Success... I think.

I had a mildly successful lesson today that involved group work, a game, and Macbeth. Vygotsky would have been so proud. My seniors (bless their little apathetic hearts) have a test next Tuesday on Macbeth Act II. The format is the same as explained above. If you remember from my last installment, they didn’t do so well on their Act I test, so I thought I’d make the review more fun for them, and increase their chances for success on Tuesday. I put 24 passages from Act II in a hat, and they picked the passages ... well, here are the rules that I showed them on an overhead:

Object:
Each team tries to get the most number of points by correctly:
1. Identifying the speaker of the passage.
2. To whom the speaker is speaking.
3. Explaining the context/meaning of the passage.

Rules:
1. Six teams will be pre-determined by the teacher.
2. The first team to go will be determined by a die roll.
3. A random passage will be picked from a hat, and the team has exactly 1 minute to discuss the passage.
4. If they answer correctly, they earn a point.
5. If they answer incorrectly, a die roll will determine who gets a chance to steal.
6. If the same team is picked, that team gets another chance.
7. The stealing team gets 30 seconds do discuss the passage.
8. Each question has only one "steal" opportunity.
9. The play will proceed numerically so every team gets a chance to answer a question.
10. The team with the most points wins.
11. Each person on the winning team gets FIVE extra credit points.
12. In case of a tie, each team with the most points gets the credit.

Most of them enjoyed it, but some of them were frustrated by the competition element. The biggest problem was that one minute was WAY too long for the groups to confer. My master teacher though that with a little tweaking it would be an excellent way to study for this type of test.

Of course, I now question the purpose of this type of test. Do they really need to know these passages? Am I just giving a glorified plot summary/reading comprehension test? Sure, the writing portion of this unit will be analytical in nature, and there will be a performative assessment, but it feels like I’m just doing a variation of drill-and-kill. My master teacher is doing the same thing, but then again, she’s pretty old-school. I think I need to change my approach for the rest of the play.

I am getting headaches.
I never get headaches.

One 'A'...nineteen 'F's.

"I hate Shakespeare!"
"What's the point?"
"Why don't we just watch the video?"

Students don't seem to like Shakespeare. This comes as no surprise, of course, but it's amazing to see thirty-one seniors regress to an eighth-grade maturity level when they are faced with unraveling the words of ol' Billy the Bard. They whine. They squirm. They make excuses. Worst of all, they shut down... and as a result, they fail to get anything out of what could be a nice little linguistic exploration, and they fail my test. Nineteen of my thirty-one seniors failed my first real assessment, and that's scary. Here's the breakdown:
A 1
B 6
C 0
D 5
F 19

I gave them 10 quotes from Act I and asked them to identify the speaker (1pt.); identify to whom he/she is speaking (1 pt.); and explain the context of the speech (2 pts.).

Here's the setup:
Day 1. The class was given a four-page plot synopsis. I gave them background on Shakespeare and historical information on Macbeth.

Day 2. We went over the plot thoroughly for one class period after they were supposed to have read it. I explained to them that yes, Shakespeare is extremely difficult, and that we learn the plot because it provides a framework within which we can tackle the language.

Day 3. They took a plot summary quiz which consisted of 21 fill-in-the-blank, who-did-and-said-what-to-whom. Most of them scored in the B to A range.

Day 4. We read Act I, scenes 1 & 2 together in class, analyzing as we read. I got them to dig for meaning most of the time, and I explained things that they probably wouldn't have been able to decipher.

Day 5. Continued through scenes 2 & 3 the same way.

Day 6. They jigsawed scenes 4-6 with guiding questions to focus their reading.

Day 7. We went over scene 7 together, and then reviewed the entire act. I even read them four of the ten passages and told them that these would be on the test!

Clearly, I got through to some of them, because the Bs and the A were well written and showed deep comprehension. I should also point out that my MT is teaching the same thing, gave the same test, and only slightly better results. Today (after going over the answers and giving them "the talk"), I showed them most of Act I on DVD (the Polanski version) I'm going to show them through ACT II on Monday before we start actually reading ACT II. Hopefully, this will give them a visual reference on which to hang the words.

I just need to find something to spice it up.