Foreshadowing

As with so many other activities in this blog, this lesson may be used while teaching any literature to any class with some modifications.

Early in the semester, I teach literary devices ad nauseum and still, we arrive at the Shakespeare unit, at the end of the semester, and students are still unable to identify and explain most literary devices. This is a review of foreshadowing. It is hoped that students will have a deeper understanding of foreshadowing and how to identify and explain it in the texts studied.

Learning Targets
By the end of the period I will...

• be able to identify and explain literary devices

Agenda

1. Notes: Foreshadowing
2. An example from Macbeth
3. Other examples

Success Criteria
Students are engaged in activity and are able to explain graphic examples of foreshadowing and identify examples of foreshadowing in literature.

Lesson Plan
Teacher places notes re: foreshadowing on an overhead and asks students to copy notes into their notebooks as a focus activity. The notes I gave my students may be found on the Carlson English web site. I gave my students the following example from Macbeth:

DUNCAN I have begun to plant thee, and will labour To make thee full of growing... BANQUO There if I grow, The harvest is your own.

I find it easier to maintain classroom management if I place larger notes on overhead acetates in advance of the class, rather than write the notes on the board and expect students to copy the notes as I write with my back to the class. This way, the teacher can observe the class and better gauge when the class has finished copying the notes as well as give words of encouragement to help keep students on task throughout. The idea behind this is the tree imagery and the link to the witches' later prophesy concerning Birnham wood. I don't explain this to the students (I try to keep the punchline of the witches' prophecies secret as long as possible), but I do point out the tree imagery and that this is foreshadowing and will become important later on in the story. I ask them to remember tree imagery and point it out to them as we progress through the play. As a visual cue, I went to the Dollar Store and purchased a bough of plastic leaves. I show this to them and hint that tree leaves could make good camouflage if desired, but I keep my explanation cryptic.

Next, I show the students the graphc examples of foreshadowing, also from the Carlson English website and we discuss the difference between explicit, implicit and symbolic foreshadowing. Lastly, I show students one more graphic example of foreshadowing taken from http://www.cartoonstock.com/ and we discuss how the example is foreshadowing.

**Note: due to copyright, I have chosen not to publish the overhead acetates I have created to use in this lesson.

Works Cited
Carlson English Web Site. Foreshadowing. 2011. <http://carlsonenglish.wikispaces.com/foreshadowing>. 2 August 2011.

Reynolds, Dan. Foreshadowing Cartoon. <http://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?search=site&catref=dre1433&MA_Category=&ANDkeyword=foreshadowing&ORkeyword=&TITLEkeyword=&NEGATIVEkeyword=> 2 August 2011.

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth: Entire Play. <http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/full.html> 2 August 2011.

Boys and Competition

I'll be honest. The first time I saw a teacher giving high school students, some as old as twenty, candies for work completion, I was appalled. In my own practice, however, I have learned that a little incentive goes a long way. Every August, I do the Dollar Store circuit in my area. I spend about twenty dollars on incentive prizes for my students. I shop for packages containing multiples (i.e., 4 or more erasers, 6 or more pencils, etc.) for  a dollar and stock up. Every once in a while, I use the boys' competitive nature to engage the class in a game-type review for prizes. It's amazing how much students are willing to do for an eraser shaped like a pencil or a miniature highlighter.

Games and game play are excellent ways to engage students in class, both boys and girls, but, due to their competitive nature, quizzes and other competitions can become powerful learning tools in the classroom (Hennessy). Game playing works with girls, but it always seems more fun when playing these games with boys.

Crosswords, Word Search and other Word Puzzles
There are many sites online that allow you to make your own crosswords, word searches, and other similar puzzles for free. These are great diagnostic and/or review tools. The way to inject a bit of competitiveness into these puzzles is to offer prizes to the first ten students who correctly complete the puzzle.

Bingo
Bingo is a variant of a choice board (Chapman and King 144). When playing Bingo, the card should be constructed so that each column/row contains a different type of question (i.e., yes/no, recall and repeat, critical thinking, etc. or, in the case of Shakespeare, character, plot, theme, etc.). Students are required to answer any row of their choice. If the Bingo card is correctly constructed, students will answer a variety of questions by completing a single row of questions. Any students answering a row of questions correctly will win a prize.

"Board" Games
Some board-type games may be used for review with a little bit of revision on the part of the teacher. Because group game playing must be structured to ensure the experience is positive (Crescent School), I always like to explain the rules of the game prior to its use as a review tool. We also play the game as a reward before it is used as a review tool. Near the start of the semester, I might reward everyone that has completed his homework with a game. Those that did not complete their homework must sit at their desks and watch their classmates have fun or put their heads down. Games I have used in the class include "Hedbanz", "That's Right, That's Wrong", "Buzzword" and "Blurt" (the list continues to grow).

To incorporate Hedbanz as a review: create a set of large recipe cards containing a character's name on one side and personality traits on the other. Tape a card, name side up, on each student's back. Students must walk around the class giving each other hints that will help them guess which character they are. Once they guess correctly, they have won the prize.

That's Right, That's Wrong asks a series of questions, each of which has 2 answers. Students are required to select the wrong answer. The confusion this causes is part of the fun. To play this, create a list of review questions and provide one correct and one incorrect answer for each question. Give students a scrap of paper and ask the questions, requiring students to write down the wrong answer from each set of answers given. Take the answers up afterward. Students selecting the incorrect answer to each question win prizes. A great source for questions for this activity may be found at the Shakespeare4Kidz website. Here is an example of the answer sheet I created when I played this game.

Ball Toss
Sometimes called "Quote Toss", this is a high energy activity that students love. Each student is given either a quotation or a review question on a recipe card. Find a Nerf-type ball to toss, or something else that students can throw hard at each other without hurting each other (I went to the local Dollar Store and found a water football. It's spongy and light and will keep me from filling out an incident report when one student pelts it at another student with all his strength). The teacher either asks a question or reads a quotation and throws the ball at a student. If the student catches the ball, he must either answer the question correctly or give the speaker of the quotation (you could request context of the quotation as well--to whom the quotation is said and under what circumstance). If the student is correct, he stays in the game. If the student is incorrect, he must take a seat and is out of the game. If correct, the student asks his question or reads his quotation and throws the ball at the classmate of his choice. The last student (or students) standing win prizes.

Works Cited
Chapman, Carolyn and Rita King. Differentiated Assessment Strategies: One Tool Doesn't Fit All. Corwin Press: Thousand Oaks). 2005.

Hennessy, Michael. Engagement or Disengagement - Boys in Education. KidsLife: empowering parents to help children reach their full potential. Australian Scholarships Groups.  <http://www.kidslife.com.au/Page.aspx?ID=1423>. 29 July 2011.

Shakespeare4Kidz.Teacher Resources: Downloadable Comprehension Sheets. 1997-2011. <http://www.shakespeare4kidz.com/macbeth-teacher-resources.html>. 29 July 2011.

Meet the Witches

While trolling the Web for  some ideas that include critical thinking, I came across this lesson, which I adapted from the Folger Shakespeare Library website.

Learning Targets
By the end of the period I will...

• formulate an answer to the following critical thinking question: If Shakespeared had used any one of the terms from Holinshed, what would we expect the woodcut to look like?

Agenda

1. Woodcut of witches
2. Holinshead witches in history
3. Read Act 1 Scenes 1 - 3 Macbeth
4. Macbeth's Witches

Success Criteria
Participation in the construction of T-chart contrasting the imagery of the witches and in answering the critical thinking question.

Materials Needed

• copies of Holinshead Macbeth (found on the web and on the Folgers site)
• overhead of woodcut of witches (found on Folgers site)
• copies of T-chart template

Lesson Plan
Place the overhead of Macbeth, Banquo and the 3 Witches from Raphael Holinshead's Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande, London, 1577 (see Folgers site) on the board and ask students to brainstorm a list of adjectives to describe the witches in the woodcut. Compile a list of the adjectives on the board.

Distribute simplified copy of Macbeth from the Holinshead Chronicles (I used one from a writing in role assignment floating around my department entitled "Double, double, toil and trouble..." The only publication information I have on this is that it was copyrighted 1985 by Sundance Publishers and Distributers, Inc. It is from a blackline master from a separate collection of lesson plans). Read the story aloud to the class. Ask students to go back over the story and circle terms used to describe the witches in the passage. Compile this list in a T-chart on the board while encouraging students to copy the notes onto the template provided. Adjectives should include:

• uncouth wonder
• three women
• strange and wild apparel
• creatures of the elder world
• goddesses of destiny
• nymphs
• faeries

Read Act 1 Scenes 1 to 3 with students. I asked for student volunteers to read each part. At key points, I interrupted the reading to explain. Next, ask students to review Act 1 Scene 3 and make a list of terms used to describe the witches in the passage, encouraging students to copy the terms down on the T-chart template provided. Terms should include:

• so wither'd and so wild in their attire
• look not like the inhabitants o' the earth
• chappy fingers
• skinny lips
• bearded women

Show the students the woodcut picture of the three witches and ask students the following question: The woodcut is based on the descriptions in Shakespeare's version of Macbeth. If Shakespeare had used any one of the terms from Holinshed, what would we expect the woodcut to look like? Lead the students in the dicuscussion of this. The intersting point that came out of this conversation in my class was that Shakespeare describes the witches as old beggar women, which is the profile of those accused of being witches at that time. Holinshed portrays the witches as supernatural creatures, akin to faeries and nymphs and/or agents of the underworld. This lead to a discussion of who witches were in Shakespeare's time and the Inquisition and Salem witch trials.

The next day, to underscore our previous discussion, I brought in a handout (also un-cited but floating around my department) regarding Elizabethan Beliefs such as Religion, The Chain of Being, and Myths and Magic, which I read with the students. I showed them a picture of the Cottingley Fairies with an excerpt from Wikipedia explaining what they were and the social and media uproar they caused, in order to show students that, as recently as the 1980s, Francis Griffiths, one of the girls involved in the hoax, insisted one of the photographs was real. This discussion captivated my students and generated quite interesting discussion about religious beliefs, and social and religious mythology.

Works Cited
Cottingley Fairies. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. 12 July 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_fairies>. 15 July 2011.

Gibson, Susan. "What are these...?" Folger Shakespeare Library. 2007. <http://www.folger.edu/eduLesPlanDtl.cfm?lpid=798>. 15 July 2011.

Quote Card Introduction

Hoping to alleviate some of the anxiety the boys were expressing to me about how difficult it was to understand Shakespeare, I tried this lesson, found on the Making My Journey blog site (Wood).

Learning Targets
By the end of the period I will...

• practice reading Shakespeare
• familiarize myself with the plot of Macbeth aqs well as significant quotes

Agenda

1. Quote Card Introduction
2. Brainstorm Macbeth Plot
3. Review Macbeth Plot

Success Criteria
Participation in quote card introduction and discussion of plot that follows.

Materials Needed

• copy of plot summary close exercise (see Wood's blog site)
• index cards
• copy of quotes from Macbeth (see Wood's blog site)
• scissors
• tape

Lesson Plan
 Follow the lesson plan as outlined on Wood's blog site.

Works Cited
Wood, Jenny D. Quote Card Introduction. Making my Journey Blog. 10 Mar 2010. <http://jennydwood.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/teaching-macbeth-quote-card-introduction/>. 5 May 2011.

Why Gender Matters

A few years ago, my board began an initiative based on the findings of Dr. Leonard Sax which found that boys learn differently than girls. The theory behind this work is that boys' brains are different than girls by virtue of anatomy and rate of development, which affects how they learn (Sax 14). In order to help boys to be successful, Sax suggests the teacher employ the following techniques when teaching boys:

• Sit down next to boys when helping them, spreading out the materials in front of you while adopting a shoulder-to-shoulder stance. Avoid eye contact unless disciplining and don't smile (Sax 86).
• Avoid small group learning (Sax 87).
• Speak loudly; seat boys at the front of the class as boys don't hear as well as girls (Sax 88).
• Make sure the work is relevant and has intrinsic interest or boys will not complete their work (Sax 81).
• Boys are more kinaesthetic than girls and they enjoy competition as this is similar to the way they play (Sax 83). This should be taken into consideration when planning lessons.

Sax suggests that coed classes shortchange boys and girls because they learn differently and mature at different rates (Ripley 5). Boys are less likely to ask for help in mixed gender classes lest they be perceived as being less cool or appear as stupid in front of the girls in the class. Boys were also more likely to act out when they were in mixed gender classes in order to cover for their shortcomings (Sax 242). In order to test Sax's theories and collect data, grade 9 students are separated into three streams for the core curriculum: all girls classes, all boys classes, and mixed gender classes. Students follow through with the same stream until graduation. Last year I had the pleasure to teach classes in each of these streams and the results were eye opening.

While teaching the all boys class, my observation was that boys are indeed less mature than girls. Whereas girls are most always prepared for the lesson and expect to take notes and to have homework, many boys routinely attend class without paper, pencil or notebook. Contrary to what you might think, boys tended to be less independent than girls, and it was a constant struggle to get boys to operate independently of the teacher and each other. Routine was difficult to establish and the smallest disruption in the class (be it a call from the office, an unexpected remark or a sneeze) set the whole class into a frenzy. That's not to say that the all boys class wasn't without its rewards. The boys were very social which meant it was easy to build a rapport with them (much easier than in the all girls class). Once the rapport was built, they were eager to complete any and all activities, be it paper and pencil work or a kinaesthetic activity. Occasional surprise rewards for scholarly behaviour helped motivation (as did the occasional threat to call home). On the whole, the experience was entirely enjoyable.

That's not to say that this method of instruction doesn't have its detractors. Some people suggest that, if the teacher uses instructional techniques that accommodate the learning styles of both genders, there is no need for same-sex classes. They argue that there is the potential to stereotype, making assumptions about how the group will learn as a single body, rather than as individuals (Rutka), but this negates another concept my board has embraced, that of Differentiated Instruction (which I will discuss in my next post).

The purpose of this blog is to document the journey I took this past semester while teaching the dreaded Shakespeare/Drama unit in my grade 10 academic, all boys English class, as well as my continuing journey as I teach the all boys class in the coming year. I have chosen to focus on the Macbeth unit, as it is one I enjoyed teaching, and one I thought worked well. I may expand this in the future to include essay writing, short stories, and To Kill a Mockinbird, time and response permitting. I will try to include as many references as I can and apologize in advance for those I have misplaced and cannot provide. If you recognize your own un-cited work, please let me know and I will correct the problem immediately. If this blog helps you to teach Macbeth or any Shakespearean unit in your class, whatever the gender make-up, please share it here as well.

Works Cited
Ripley, Amanda. Who Says A Woman Can't Be Einstein? Time Magazine. 27 Feb 2005. <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1032332-1,00.html>. 2011.

Rutka, Mari. A case against single-gendered schools. The Toronto Star. 31 May 2011. <http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters/article/1000395--a-case-against-single-gendered-schools>. 2011.

Sax, Leonard. Why Gender Matters. Random House: New York. 2005.