Unit Plan

Background Information-
Name: Lindsay Strebeck School: Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts
Content: Honors English Grade Level: 10th
Unit Title: Macbeth Unit Duration: October 23rd – November 13th 2017

Introduction-
The classroom climate during my unit on Macbeth will be active, engaging, and full of
choice. This environment will encourage student learning by giving students a sense of comfort
and order in every lesson by providing a daily overview of tasks, allowing students to express
their opinions, and having plenty of opportunities to participate in class readings of the play.
Students will feel that classroom tasks are clear and that they are able to complete these tasks
because I will provide teacher models, group work, graphic organizers, and other
accommodations as needed in my lesson plans. I will strive to make my lessons on Macbeth
valuable to the students by expressing my own excitement about the content, but also by giving
them opportunities to share their own opinions, theories, and connections to the characters and
the text. Overall, I will ensure that my students feel accepted by myself and their peers by
providing multiple opportunities to work with classmates and have one-on-one discussions with
me during class time.
This unit for Macbeth will be taught to four different sections of Honors 10th Grade
English students which all provide different class climates, personalities, and needs. Four of my
students need specific accommodations in the classroom including enlarged worksheets (at least
18 point font for a student with a visual impairment), wait time, extended work time, information
chunking, redirecting reminders, and preferential seating to limit distractions. Apart from these
specific accommodations, I will strive to reach the diverse needs of students by pre-assessing for
information on learning preferences and readiness levels. Based on these pre-assessments I will
be able to determine if students generally prefer fact-based, interpretive, or creative assignments
and to which degree they understand the material before implementing any lessons or activities. I
will begin practicing the use of differentiation of instruction in the classroom in order to help a
wider range of students reach their fullest potential in the classroom and I will provide the
opportunity for students to demonstrate their learning in multiple fashions.
In this unit, students will develop many critical reading and writing skills through the
analysis of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Skills learned in this unit include making claims, citing
evidence, analyzing the development of complex characters, determining theme and authors
purpose, as well as contributing to group discussions. This content is important for the academic
development of 10th graders as it will not only reintroduce them to Shakespeare, it will also teach
them to think critically and creatively about literature. While students will develop many skills
over the course of this unit, the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards regarding making
claims and analyzing the development of complex characters will be focused on regularly.
Throughout the reading of each act in Macbeth, students will be able to analyze the personality
traits and actions of characters like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as well as their interactions with
the world around them in the play. In analyzing the development of these characters, students
will be able to make claims regarding Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s roles in their downfalls by
using textual evidence cited from the play.
Desired Results-
Objective 1:
Students will analyze Act II Scenes i-ii of Macbeth in order to:
1. Identify and explain the meaning of symbols.
2. Explain how character actions reveal personality traits.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop
over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the
theme.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.5
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word
meanings.
Essential Questions:
How can one thing represent something else? How do character’s actions reveal personality
traits?
Unit Questions:
Where is the symbol used in the play? What does it represent? How does it represent something
else? How and why does your evidence prove that Lady Macbeth is guilty? What does this reveal
about her personality?
Strategies and Assessments:
Charts and Graphic Organizers.
Teacher models.
Formative Assessment- Claim Writing. How and why does your evidence prove that Lady
Macbeth is guilty along with her husband? Would Macbeth have committed the crime alone?
What does this reveal about both of their personalities. Cite evidence from the play in your
answers.

Objective 2:
Students will finish Act II of Macbeth in order to analyze symbols, characters, and character
traits in the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop
over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the
theme.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.5.A
Interpret figures of speech (e.g., euphemism, oxymoron) in context and analyze their role in the
text.
Essential Questions:
How are symbols used to represent other ideas/situations? How do actions and thoughts reveal
character traits?
Unit Questions:
What do Malcolm and Donalbain fear? Where do they go and why?
Why do Ross and Macduff think Duncan’s sons fled Scotland?
How does Macbeth’s reaction to blood differ from his wife’s?
What does our culture consider an omen of death?
What does the porter pretend to be doing and who does he pretend to be? What is this comparing
Macbeth’s house to?
How does each character react to the King’s dead body?
Do you think Lady Macbeth has drugged her husband in the past?
Strategies and Assessments:
Differentiation of Instruction
Choice Board Based on Learning/Assignment-Type Preference
Student Choice and Graphic Organizers.
Formative Assessment- 4 completed choice board activities (one from each column of the board)

Objective 3:
Students will read Act III of Macbeth in order to analyze the purpose of Shakespeare’s use of
verbal, dramatic, and situational irony and its effect on the audience.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g.,
parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery,
tension, or surprise.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.5.A
Interpret figures of speech (e.g., euphemism, oxymoron) in context and analyze their role in the
text.
Essential Questions:
How does Shakespeare use irony in Macbeth? What is the purpose of using irony? What effect
does the use of irony have on the audience?
Unit Questions:
When do characters say what they do not mean?
When do things happen the opposite way of what is expected?
When do we (the audience) know something that characters do not?
How does irony in the play effect our reading? Does it make things funny? Suspenseful?
Strategies and Assessments:
Teacher Models with Provided Examples.
Formative Assessment- Students must find their own examples of Irony in the text and explain
its place in the play. Students must answer a final question on how the use of irony effects the
audience.

Objective 4:
Students will analyze how Shakespearean metaphors, imagery, and other dramatic cues reveal
Macbeth’s responses to fear.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop
over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the
theme.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.5
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word
meanings.
Essential Questions:
Why is Macbeth, whom we know to be brave and ruthless in battle, so afraid? How does
Shakespeare dramatize Macbeth’s fear?
Unit Questions:
When have you felt fear or horror? How did you react? When does Macbeth first see the ghost?
How would you best describe Macbeth’s state of mind? What is the significance of the ghost?
How do we see Macbeth’s mental state deteriorating?
Strategies and Assessments:
Differentiation of Instruction
Tiered Learning
Formative Assessment- Story Board, Mind-Map, or Body Biography.

Objective 5:
Students will read Act IV of Macbeth in order to summarize the apparitions and make
predictions about how they will come true in the play.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as
well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course
of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an
objective summary of the text.
Essential Question:
How can we summarize the apparitions? What predictions can we make about the apparitions?
Unit Questions:
What does the apparition look like? What does it say? How does Macbeth react? How will it
trick him?
Strategies and Assessments:
Graphic organizers.
Formative Assessment- Summaries and Predicitons

Objective 6:
Students will apply critical approaches to Act V of Macbeth in order to evaluate the author’s
creation of theme.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course
of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an
objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop
over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the
theme.
Essential Question:
How does the psychological approach reveal the motivations of complex characters? How does
an analysis of characters reveal the theme of the text?
Unit Questions:
Why is Lady Macbeth sleep walking? What emotions motivate character actions? How do
different characters reveal themes?
Strategies and Assessments:
Annotated Texts
Group Work
Formative Assessment- Eulogy or Fables

Objective 7:
Students will define ambition in order to identify the tragic flaw of characters in Macbeth and
analyze Macbeth as a tragic hero.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop
over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the
theme.
Essential Questions:
How does ambition lead people to commit evil deeds? Are people born or influenced to be evil
and ambitious? How does ambition lead to Macbeth’s downfall?
Unit Questions:
What is ambition? How can ambition be negative? What is nature vs. nurture? Are Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth motivated by nature or nurture? How can apply this argument to ambition?
Strategies and Assessments:
Graphic Organizers
Models
Templates
Formative Assessment- Tragic Hero Map

Objective 8:
Students will work in groups to find textual support for debate topics surrounding Macbeth in
order to present clear and accurate arguments.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1.B
Work with peers to set rules for collegial discussions and decision-making (e.g., informal
consensus, taking votes on key issues, presentation of alternate views), clear goals and deadlines,
and individual roles as needed.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1.D
Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points of agreement and disagreement,
and, when warranted, qualify or justify their own views and understanding and make new
connections in light of the evidence and reasoning presented.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.3
Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, identifying any
fallacious reasoning or exaggerated or distorted evidence.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.4
Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that
listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style
are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
Essential Questions:
Who is responsible for Macbeth’s downfall? Himself? Lady Macbeth? The witches?
Does Macbeth operate under his own free will or has fate determined the course of his life?
Unit Questions:
Is Macbeth influenced to commit evil deeds or does he do it by his own thought and action?
Would the play have happened differently without interference from the witches?
Strategies and Assessments:
Oral Assessment- Debate (Participation, Collaboration, Use of Evidence)

Conclusion-
This unit helped students develop productive habits of mind by continuously having them
practice similar skills regarding character analysis, figurative language, and theme in interesting,
student-lead, and engaging manners. I encourage the use of critical thinking throughout this unit
by encouraging students to support their ideas ad arguments with evidence from the text. The use
of creative thinking is always enforced through assessments and classwork that involves creative
inventions and interpretive writings in order to have students think deeper and broader about the
play and the characters within that play. I believe my biggest emphasis has been placed around
the productive habit of mind of self-regulated thinking because I regularly asked students to
reflect on how the author’s choices in the text effected their own reading of the play. Apart from
that, I helped them to develop collaborative skills via group discussion and debate, as well as
independent skills, through choice in creative, formative assessments.
I differentiated this unit to meet the needs of many learners mostly by my steady use of
graphic organizers to chunk information and scaffolding by the use of extensive teacher models,
templates, and (sometimes) rubrics. Many times I tried to reach individual students in the
classroom by asking them to relate their own thoughts, feelings, and actions to characters and
situations in the play in order to encourage diverse perspectives about a single topic. Two of the
lesson plans in this unit demonstrate strong differentiation of instruction through my use of pre-
assessments to determine the preferences and readiness levels of students. After pre-assessing, I
designed lessons that either built activities around the typical preference of student learning or I
built activities in which students were thoughtfully grouped based on their understanding of the
content and their strengths and weaknesses in the classroom.

Student Work-
My lesson plan for Act II, scenes iii-iv of Macbeth provided a wide range of spectacular
and thoughtful student work. This lesson demonstrated the use of a choice board in the classroom
and provided students with the opportunity to choose from a variety of different topics and
activities. The assignments ranged in their content from being fact-based, interpretive, or
creative. Each student completed 2 interpretive assignments (the most preferred), one fact-based,
and one creative. While I was nervous about classroom management and student engagement
during such an independent and student-lead class period, the outcome was fantastic and some of
the best student work I have seen so far was turned in. Students demonstrated their understanding
of Macbeth by making inferences about possible scenarios in the text, rewriting scenes in
modern English, illustrating the main events in an act, relating aspects of the play to American
culture, and even writing songs to display character emotions and motivations.
My choice board lesson guides me in a lot of my planning and it is a strategy that I plan
to use more and more in the future. The use of choice in assignments encouraged students to
complete activities that they found interesting! Yet, in the end everyone met the same objective
and demonstrated the same skills. For example, two different students demonstrated knowledge
of Lady Macbeth’s actions and motivations through two different assignments: while one
interpreted her behavior, and predicted whether or not she had used a sedative on Macbeth in the
past, the other wrote a 20 line long song that explained her emotions, fears, and motivations. The
student work overall demonstrates high level of attainment and the use of choice demonstrates
high level of effort and engagement.