Macbeth

1. Bellwork & Notes Macbeth

2. Philosophical Chairs • Make sure you understand the topic before the discussion begins. • Pick a side. • Each side “huddles” and decides on an opening statement. • Listen carefully to the other side, and respond. • When responding, sum up the other side’s point of view before stating your own. “I hear you saying…”

3. …philosophical chairs, cont. • Understand the other point of view, even if you don’t agree with it. • Be as succinct as possible. Now is not the time for pontificating! State your point clearly and we’ll move on. • Respond to statements, not people. • CHANGE YOUR MIND when new information or reasoning makes you see the question in a different light. • Move to the other side when you change your mind.

4. Which Topics Should We Debate? • Sometimes it is necessary to do something bad to get what you want. • What goes around comes around. • If people feel that their ruler is destroying the country, they have the right and the obligation to overthrow that ruler. • There are circumstances or events that justify murdering someone. • Success is worth any price you have to pay.

5. Which Topics Should We Debate? • A great leader is feared by his/her people. • I would do something bad if someone I really loved asked me to. • I would like to know my future. • A guilty conscience can destroy a person. • The truth will always be found out, eventually. • If someone with knowledge of the future said that you would hold an important position (President, etc.), would you wait for it to happen or would you try to make it happen?

6. Friday, February 28 Bellwork • Reflect on yesterday’s debate. • How well did the class listen? • How well did the class state their points? • Did you change your mind at any point during the discussion? Why? • Were there any points that you wanted to make, but could not? (Or any points that you thought of after the fact?)

7. Wednesday, March 05 Bellwork • Would you describe yourself as “ambitious”? Why or why not? • Can you think of any ways that ambition has been a positive thing in your life? • Can you think of any ways that ambition has been a negative thing in your life?

8. Let’s review Friday’s questions: • What is the best synonym for “counterbalance,” as it is used in paragraph 19? • weight • correlation • compensation • stability

9. Review, cont. • What is the purpose of paragraph 14? • To show that intelligent people are more ambitious • To explain a potential weakness of the study • To show that people were more ambitious 50 years ago • To explain why the study is invalid

10. More Practice!!Answer these questions on your bellwork. 1. What does the word “modest” mean as it is used in paragraph 8? • Unsure • Shy • Respectful • Ordinary How do you know?

11. Questions, continued 2. What is the main purpose of paragraph 15? • to describe the consequences of ambition • to state the possible causes of ambition • to prove that ambitious parents have ambitious children • to debate whether ambition comes from “nature” or “nurture.”

12. Macbeth mini-play directions: • In your group, read through the entire mini-play. • For your scene, choose characters & a narrator. • Decide how you will stage the scene, design props, and make cue cards (if necessary) • Rehearse • Act it out for the class! • Vote on best actor/best actress

13. Tips for Staging your Scene • Remember where your audience is. Nobody wants to look at your back. • Act out whatever the narrator is saying. So if the narrator says there’s a fight going on, let’s see some fighting! • Get into character– witches should look and stand and act as witchy as possible! • Move around– it’s boring to watch a bunch of actors stand there and say their lines.

14. Thursday, March 13 Bellwork • What did you think of the EOC? • What was easy? What was difficult? • Were there any strategies that we learned in class that were useful to you on the test? • Any strategies that were not helpful? • How did you do on timing? • Any “curveballs” you weren’t expecting? • How was your endurance/focus?

15. Let’s Read Macbeth! Scenes 1-3 • For each scene, choose roles and read aloud. • I.i– Original • I.ii.– Modern • I.iii– Original • Any time you’re confused while reading the original text, stop and read the modern text; then, go back and re-read the original.

16. Tomorrow: GROUP QUIZ! • Scenes 1-3 • Open-book • Format: I will ask a question, and your group will work together to answer the question, and provide textual support (evidence) for your answer.

17. What to focus on: • I.i– mood/atmosphere • I.ii– foreshadowing & irony • I.iii– • prophecies, & characters’ reactions to prophecies • How are Macbeth and Banquo different? • Which prophecy “comes true”? • What is Macbeth considering in his aside (I.iii.130-143)? • What decision does Macbeth reach (I.iii.145-46)?

18. Monday, March 17 Bellwork Shakespeare’s Version: But this whole thing is strange. The agents of evil often tell us part of the truth in order to lead us to our destruction. They earn our trust by telling us the truth about little things, but then they betray us when it will damage us the most. Banquo: …But ‘tis strange. And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths, Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s In deepest consequence. (I.iii.124-128) “No-Fear Shakespeare” Make a text-to-text, text-to-self, or text-to-world connection with this quotation. Explain the connection thoroughly.

19. Tuesday, March 18 Bellwork Original text: No-Fear Shakespeare: “You want to be powerful, and you don’t lack ambition, but you don’t have the mean streak that these things call for. The things you want to do, you want to do like a good man. You don’t want to cheat, yet you want what doesn’t belong to you.” Lady M: “thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, that wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, and yet wouldst wrongly win.” To what extent do you agree or disagree with Lady Macbeth’s assertion that in order to be successful, you need to be willing to play dirty? Is this true of life in general? Politics? Sports? Love? Other areas of life?

20. Pop Quiz! Match the quotation with the speaker. (The same answer may be used more than once.) • Macbeth • Lady Macbeth • Banquo • “But wherefore could I not pronounce ‘Amen’?” • “I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: to you they have showed some truth.”

21. Quiz, continued: 3. “Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?” 4. “I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on’t again I dare not.” 5. “A little water clears us of this deed: How easy is it then!”

22. Macbeth Review & Warm-up Talk to your neighbors about the possible answers to this question: If you were an attorney bringing charges against King Duncan’s killer, whom would you charge, and what charges would you bring?

23. Move to the part of the room that represents your opinion: • Duncan’s death is… • Mostly Macbeth’s fault (corner by door) • Mostly Lady Macbeth’s fault (corner by window) • Mostly the witches’ fault (corner by library) • Equally the fault of all three parties (corner by my desk)

24. Confusing Contractions What do you think Shakespeare means when he writes… • I’ th’ • O’ th’ • Kind’st • O’er • Done’t

25. Confusing Contractions What do we mean when we say… • Wanna • Whatcha • I’ma • Fi’nna • Gonna What other modern slang contractions can you think of?

26. Use your handout (and your brain) to “translate” these lines from Macbeth into your own words. • “That will be ere the set of sun.” • “This is the sergeant who like a good and hardy soldier fought ‘gainst my captivity.” • “Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops…”

27. “Whence cam’st thou, worthy thane?” • “Thou ‘rt kind.” • “What are these so withered and so wild in their attire, that look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ Earth, and yet are on ‘t?”

28. Tuesday, April 01 BellworkPut these lines from Macbeth in your own words: • “Art thou afeared to be the same in thine own act and valor as thou art in desire?” • “Prithee, peace.” • “When you durst do it, then you were a man.” • “Hark! Who lies i’ th’ second chamber?” (continued on next slide)

29. April 01 Bellwork, continued • “Didst thou not hear a noise?” • “But wherefore could I not pronounce ‘Amen’?” • “Whence is that knocking?” • “To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself.”

30. Answer these questions with your table: • Whom does Macbeth kill in Act 2, scene 3? • Why does he say he killed them? • Why did he really kill them? • Do you think this was a smart move for Macbeth to make? Why or why not? • What do Malcolm and Donalbain decide at the end of the scene? • Why do they decide this? • Do you think Malcolm and Donalbain are smart to do this? Why or why not?

31. Wednesday, April 02 Bellwork • Have you ever had a friend whom you suspected was no longer your friend? Write about the situation and how you resolved it.

32. Thursday, April 03 Group Warm-Up • What adjectives might you use to describe Macbeth & Lady Macbeth’s relationship? • Find at least one quotation that supports this description.

33. Friday, April 04 Bellwork • If you were directing a movie or play, do you think it would be more powerful to actually show the ghost, or to have Macbeth talking to an empty chair? Explain your answer.

34. Macbeth 4.1 Reading Questions • What three warnings or prophecies do the apparitions give Macbeth? • How does Macbeth take the warnings? • How trustworthy do you think the witches are? Would you trust their prophecies? Why or why not? • What does the procession of 8 kings mean? • What decision does Macbeth make at the end of 4.1? Why?

35. Tuesday, April 08 Bellwork • At the end of 4.1, Macbeth decides: “From this moment the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand” (4.1.147-149). • Make a text-t0-self, world, or text connection with this quotation. • Do you think this is a good way to live? Why or why not?

36. Thursday, April 10 Bellwork • Contrast the Lady Macbeth of 5.1 with the Lady Macbeth we see earlier in the play. • Use at least two quotations from the play to support your analysis. (1 quotation from 5.1, and 1 from earlier).