UMF Unit-Wide Lesson Plan Template

Name: Rebecca Long Program: SMED Course: EDU 460

Lesson Topic / Title: Macbeth Act 4

Lesson Date: 02/11/22 Lesson Length: 70 minutes Grade/Age: 10

Learning Objectives & Content Standard Alignment - Selects, creates, and sequences learning
experiences and performance tasks that support learners in reaching rigorous curriculum
goals based on content standards.

Learning Objective(s) Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

1. Students can comprehend and draw conclusions 1. For many of these students this
about their reading. is their first time reading
Shakespeare, so it’s important
2. Students can relate their reading to the key terms that they’re comprehending the
and figurative devices chosen for the text language enough to grasp the
(Dramatic irony, Soliloquy, Gender issues, Divine plot of the play. It is also
Right of Kings/Chain of being, Foil, Tragic flaw). important that students are
doing more than simply
comprehending; they need to
be making connections and
forming opinions on what they
are reading too because those
are the initial steps to analysis.
And, analysis is something
they’ll be working on
throughout the unit and the
rest of the year.

2. Part of understanding
Shakespeare, is understanding
the common devices he and
other playwrights use. I chose a
few devices that are
particularly abundant and
essential to Macbeth for the
students to focus on to improve
their comprehension of the
play and understanding of the
genre. However, another part of
understanding a play is
knowing its historical context,
so I also chose a few important
terms or ideas that would help
students comprehend the play
better and connect it to
modern day issues.
Content Standard(s)
ELA.912.R.CS - Demonstrates the ability to comprehend,
interpret, and analyze appropriately complex literary
texts.
ELA.912.S.CS - Demonstrates the ability to have formal
and informal discussions as well as give formal and
informal presentations.
ELA.912.L.CS - Demonstrates the ability to use content
specific language and more generalized vocabulary as
well as capitalization and punctuation rules.
Assessment - Uses assessment flexibly to expand and deepen understanding of learner
performance and determines best supports for continued learner growth.
Assessment
Formative: Students will complete an assignment where
they are given passages from the play to connect to two of
the terms/devices they’re connecting their reading to in
class.
Formative: Macbeth Bookmarks and Independent
Reading Assignments.
Summative: The final assessment of the unit is a
pitch/presentation students will make about a game
they’ve created based off of Macbeth.
Instructional Decisions / Reasoning
These are three of the four main
standards Mt. Blue Highschool uses it
for its English courses. I chose these
particular standards because they
aligned best with the goals of my
lesson.
The first standard is appropriate
because this lesson includes
“comprehending, interpreting, and
analyzing” Macbeth which is a
complex piece of literature.
The second standard connects to the
lesson because students discuss the
reading as they go. Questions
surrounding understanding, analysis,
prediction, interpretation, inference,
and more are asked and discussed
throughout the class as they come up.
The third standard is relevant because
of the literary devices and context
terms students discuss as they read.
These words/ideas qualify as both
specific and generalized language that
is used in the study of Literature.
Instructional Decisions / Reasoning
Formative: This assignment will show
whether students are comprehending
the terms they connect to their
reading in class. It will also act as a
way to gauge students' analysis skills
because they have to use their terms
to look critically at a passage from the
play. In doing this analysis students
will also show whether they are
comprehending the language and plot
of the play because they need to
understand a passage to analyze it.
Formative: Two short, semi-weekly
assignments students have are their
Macbeth bookmark assignments and
their independent reading responses.
The bookmark assignment asks
students to answer one of ten prompts
about whatever act of the play we just
finished. The purpose of this is
primarily to gauge how well students
are comprehending the actual content
 of the play. But, it also helps to
illustrate how their analysis skills are
progressing, and if they are
integrating the skills we discuss in
class into their work. They help me
determine if we need to stop more
while reading to discuss what’s
happening, if we need more
mini-lessons, if I need to clarify
anything, etc. The independent
reading responses are more geared
toward showing students analysis
skills, and improving their abstract
thinking. However, they act as an
excellent platform to show their
learning because they are completed
without the same level of
support/scaffolding as our Macbeth
work. These assignments also offer
good opportunities to give students
feedback week to week. Overall, these
two assignments act as the primary
ways goals one and two are evaluated,
and offer me the best diagnostic data
for analysis.

Summative: In their final assessment

students will show their
comprehension of the text by
including elements of the plot,
characters, themes, etc. into their
game. They will also have to justify
their creative choices with rationales
that utilize textual evidence showing
both understanding and analysis of
the text and its complexities.

Instructional Materials and Resources - Stays current in content knowledge and expands expertise
in reviewing instructional materials from the perspectives of both the discipline and individual
learner needs.

Materials, Resources, and / or Technology Instructional Decisions / Reasoning

Students’ copies of Macbeth Students will need their copies of the

Teacher’s copy of Macbeth play to read their parts in class.
A whiteboard
A whiteboard marker I need my copy of the text to read the
stage directions and because my copy
has important sections to talk about
marked.

The agenda for the day, the homework

due, any important reminders, our
terms/devices, and students' parts in
the play all go up on a whiteboard in
the room.
Instructional Methods: Selects, creates, and sequences learning experiences and performance
tasks by using a variety of instructional approaches, strategies, and technologies that make
learning accessible to all learners and support learners in reaching rigorous curriculum goals.
Teaching and Learning Sequence
Agenda/Start of Class (5 minutes)
- Reading the agenda to the students and getting
books out
Reading/Discussion (63 minutes)
- Reading Act 4 of the play, discussing sections of
the play that showcase our terms/devices,
discussing important parts of the play
End of Class (2 minutes)
- Reminders of what is due when and what’s up next
Meeting students’ needs (differentiation,
extensions, modifications, accommodations)
Continually rewording directions/instructions
Having an agenda
Reviewing what happened last in the play
Field Courses Only – Post lesson
Instructional Decisions / Reasoning
Providing an agenda gives students an
idea of what the expectations are for
the class and gives them a routine to
follow. It also lets them get out what
materials they’ll need for the class. In
this case, their books.
We read in class so that as questions
arise they are addressed immediately.
By reading together we can also
discuss important themes and devices
together as they appear in the text.
Overall, reading in class allows
students to learn collaboratively and
engage fully in the text. Reading in
class also allows students to
experience speaking and hearing the
language of the play out loud.
If time provides, class always ends
with a reminder of what's due soon
and where we are going next so that
students are always aware of what's
coming.
Instructional Decisions / Reasoning
Rewording directions/instruction
allows for maximum comprehension.
If hearing something one way doesn’t
make sense then hearing it said
another way might bridge that gap in
understanding.
Providing an agenda gives students a
routine to start class with, and makes
it so there are no surprises in class.
The goal of this is to give the student a
comfortable learning environment
where they feel safe.
By reviewing what happened last in
the play we can fill in any gaps for
absent students, help everyone
remember where we left off, and come
to a shared understanding about what
we read.
Reflection

Usually, we do some sort of writing reflection at the beginning of class before

reading that relates to the act someway. I wish we had time to do one of these
reflections for this lesson because even with the break during lunch I think there
was too much reading to sustain engagement in this lesson. Or maybe it was more
that this section of reading had large speaking parts for only a few people, so
everyone else was stuck listening to those few people talk for extended periods of
time. This class is pretty high energy and is easily distracted and I could tell it was
hard for them to listen to the long conversations between two characters. It also
seemed like the few students who had these large speaking parts got tired of
having to read so much. I think if I were to re-do this lesson I would have students
watch a performance of some of the scenes or follow along to an audio version of it
to avoid this.

A nice aspect of this lesson was that students were doing better with identifying
their terms and relating them back to the text. I think having a physical list of these
terms in the class that we go back to every lesson is working well as a resource.
Students were also showing more ease and readiness to go back to the text to look
for answers to questions posed in class. There were also less questions about the
language of the play and what was going on. Overall, it was clear that their
comprehension of the text was improving through their responses during class. I’m
pretty sure, at this point, that the next time these students encounter Shakespeare
they’ll feel confident in their ability to understand it.

Teaching Standards and Rationale

Standard # 3 Learning Environments

The teacher works with learners to create environments that support individual and
collaborative learning, encouraging positive social interaction, active engagement in learning,
and self motivation.

Rationale: To be able to read as a class and discuss that reading as we go students have to feel
comfortable interacting with me and each other. They have to be willing to make mistakes while
reading, ask questions about what they don’t understand, answer my questions, and help each
other to comprehend the text. They also have to be actively engaged in the reading because we
move in and out of discussion and they wouldn’t be able to contribute if they weren’t engaged.
Due to the fact that they are reading parts out loud they are also actively listening and
participating in the play itself.

Standard # 8 Instructional Strategies

The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to
develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to access
and appropriately apply information.

Rationale: Throughout these reading/discussion lessons I continuously check through probing

questions whether students are understanding the reading, whether they’re engaged in the play,
and whether we need to have more discussion to improve comprehension or not. One of my
main strategies in these lessons is using questions for different purposes. For instance, I ask
students questions that they need evidence from a passage to answer to stimulate small scale
critical analysis. I also use their terms/devices to ask both memorization questions and
questions that prompt critical thinking like when I ask for examples of gender issues. Overall,
this lesson uses various strategies to stimulate student comprehension and help them make
more nuanced connections to the text.