June 2009
Michael Pollard-Krause teaches English at Tamalpais High School, Mill Valley, CA
Plays/Scenes Covered
Macbeth
What’s On for Today and Why
Students will perform a close reading of a soliloquy or monologue and construct an illuminated text using Photostory that demonstrates comprehension of the interplay of character, motif, and tone.
This lesson will take one 90-minute class period to begin; the construction of the product will be an at-home assignment. If it is possible to schedule the entire class in a computer lab that has the necessary program, the lesson can be completed in two 90-minute periods.
What To Do
1. Provide the students with a list of soliloquies and extended monologues that have already been read. It is not important that the students are familiar with the text.
2. Have students choose a passage that appeals to them, read it, and annotate the text, noting character development, motif recurrence, tone, set details, etc.
3. Have students map out a storyboard progression considering how to use images to show their interpretations of the passage as reflected by the annotations.
4. Using original photography or artwork, or images from the internet, have students compile a bank of images that can be sequenced into a slide show that will be aligned with a recorded reading of the selected passage.
5. Have students choose the progression of at least 6 images, but no more than 10.
6. Using Photostory, construct the image sequence and then record a reading of the passage in alignment with the images.
What You Need
Folger editions of Macbeth
Access to computers
Links:
Macbeth photostory
How Did It Go?
Did students tend towards images of literal or of metaphorical significance? Did students strive to sow a unique, personal reading of their chosen passage?
