Macbeth Tea Party Quotation Analysis

 

Students often struggle getting used to Shakespeare’s language.  (No, it’s not a foreign language; no, we’re not going to read a translated version like Chaucer’s.)  As an introductory activity to acclimate them to the language and realize that it’s not as hard as it first looks, we did a “Mingling with Macbeth” today.

Each student drew a quotation from the next three scenes (here are the ones I used), and then typed it into the first box of the Mingling with Macbeth form.  Then students interviewed two classmates about what they thought the quotation meant and wrote the results in the next two boxes.  Last, each student then wrote their final interpretation into the last box.

The activity forces students to examine the language of Shakespeare but encourages them to work with each other, think about what their classmates suggest, and make a final decision about their own interpretation.  Most of the students showed excellent understanding of the quotations afterward, plus it provided students some predictions of what was to come and a bit of a teaser for them to look forward to tomorrow.