EDU 542 Lesson Plan Format

Macbeth
Constructivist Model
High School Theater
Lesson plan@ 50 and Reflection/Teaching @ 50
1. MATERIALS/PREPLANNING
Materials
 Notebook
 Pencil

Vocabulary
 Fishbowl
 Supernatural
 Characteristics
 Provocative

2. OBJECTIVE
Objective
Students will be able to engage and discuss Macbeth through Socratic Seminar in order to better understand the play.
Cognitive Taxonomy/DOK Level
Apply & Analyze/DOK Level 3
Content Standard(s)
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.9-10.3
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.
ELD Standard:
Justify opinions by providing some textual evidence or relevant background knowledge, with substantial support.
3. ASSESSMENT Perfect Assessment Tool Rationale:
Assessment type: Informal In this lesson, there are two informal assessments. This assessment measures
The assignment will also serve as an the cognitive thinking/understanding of the students. The learning objective of
informal assessment. this lesson will help determine if the students understand the play Macbeth,
In order to assess student understanding and how deep they can go into characters and plot to gain further
and collect their input on the play understanding. By utilizing the Fishbowl, students will be given the
Macbeth, students will utilize Fishbowl opportunity to explore the content, and by listening to one another have a
Conversation that measures their better understanding of the play they have been reading.
understanding, however a journal entry
which will allow them to explore what the Understanding who was responsible for King Duncan’s death, and the
play means on a deeper level during the definition of a tragic hero they will be able to better utilize their critical
class period. thinking skills for more plays that we have coming up. Understanding that
 In order to store new learning in there is a deeper connection to the words on the page, instead of just words on
the long-term memory, it must be a page.
given meaning to students, and it
must be repeated, ideally in Students with 504’s and IEPs will be paired with other students in groups in
different forms. This assessment order to assist them with the questions and understanding.
given during the Fishbowl part of
the class provides a way to
understand what the students are
understanding. I will be able to
evaluate their understanding of the
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 learning objective. Do they know
what the play is about? Can they
express through the Fishbowl who
was responsible for the murder of
King Duncan?

4. CENTRAL FOCUS/ PURPOSE

Central Focus/Purpose:
The central focus of this learning segment is for the students to create a deeper meaning of the play. Socratic Seminar will
give the students the opportunity to share ideas, have a deeper understanding of the text, and allow them to use this
information down the line and access their prior knowledge. Students will be able to analyze the play without much
prompting from the teacher.

Benefit/Purpose of this Lesson (for the students)

Shakespeare is so old, is a quote that is often heard of when reading his plays. However it is important because reading
Shakespeare often brings new thoughts to ones mind regarding plot and characters. In a world filled with short term attention
span, reading Macbeth allows the students to develop patience, and an understanding that there is more than just one
dimensional characters. All of the characters in the play that aren’t Macbeth can be compared to Macbeth, such as Duncan,
Malcom, Banquo and the King of England, which is far more than a Marvel movie or a Fast and the Furious movie might
give them. By peeling back the onion, the students will understand that is more than just ridiculous vocabulary on a page,
and that there is more depth to what they are reading than they think. Students can look back at when we started reading the
play:

“When we first opened this play, you all groaned that this was nonsense. Why is it important to learning Shakespeare he’s
been dead for so long? I don’t understand what is happening. As we continued to read things started to change and there
were twists and turns, much like what you see in an Avengers movie. However, the depth of the characters and the plot is
deeper than you think. Let’s discuss this further and see where our minds are at with this, and if we can’t dig deeper into this
play and why it’s important that we know at least some Shakespeare.”

5. MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING

Motivation: Intrinsic
Motivation Support:

By participating in a Fishbowl the students will build confidence by understanding that they are pretty much on the same
page as everyone else. Listening to their peers, having different takes on the play will help open their minds and give them a
better understanding of Shakespeare and his writing style. The students get the opportunity to demonstrate their learning of
Macbeth in a way that works for them. Utilizing a team, answering questions together, positive feedback from the teacher
and other students. E.g. “… allows them to begin to reason at higher levels.” (Kilbane and Milman, pg. 386)

A Constructivist Model the students are urged to be actively involved in their own process of learning. The teacher functions
more as a facilitator that coaches mediates, prompts, and helps students develop and assess their understanding, thereby
learning. During the Fishbowl the students will be given the opportunity to share their answers about specific questions that
will be facilitated to them, which will assist in the intrinsic motivation to learn. By allowing the students to express what the
feel, and not have the teacher tell them what they are doing wrong every ten seconds, this will build their confidence and
give them a chance to speak freely.

Promoting Growth Mindset:

In order to promote a growth mindset in the introduction to a deeper understanding of Macbeth, students will be given the
chance to demonstrate their learning through: using their words, writing in their journals, and answering questions together
in their team. In addition the students will be given positive feedback for their participation, not just for the correct answers.

6. PRE-LESSON - Just before teaching the new lesson do the following:

Review/Make Connections (using their journals at the beginning of class.)
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Students will be asked to write in their journal for five minutes, and they will answer the question, “What makes an
academic convo different from a “normal” conversation that you might have with your friends at lunch or school? What
qualities do both types of conversations share?

Students will Think/Pair/Share then come together and compile two lists – what makes academic conversations different
from “Normal” conversations and more importantly, what they both share. It is important to discuss how the content and
comfort level may be different while in both conversations, it is imperative that the participants listen to one another,
otherwise the conversation turns into one-person shows.

Objective: Students will be front loaded with a form of Socratic Seminar which will allow them to participate in the lesson
itself.
6. LESSON BODY: Teaching Models Designing Instruction for 21st Century Learners pg. 380: The Socratic Seminar
Model
Step 1: Lesson Introduction
Teacher role: Explain; Ask open ended questions.
Student role: Participate and Listen; Become interested in the content.

 Talk about the importance of everyone’s voice.

 Why should we all be heard?
 What is a Socratic Seminar?

Step 2: Divergent Phase

Teacher role: Present examples and nonexamples; Ask open-ended questions that stimulate exploration.
Student role: Examine; Compare examples and nonexamples.
 Divide the students in groups of 4-5. Provide each student with a “conversation builder.”
 “I am going to provide you with a topic that you will have exactly one minute to discuss. The catch is, you
MUST always begin with a prompt (which will be written on the board). The point of this activity is to practice
these conversation builders, so although it may sounds robotic and even somewhat humorous, it will force you
to start using these transitions between one another’s ideas. Transitions are important because they help to
connect your ideas and ultimately your comments to what has been said before you. Basically, they force you to
LISTEN.
 Prompts on the board will be “latest young celebrity gossip, Current sports news, Cats vs. Dogs, Best (school
appropriate) TV show, and Favorite Food.”
 Students will share their answers
 Discuss “How did this go?” “How will you bring this into future academic conversations?”
Step 3: Covergent Phase
Teacher role: Facilitate and Supervise the Fishbowl conversation.
Student role: Participate in their groups discussing one question that acts as the prompt for the academic
question on Macbeth.

 Stay in the groups of 4-5 to engage in a Fishbowl conversation.

 Students prepare for their fishbowl by becoming an expert on their assigned question and filling out the
“Fishbowl Prep” handout. The students can use this, the text, and any other notes when they are in the fishbowl.
 In each round, one group of students will sit in the center and participate in five-ten-minute discussions
regarding the question they were assigned. Inside the fishbowl, the expectation is that evert student will
contribute to the discussion at least three times.
 During each discussion, the outer circle uses their notes to comment on the strength of the inner circle’s
conversation. They may also add their own thoughts about the question at hand. Then, the group in the fishbowl
will rotate out as the next group takes their place. Members of the first group join the spectators on the outside
and take notes on their observation sheets. Therefore, everyone will have a chance to be both on the inside and
outside of the circle.

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 Step 4: Closure
Teacher role: Provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their learning of the content in various forms,
e.g. words, writing, actions.
Student role: Demonstrate their learning using their preferred form.
 As students continue working on the assessment, observe their work. Are any students struggling explaining
their understanding on the informal assessment using words? If so, pull individual student aside, and give them
the opportunity to explain their understanding orally or visually.
 As students finish their assessment in the last 10 minutes of class, ask students to share how their understanding
of Macbeth has changed.
Step 5: Application
Teacher role: Challenges learners to apply their learning to real-life scenarios.
Student role: Apply learning to real-life scenarios.
 Students are given the opportunity to use the idea of deeper thought and conversation and apply it to other
things they might be reading or even watching on television.
 During the last few minutes of class, give students the opportunity to talk to each other about how Shakespeare
has inspired other writers and forms of media.
 As students leave the classroom, as a form of oral exit ticket, have students quickly share with you how
Shakespeare applies in real-life scenarios.
7. ASSIGNMENT
Perfect Assignment:
Using the Constructivist Model, students are urged to be actively involved in their own process of learning, and the teacher
functions as more of a facilitator who coaches, medicates, prompts, and helps students develop and assess their
understanding, and thereby their learning. The Socratic Seminar gives the students the opportunity to discuss and develop
deeper comprehension of the lesson, while build relationships with those around them. During the sample phase the students
will break off into groups and have one minute to discuss a topic that does not pertain to the assignment but makes them
comfortable in creating discussion. This front loads them with how to loosely participate in a Socratic Seminar and start to
build the foundation.

The students are then prepared to Fishbowl their conversation. This allows the students to dig deeper into Macbeth and
create understanding that might have no been there before the discussion. The students will be given a Fishbowl Prep Sheet
that will assist them in their discussion, and they can use those when it is their time to speak. On the board there are
Conversation Builder Prompts such as “Is it your position that.” And “I agree, I also think that”, and this will help for a more
well-developed conversation around the topic of Shakespeare and Macbeth.

How the brain learns

Information Processing helps the brain learn by utilizing the new knowledge to the prior knowledge. The brain figures out a
way to connect the two. This allows the students to use their prior knowledge of discussion and allows them to connect that
with the ability to have a Socratic Seminar. Open yet controlled conversation amongst the students is also something that
helps the students develop understanding of the subject. With this lesson the students are able to create ideas and converse
between each other, comparing and contrasting ideas and questions in Macbeth. This will open students up to the possibility
of there being more than just words on a page.

8. Student Theoretical Work Examples/Technology Support

Student Work

Technology support
 If there is an EL Student, Google Translate will be provided.

\
Reflective Thinking/Curriculum Evaluation
Introduction

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The constructivist method is composed of at least five stages: inviting ideas, explorations, proposition,
explanation, and solution, and taking action. The constructivist classroom also focuses on daily activities when it
comes to student work. Teaching methods also emphasize communication and social skills, as well as intellectual
collaboration. Although Shakespeare can seem antiquated, especially in the age of social media, there is still room
for his plays to create a better performer and understanding of theater roots. The constructivist method enhancers
the ability for teachers and students to learn by participation through discussion, experimentation, hands on
activities, and mind mapping. In this lesson, Socratic Seminar is used in order to get a deeper understanding of the
play Macbeth. The students will utilize what they have learned and apply that through discussion that gives the
play more depth and understanding. While the teacher guides the students, the students are leading the
conversation and choosing how they will answer and what they will choose to question. According to Designing
Instruction for the 21st Century Learners, Kilbane and Milman state that Socratic Seminar promotes the
development of conceptual knowledge, and that the conversational interchange in which students engage ideally
supports learners as they develop their ideas. In the case of having a deeper understanding of Macbath, through
conversational exchange, students will understand a deeper meaning to each of the characters and the plot itself.

Relevance: SLO 1: Demonstrate advanced understanding of the trends, issues, and research associated with
education in general and with their respective specialization.

To prove my competence with SLO 1, I designed a lesson plan using the Socratic Seminar model. This model
supports real-life applications and collaboration, which the New Learning Sciences as crucial to academic and
future success. Elaboration another skill accruing importance in the 21st century, is also an integral element of
Socratic Seminars, as students can read and interpret a variety of topics in a given lesson. The Socratic Seminar
model facilitates social knowledge construction and links students’ prior knowledge with the lesson content. By
supervising and loosely guiding the discussion, the teacher enables students to achieve deeper understanding
through active listening, thoughtful dialogue, and reflective thought. This represents a valuable learning
experience for teachers and students alike; teachers can observe the value of letting students learn through
articulation, and students can gain appreciation for listening and calmly managing disagreements. 21 st century
learning places tremendous value on understanding and evaluating multiple perspectives and does the same for
achieving deep understanding through inquiry and collaboration. Therefore, this lesson model facilitates growth
for educators and learners in their pursuit of modern academic success

Analysis/Evaluation

Shakespeare is often thrown to the wayside these days. There are a lot of teachers who do not even teach
Shakespeare in Theater anymore because they believe that the student will not understand the plays or the words
that are written down. I believe that it is the teacher’s job to break things down for the students in a way that they
would understand whether that’s explaining about Star Wars stole from Shakespeare or The Avengers borrowed
from plays that were written by him. I can see how Shakespeare can be a daunting task for teachers, but that does
not excuse them from teaching it. There are many ways to make this era of writing exciting for the students,
because there is so much depth to the characters and the plots are intriguing. However, teaching Shakespeare at
first is a lot like understanding a foreign language in its literal verbiage and depth of plot. This lesson model can
support the introduction to Shakespeare, and it can create interest, in order to deepen their knowledge of this
matter.

Ideas for Consideration

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My lesson that uses the Socratic Seminar Model gives the students the chance to deepen their understanding of
the play Macbeth by answering questions that pertain to the plot and the character of the play. The Socratic
Seminar Model allows students to develop their cognitive process. Through this process the students are able to
remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create. This is beneficial to the students because it does not
only apply to the class, but as they move on and become productive members of society. However, I believe that I
would prefer to use this method with an easier play such as Romeo and Juliet as the students are somewhat
familiar with the play. Macbeth is middle of the road for Shakespeare and I believe it will work just fine, but
giving the students something more familiar next time would give them an even greater chance to grow.

Links to Theory

In Understanding How We Learn, Weinstein, Sumeracki, and Caviglioli write about elaboration. Elaboration
means to add something to the memory, but also to encourage organization, or the connecting and integrating of
ideas. Another way of defining elaboration is to think about information on a deeper level, and this is exactly what
we are doing with the Socratic Seminar. The students are given the opportunity to think deeply about the subject
at hand, and walk away with a better understanding for what they did not know before. This happens in general
discussion but when applied to the Socratic Seminar the students are given the opportunity to lead, they are given
the opportunity to openly think as well as challenge each other in a safe and healthy manner. Students are not only
going over what they read or summarizing, but they are also elaborating on what they have read, which in turns
creates the opportunity for them to learn. My lesson model allows for the students to ask the how and they why,
which allows the students to elaborate a memory by adding details to it and integrating it with existing
knowledge.

Growth Mindset

Growth mindset in education is a lot more than adding the word “yet” to the end of a phrase like “I don’t
understand.” Growth mindset is knowing that all students can learn at a high level and believing that the students
that have never been proficient, can become proficient if and when the right supports are in place. There is also
room for educators to understand that they can learn a new skill as well. Through the Constructivist Model all of
those things are achievable. The students have the opportunity to lead with communication, and they are feeling
heard, they are speaking in the language that isn’t coming form an adult but from their own peers, which in turn
allows them to learn, allows them to want to learn. Above I stated that I would give positive feedback to the
students who participated, not just the ones who were shining stars which also creates a growth mindset. This
creates intrinsic motivation not only on a teacher student level, but on a student student level.

Professional Actions/Areas for Growth

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The way to improve learning when utilizing the Socratic Seminar, I gave the students the opportunity to work in
groups which helped them create answers that had depth and meaning to them. I believe that as a drama teacher I
tend to get extremely excited about what I am about to teach and therefore I often jump into the lesson before I
actually chunk the information. This lesson plan is a lot of excitement and activity, and there is not a whole lot of
time to process the information, and I believe that something that I would improve on would be to give them a
little time to write in their journals and then move on to the next group. Processing information for the students is
much different than the way I process information which is why I need to slow down a little more, and allow for
them to grasp the information that is coming at them so quickly.

Teaching 25 Points

Prepare a short video of you teaching your lesson to share during your lesson presentation. Be sure to have a lesson
plan ready at the time you do the video. Teach the key parts of the lesson body and not just tell about the lesson. The
point is to see this theory and research in action.