My classes meet for 100 minutes every other day. Activities in this lesson take about one hour to complete. The lesson below outlines Day One (Narration: Lesson Overview and Note to Teachers) of two days on Macbeth's downfall.
With a partner, students review the three visions the witches give Macbeth by completing a Three Visions graphic organizer (Center for Learning) that outlines what the vision is, what the vision says, and Macbeth's reaction. I have included an adapted organizer (Assignment: Three Visions Graphic Organizer) in resources for this section. I allow students to revisit the text for clarification.
We debrief as a class by rereading Act IV, Scene i, first with just the audio (Arkangel, 2005), and then with the audio, following along in NO FEAR Shakespeare: Macbeth. This way, students reread the text twice and can check their understanding on the second reading by focusing on the printed text. We review the scene and the information that should be on the graphic organizer for questions 1-3 (Student Work: Three Visions Questions 1-3). We will complete question 4 when we are done reading the play.
Due to time constraints, we listen to and read Act IV, Scene ii through Act V, Scene 1. We stop to discuss the following key questions:
To check understanding and prepare for next class, I ask students to complete an activity (TICKET OUT: Macbeth's Downfall) to review their comprehension of today's reading. Some student interpretations to what happens to Lady Macbeth in Act V, Scene i are as follows:
The students' work demonstrates that they reconsider Lady Macbeth's demise in light of prior plot events.