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
- Notes: Foreshadowing
- An example from Macbeth
- Other examples
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.
