What's happening in Kenaston School…

1. In the final sub-unit in this Decisions unit, we consider the consequences of decisions made by characters in the Shakespeare play Macbeth. We read through a list of scenarios that all involved someone being killed, by accident or by someone’s purposeful action, and we discussed how evil each action would be on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the ultimate evil. The purpose of this was to realize that the same result (someone dead) can be accepted or condemned depending on what caused that event.
2. We read through a summary of the play of Macbeth to get an idea of the general plot. We also watched an animated abridged version so students can get the grasp of causes involved in the play. A lot of things happen but what they will have to determine and analyze while watching the video is how responsible Macbeth is for each action – is he fully responsible or was he more of a pawn and influenced greatly by someone else so his responsibility is low?
3. We will begin watching one of the three video versions of the play and students will have to watch and take notes in anticipation of the assignment. (If we run out of time for the assignment, too, what I can do is make it part of the final exam where they would demonstrate their skill in interpreting the cause of events.
4. Note: I reminded students the blogs will be due for marking next Monday- a week from today. These are a requirement of the course so they are not optional. One person added two more posts to their blog this weekend, so there are still several who are behind. If there is no progress by Wednesday, I explained that I will start having students stay in to work on it at noon.Also, for those who are not finished the blog on Monday, the day they write their final, they will have to stay at school after writing their exam and finish the project before they are allowed to leave. Mr. Gasper approved this suggestion and will help enforce it on Monday. However, if you have already completed the project, then there are no worries and you will be free to leave after your exam!

Here are links to the three videos we watch that give a general overview of the play of Macbeth.

Part one             Part two                  Part three                   

Here’s a Simpson’s version of the Macbeth plot. See if you can recognize the parts: