Middle School Lesson Plan

Content Standard: Students will understand context by analyzing the role of theater, film, television, and electronic media in the community and in other cultures

Achievement Standard: Students will describe and compare characters and situations in dramas from and about cultures and historical periods, illustrate in improvised or scripted scenes, and discuss how theater reflects a culture

Materials:

• cut versions of the letter, dagger, and sleepwalking scenes from MACBETH

Preparation: Quickly tell the story of Macbeth and his lady, emphasizing that they are two people willing to do anything to get power. Have the students give examples of people from real life, or characters from television, film, or books who gained power by cruel or corrupt acts. Responses may range from drug lords and gang leaders to Hitler and Darth Vedder. Using the letter, dagger, and sleepwalking scenes, explain how MACBETH is a series of choices and temptation manipulated by peer pressure and ending in madness and death.

Activity: Give small groups of students the cut version of one of the scenes. Give the students time to rehearse a presentation in which part of the group reads the scene aloud while the others pantomime and move to the action of the scene.

Discuss with the students similar scenes in a modern context, e.g. receiving exciting but frightening news through a letter, being pressured to do something wrong, observing and reporting on another's actions. Have the students in the same groups prepare an improvisation based on a modern situation parallel to their pantomimed scene. Guide them as they choose characters, setting, action. Share the scenes. Discuss the similarities of character and situation as well as how and why the characters and situations differ for the different time periods.

Video tape the read/pantomimed scenes from Macbeth and the improvised scenes. Have the class select a pair of scenes for the letter, dagger and sleepwalking scenes. Show the scenes to peers in an English class. Lead a discussion about the motives and emotions of the characters.

Possible Assessments: Have the students write an analysis comparing the motives and emotions of their modern character with that of Macbeth or Lady Macbeth. Have the students, using their class developed criteria for performance, write a critique of their video taped performances, ending with goals for improvement. Include analyses and videos in portfolios.

Adapted from a lesson created by the National Theater Standards Writing Committee