarize ourselves with Shakespeare's Macbeth?
Do Now: WHOLE CLASS DISCUSSION
Do you consider yourself to be a superstitious person? Why/Why Not?
In today’s Do Now every student was given time to think about whether they were a superstitious person or not. After the time given was up, Mrs. Peterson began calling on volunteers and asked them to share their stance on this topic (based on their own beliefs and experiences). Most students who participated had unique answers based on their personal experience. For example, Amy (a student) said they didn’t really believe superstitions until they started breaking mirrors and began getting bad luck. Another student, however, said they fully believed in superstitions and believed that they were real. Everyone seemed to be divided on the topic and there seemed to be three separate stances on this topic; those who believed it, those who only believed a portion of it and those who didn't believe it at all. Personally, I fall in the group with those who don't believe in superstitions. I feel this way because superstitions aren’t based on facts and instead it’s more of luck and coincidence.
After this discussion, Mrs. Peterson revealed to the class the reason why we had this discussion and how it connects to the new topic we are supposed to be learning. We were informed that the discussion we had connected to Shakespeare, a famous figure, that was viewed as a “superstitious” person.
The Slides:
Following Mrs.Peterson’s introduction to the topic, we were prompted to read the slides provided for us. It was decided that every student should read a portion considering the slides were fairly wordy and lengthy.
The class first started off with basic information about Shakesphere. Information like his birthday, his personal life, his work, his journey was given. This information seems particularly normal until it was pointed out that Shakesphere was allegedly born and died on the same date of April 23. This connects to what Mrs. Peterson had discussed before, the idea that Shakespehere was a superstitious person. It’s quite eerie thinking about how his birth and death lies on the same date. Moving from this small discussion of Shakesphere’s birth/death day, we went back to reading the following slides.
These slides further showed why Shakespeare was considered a superstitious person. However, these are all alleged and were not proved as facts. While reading this, Mrs. Peterson directed our attention to the second slide (the one with his grave on it). Our classmate, Yanyan, was prompted to read it and after reading, Mrs. Peterson started giving information about the grave. The words on the grave, though not yet confirmed to be Shakespeare’s, seems particularly strange and offsetting as it connects with the idea of Shakespeare putting a curse (of his bones being untouched) on himself being true.
Class Discussion:
What are your initial impressions of Shakespeare?
After we learned the small fact, the teacher prompted us to have a discussion on Shakespeare and what impressions we have on him. One classmate participated and said that Shakespeare was a “creepy superstitious writer” after learning about some creepy information that connected with him. He added that before learning about this part about Shakespeare he believed that Shakespeare was just a guy that “writes a lot”.
Another classmate agreed and said that they knew Shakespeare based on his play of Romeo and Juilet. The class all had an agreement and moved onto the next few slides.
These slides officially introduced us to our new topic of Macbeth. The first two, just like the slides introducing Shakespeare, talked about Macbeth, plays at the time and just basic information. The last of the three slides, however, reveals the superstitious side of James I and the play. While reading, it is clear that superstitions will be an ongoing theme throughout the lesson and is partially important for our knowledge on this new topic.
After this discussion there was a long period in which everyone was just reading the slides but no particular discussion. Expect the ideas of superstitions and how eerie it was. We of course discussed the slides but it was just going over the same ideas of curses and superstitions.
Below are the slides:
After reading straight through these slides, we moved onto the following ones.
Below are slides informing us about the globe, plays and expectations we should have when reading Macbeth.
While going through these slides we had a discussion about the globe. Mrs. Peterson brought up the fact that the globe was the only source of entertainment during this time so people from every class met up at the same stadium despite their class. She also brought up the fact that as a result of this, the plays had to be adjusted and tweaked to fit the audience. This made me wonder if this factor (people of every class in one area) made the play biased to a certain class as Shakespeare himself stated that he didn’t want to “anger the hand that fed him”.
After this small discussion the class moved on to the final slide.
With this slide we again had a small discussion on each quote on the slides. Mrs. Peterson brought up the superstition that saying the word Macbeth in plays brings bad luck. She also brought up how most of the quotes on this slide are from Disney. Reading this slide reminded me of a quote from the musical Hamilton which also referenced Macbeth in one of their songs, “Take A Break”. After this discussion, the class wrapped up and summarized what we learned and key points we took away from the lesson.
Reflection:
During this lesson, I was presented with an abundance of information relating to Shakespeare, Macbeth and most importantly superstitions. I had always lacked knowledge on these topics and I only knew very common information about these topics. For instance, like my classmates I just thought Shakespeare was a talented writer who wrote famous plays such as Romeo and Juilet. Never have I thought that there would be so much beyond that superstitions etc.) With this lesson, my knowledge has grown on this topic and helped me become more informed. I learned about these topics because they would be extremely important for this topic and what I have to learn after. Without the knowledge of Shakespeare, Macbeth and superstitions, I would be extremely lost and I won’t be able to grasp ideas that may be important. I will use the knowledge learned today to apply it to future lessons and hopefully build upon the new knowledge learned. I hope to become more informed as time progresses as I am still learning this topic and the knowledge I have is still more surfaced leveled.
Materials
-Links to the slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TKGn1t_q4a8UL7mlGy4OGGa_N45dhHxRHWVFw7OsFE4/edit#slide=id.p22
Quote from Hamilton:
-https://screenrant.com/hamilton-theater-superstition-macbeth-take-break-song/
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