Teaching Macbeth: A Differentiated Approach

By Lyn Fairchild Hawks

Macbeth, a story of ambition, terror, and conscience, speaks to our students and our era. Through differentiated instruction, Lyn Fairchild Hawks offers myriad ways to engage students with different readiness levels and interests in this timeless tale of fear and courage, order and chaos, guilt and remorselessness. The book offers a wide range of exciting lesson ideas to challenge your learners, including

key scenes to teach,

big ideas and essential questions,

film analysis activities,

close reading assignments,

performance activities, and

preassessments and summative assessments. Macbeth can come alive for all students through independent reading options linked by theme, activities and projects mirroring professional roles, and relevance “hooks” to meet students’ interests. Also included are a unit calendar, DIY tips for lesson design, and a companion website with more than forty ready-to-use handouts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
• Release date: Jun 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9780814151242

Book preview

Introduction

What You Will Find in This Section

■  Access to the companion website and additional resources

■  Tips for getting started

■  Beliefs and philosophy

■  A rationale for teaching Macbeth

■  A preview of challenging subjects

■  A glossary for differentiated instruction

■  Tips for reading the play while preparing your unit

Companion Website and Additional Resources

Let’s face it: there’s never enough stuff for differentiation. I’ve designed more than fifty handouts to help you teach a group of students with multiple levels of readiness as well as myriad interests and intelligences. Using the principles and strategies in this book, you can use the digital handouts as is, or, adapt them to your particular context and students. Visit my companion website to find these additional materials where noted throughout this book.

Go to lynhawks.com/extramacbeth and log in for exclusive content using this password: wyrdsisters.

Making This Guide Work for You

This book offers many ideas, activities, handouts, and lessons because both you and your students deserve choices. Much of this book can be sampled, remixed, and shaken however you like. Since you know your students best, every chapter has been developed with an eye to what I’ll call DYO: design your own. In several chapters, I peel back to the strategic bones to mention underlying pedagogy and strategy so you can design your best versions. Youalso have my digital handouts that you can redesign in a direction that suits your classroom context.

Here’s the thing: to differentiate well, you must be a designer-juggler. You analyze your students’ readiness levels, interests, and learning preferences to create a range of experiences: tiered readiness, mixed readiness, and whole-class activities.

Were I to give you every permutation of differentiated possibility, I’m afraid you’d shout like Macbeth: What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom? (act 4, scene 1, 116). So I hope my sampling of models will help you go forth and make what’s right for your students.

If you are a novice teacher, if you have never taught Shakespeare, or you are new to differentiated instruction:

■  Start with the glossary on page 209 (also reprinted on the inside front cover).

■  Pay close attention to Notes on Differentiation at the end of activities.

If you have intermediate or advanced experience with the play and differentiation:

■  Skim the glossary to learn this guide’s acronyms, and then adapt lessons as needed.

■  Follow DYO tips to start creating activities best suited to your classroom.

What Do You Believe?

The following beliefs and understandings drive this guide’s approach to teaching Shakespeare’s works. In my studies with educators and researchers such as Tracy F. Inman, Jay McTighe, Julia L. Roberts, Joyce Van Tassel-Baska, Carol Ann Tomlinson, and Grant Wiggins, I have developed a manifesto of what I believe differentiation is, inspired by their work and that of others. What are your beliefs?

■  Differentiation empowers, gives space to, and amplifies voices of all students, no matter their readiness levels, interests, or learning preferences.

■  Differentiation strategies and antiracist education can partner to ensure all students make daily progress while also feeling safe, seen, heard, and included.

■  Student interests should be an integral part of English language arts exploration.

■  All students can be creators and makers. They should all investigate Essential Questions, build new understandings, and create their own products and performances, driven by interest and engagement preference.

■  Differentiated instruction means teachers evolve their practice with each group of students and redesign materials as needed.

■  Teachers who differentiate are observers and guides using a range of strategies to ensure all students make progress during a unit. All students should make progress during a Shakespeare unit in the core skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

■  All students should have access to classic works in the canon such as Shakespeare’s plays and poems, and they should interpret and own this particular play.

■  Plays should be viewed and performed.

■  Students do not have to read every word of a script meant to be performed.

■  All texts should be disrupted. Shakespeare should be challenged with modern eyes.

■  What’s considered canon should be questioned. Contemporary texts should be taught alongside or instead of Shakespeare.

■  Every text is an opportunity for social-emotional learning.

■  All students can be artists. They should have opportunities to practice skills such as creative writing, drawing, and acting.

■  All students should have some fun.

What do you believe about differentiation? About teaching Shakespeare? Start your Teacher Manifesto where space is provided, below.

Why Teach Macbeth?

Whether you’re all in and all hail with Macbeth, or whether you bite your thumb at this Bard forced upon thee, just about anyone reading a work more than four hundred years old can feel removed, if not unmoved. But William Shakespeare gets us way more than we might think.

He survived political, social, and religious strife. He dealt with bloody discord in the streets. He felt pressure from the powers-that-be. He survived regime change and, yes, plagues. He lost a child. Not only can he relate to us, but he even has something to say to teens who know about conflict and change, deep and dark desires, loss and grief, and reaping what you sow.

He’s got some great insults, too.

Go, prick thy face and over-red thy fear,

Thou lily-livered boy

—act 5, scene 3, 14–15

What, you egg!

—act 4, scene 2, 81

And witches. Who doesn’t like witches?

Macbeth stays with us because it explores timeless concepts and questions about good and evil. It deals with fear and courage, order and chaos, and guilt and remorselessness. It makes us interrogate leadership and the transfer of power. It makes us examine what we crave and why we crave it. It makes us ask whether we will do that thing we know we shouldn’t. It makes us explore the tortured mind in decline, one that has succumbed to the worst kind of temptations.

Macbeth stays current because it has the antihero breaking bad, suspense and stakes and a riddle in its last plot twist, and even slapstick humor about what booze does to a body. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are a psychiatrist’s dream—or nightmare—and worth a deep dive into the whys and wherefores of human behavior. Or maybe they’re just a cautionary tale about getting a good night’s sleep. Whether it’s high or low, surface or deep, Shakespeare is there.

There’s another side to this, however: Macbeth also hangs around because schools, budgets, and traditions don’t offer other voices. It’s no slight to Shakespeare to admit that Macbeth has traction because of ingrained habits. So while the play is timeless, it’s also old and crusty unless it is taught well. And meanwhile, many other voices still never get the mic. So what do we do?

The good news is this: Macbeth is a compelling match for contemporary texts that wrestle hard with similar themes. It is a powerful match for newer texts that show us the same or new paradigms for leadership, conscience, and character. Chapter 10, Independent Reading, is something to consider first before you crack open Macbeth with students.

Why am I teaching Macbeth? Because

Because ________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Because ________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Because ________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

What creative strategies do I already use that might work with a text like Macbeth?

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Challenging and Sensitive Subjects

Address the Tough Stuff

Murder most foul, and a beheading. Suicide. Witches. Madness and delusion. Racist and sexist language. Evil. Nihilism. Tyranny. Yep; it’s a lot. I address a range of difficult issues throughout this book and how to best approach them.

These awful human deeds and frightening cosmic questions can be handled well in the safe space of the literature classroom, where we can go far deeper into the issues than unsupervised students do alone. It’s one way of turning what could be poison into tonic. Literature is not only an opportunity for us to slow down and sniff the roses (and the offal) of the human condition; it’s also a chance to analyze said condition.

A lot of people die in Macbeth, but why and how they die is worth interrogating. What happens to the violent perpetrators leads to good conversation and analysis.

■  Why should a dead butcher and his fend-like queen (act 5, scene 9, 36) elicit our pity and concern?

■  Why do some who seemed normal before commit murder most foul?

■  What desires drive evil people and evil regimes?

■  What are triggers for suicide? How do we prevent them?

■  Why are some people unmoved by death or violence?

■  Are there evil supernatural forces? How do we know? What do we do?

■  What is nihilism and its consequences?

Preview Upcoming Events and Support Students as Needed

Let students know the plot events before you give them the play. See Handout 26. Macbeth Key Events at a Glance (found at the website lyn hawks.com/extramacbeth) and Chapter 6, Key Scenes to Teach, for more information.

As with all sensitive topics, be sure to preview discussion material with students the day before, or in whatever way your school community recommends you introduce material. Be ready to explain the importance of the topic to your literary and historical studies around the play.

Be aware of students who might be facing personal struggles related to any of these issues. For example, if you know a student has recently suffered a death in the family, you might preview the fact you will be discussing Macbeth’s stoic if not dismissive reaction to Lady Macbeth’s death. Suggest that a conversation can be illuminating and cathartic, until it’s not; at which point, if a student feels overcome by emotion, they can use a code set up between you to request a break. Certain students undergoing serious trauma may need to opt out of class and do an alternate assignment elsewhere. You know to seek family, school, and community resources as needed if a student shares distress in response to lesson content.

Acknowledge Different Cultural and Personal Experiences

Sample lessons note different cultural associations and sensitivities around certain topics. Connotations of witch, for example, differ among cultural and religious groups, as do manhood and womanhood. See Chapter 3, Big Ideas: Essential Questions, Discussions, and Journals, and Chapter 6, Key Scenes to Teach, for suggestions on how to introduce such topics. If we’re unsure of what students know or believe, it helps to introduce such topics with historical context, while also telling students we are open to learning more about what other cultures believe, historically or currently. We don’t need to be the experts; we can demonstrate the curiosity we want our students to have.

This guide uses the Oxford School Shakespeare Macbeth because of its excellent text references, easy-to-read design, and strong prefatory and endnotes. If your school has a budget for Dover editions that students can annotate and keep, those are also an economical choice.

If you love curriculum design and want a range of resources, I recommend getting another of my books in the Differentiated Approach series—Teaching Romeo and Juliet or Teaching Julius Caesar. Many activities, handouts, and strategies transfer well to Macbeth. I also recommend Mary Ellen Dakin’s Reading Shakespeare with Young Adults.

Glossary for Differentiated Instruction

This text uses a number of terms and their acronyms frequently throughout the lessons, so I’ve provided a glossary of terms, found both at the end of the book and on the inside front cover.

Core Competencies

Identifying at least one core reading skill and writing skill, and what I call the micro skills therein, is a crucial first step to planning any English language arts unit. Once you know your skill focus, then you can determine the tiers to identify what students need to master when. See Chapter 1, Decisions to Make and Core Competencies, for more guidance.

Common Core State Standards

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are helpful, succinct statements of learning goals. Because Macbeth is often taught to high school students, I use tenth- and eleventh-grade CCSS standards as the on-target skill goals to model competency choice and tiering. See Chapters 1, 4, 5, and 6 to find standards listed.

Modes of Discourse: Writing

I chose persuasive writing and argument as well as expository writing as two modes students could practice during this unit. Since there are as many skill priorities as there are schools and students, you are the best judge of what to use and how to adapt what I provide.

Getting Ready to Teach: Reading the Play

Preparing to teach the psychological depth, plot, and poetry of Macbeth means it’s worth taking time to sit with this most beauteous script. I recommend not only that you read it carefully with your favorite beverage in hand, annotating it slowly, but that you also watch a number of film interpretations. See Chapter 6 for some recommendations.

Here are some other activities that might help you walk in the shoes of your students:

■  Try the Pre-Play Poll before and after reading, found in Chapter 5, Hook Activities.

■  Pick your favorite Big Ideas and create Essential Questions. See Chapter 3.

■  Track your favorite motifs. See the motifs list provided in Chapter 3.

■  Read passages aloud to hear the poetry and feel chills across your skin.

■  Watch two different Macbeth films with someone and discuss which is better, and why.

■  Read different literary criticism of Shakespeare’s plays, from the beginnings of criticism to postcolonial, feminist, queer, critical race theory, and/or Marxist.

■  Try a Close Reader (CR) from Chapter 9, Close Readers, Translation, and Annotation and see what you discover.

■  Look at the project and essay prompts found at Handout 44. Projects, Project Prompts, Rubric, and Compacting and Handout 40. Essay Prompts (found at lynhawks.com/extramacbeth). Decide which ones you would pick now and which you might have picked as a student.

1  Decisions to Make and Core Competencies

What You Will Find in This Chapter

■  A list of questions to consider when planning your unit

■  A model of how to set readiness ranges for reading and writing skills

■  Recommendations for these decisions

Decision Questions

I love teaching, a colleague once told me, but I don’t like planning lessons. There are so many design decisions to be made that lesson planning really can overwhelm us. I once read that teachers make as many, if not more, decisions per hour as air traffic controllers. We have to combine intense situational awareness with a high level of domain-specific knowledge, never mind empathy. This is not a job for the faint of heart or casual practitioner.

Good differentiation takes careful design. To start, I do what I tell students to do, using Anne Lamott’s brilliant words: just go bird by bird (19). If these decisions are new for you, start with just a few questions in this chapter. Pick your first, most important bird, and go from there. Your students, school, and standards will lead you to the one requiring most attention. For example, if your school prioritizes performance on a certain type of writing test, begin with differentiation of writing skills and how you can merge Macbeth with those goals.

Here are some decisions to make while designing your differentiated Macbeth unit. I provide suggested answers throughout this guide.

What core reading and writing skills will my students practice?

■  What will be the readiness ranges?

■  How will I preassess readiness?

■  Where and when will students read the play?

■  How much of the play will we read?

■  What else might we read?

■  What will students write, and when?

■  How will students pursue their interests?

■  What problem-based learning might we do?

■  What project-based learning might we do?

■  What cooperative or collaborative learning will we do?

What Core Reading and Writing Skills Will My Students Practice during the Unit?

Table 1.1 indicates key skill sets students can develop during this guide’s activities. If your students need to practice other skills, follow DYO tips to address other skills.

Table 1.1. Core Competencies: Micro and Macro Skills

I recommend picking one core reading skill, one core writing skill, and maybe one other as the focus for the unit. Each skill is a macro skill with micro skills. For example, you can’t develop a claim in your argument without logic, reasoning, and summary micro skills. Each skill also has a few ranges of performance. Think about the skill steps and knowledge required for each step as you tier assignments. Before making your final decisions, you may want to consult chapters such as Chapter 4, Preassessment and Formative Assessment, Chapter 9, Close Readers, Translation, and Annotation, and Chapter 10, Independent Reading. Obviously, you will be teaching other skills besides two, but I don’t recommend a long list because of the layers within each skill.

You will also see how the core skills of finding substantive evidence and making claims thread through numerous activities I design: a skill necessary to most professions.

This guide offers several activities that include both macro and micro skills.

What Will Be the Readiness Ranges?

How do you distinguish between ELL, NOV, OT, and ADV levels of skill?

1.  Begin from a baseline set of standards (grade-level expectations in your state or district) and name these OT. Consider using the CCSS.

2.  Then move two to four grade levels below these standards to select your ELL and NOV levels, while moving two to four grade levels above to select your ADV levels. Two to four is a suggested range; if you have several students needing ranges closer or farther apart, pitch your readiness range to their needs. I usually establish three ranges.

3.  Do you have learning specialists and classroom assistants? If you work with ELL and special education support personnel, consult and collaborate to refine these skill tiers.

4.  See Chapter 4 for how you might scale readiness levels. These levels can apply to any tiered activity or task you design, such as CRs to writing prompts.

Sample of Readiness Ranges

In Table 1.2, you can see how I took one reading skill from the CCSS (grades 7, 9, and 12) and spelled out micro skills for each macro skill.

There are enough micro skills within one macro skill to keep everybody busy. This is why focusing on one key skill or standard can go for miles in a unit. The challenge is in choosing and distinguishing what a range of performances looks like. I study the language of the CCSS carefully and then analyze every noun, verb, and adjective till I feel sure I’ve imagined what it takes for a student to master the entire skill. See how I’ve analyzed various CCSS standards here and found where different readiness levels share micro skills, as well as where they differ. For your own planning, head to lynhawks.com/extramacbeth for a blank handout, Handout 45. Identifying Macro and Micro Skills.

Table 1.2. Micro and Macro Skills for Reading and Textual Analysis