Macbeth Set Free

Jackie ♦ May 11, 2009 ♦ 3 Comments

This year marks the second year I have taught Macbeth, also known as “the Scottish play” if you are theatrical and/or superstitious. I really enjoyed teaching it last year, but knew that I was not doing the most comprehensive job I could have, and since it is a core text for our curriculum, I really wanted to do the job better next year.

So far, I think the unit is going well, though already I think it will go even better next year, when we’ve allotted for more time for it, but the major factor in the improvement has definitely been Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth. I blogged about this book when I first ordered it, and my enthusiasm for it has only exploded now that I’ve used it in the classroom.

Even if you only teach one of the texts in this volume, I highly recommend it. The lesson plans included are well-considered, interesting, comprehensive plans that address the play from many different angles, focusing on a scene or two at a time to really highlight a character or climactic plot point. Some of the lessons are built around comparing filmed versions and include great suggestions for the students should be watching for, and others describe some amazing performance-based activities, all of which my students have really enjoyed. The students look at the play as audience members, actors, director, and scholars, and employ critical reading and response in a variety of different ways in each lesson. Also included are handouts and exam questions, ready for photocopying. My students has “tossed lines,” directed staged readings, compared film versions, written critiques and journal entries, and edited selected scenes to determine essential lines and images. Next year, I’m hoping to incorporate even more of the lessons from this text in my unit.

Probably the best recommendation for the book is that not only am I going to continue to use it for the Macbeth unit, but that I am going to order Shakespeare Set Free: Teaching Hamlet and Henry IV Part I even though I will probably never teach any of the Henrys. The value I expect to get from the Hamlet lessons, based on my Macbeth experience, will far succeed the price of the text.