Summary
What are the qualities of a good leader? In this lesson, students will analyze the characteristics of leadership in William Shakespeare’s "Macbeth" compared to those of famous historical leaders to determine how they contribute to success, downfall, or maintaining power. Students use excerpts from the original "Macbeth" as mentor texts throughout the lesson. Through the Honeycomb Harvest strategy, students evaluate and compare leadership qualities, considering factors such as ambition, morality, and decision-making.
Essential Question(s)
How do leadership qualities shape a leader's impact on history?
Snapshot
Engage
Students will collaborate in pairs to sort and connect famous world leaders with leadership characteristics using Honeycomb Harvest cards; then they will share and discuss their grouping choices with partners and the whole class.
Explore
Students will analyze leadership qualities in soliloquies from Macbeth by watching video performances of both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, using categorical highlighting to identify passages demonstrating moral courage, loyalty, and self-determination, and participating in class discussion.
Explain
Students will complete a Predict-View-Reflect activity about leadership traits by predicting qualities of community and Oklahoma leaders, watching and taking notes on an interview with Rep. Alonso-Sandoval, then engaging in reflection and class discussion.
Extend
Students will complete another Honeycomb Harvest activity connecting Macbeth characters to leadership qualities, discuss their work with partners, and reflect using the Triangle-Square-Circle strategy during class discussion.
Evaluate
Students will write a comparative analysis paragraph about leadership qualities shared between either Macbeth or Lady Macbeth and a historical leader of their choice, using the CER-ER (Claim-Evidence-Reasoning) strategy to organize their ideas with textual evidence from the play.
Materials
Lesson Slides
Honeycomb Harvest handout
Macbeth: Soliloquy Excerpts handout
Predict-View-Reflect handout
Triangle-Square-Circle handout
CER-ER handout
CER Rubric handout
Pens/Pencils
Scissors
Highlighters
Engage
30 Minute(s)
Use the attached Lesson Slides to introduce the lesson to students by displaying slide 2. Present the lesson’s essential question and learning objectives on slides 3 and 4 to the extent you feel necessary.
Display slide 5. Introduce students to the Honeycomb Harvest strategy. Group students into pairs and distribute the Honeycomb Harvest cards to them. Explain that collaborative groups will work to group famous world leaders with leadership characteristics. If students need scaffolded instructions, display slide 6 to share an example. As they work, monitor and ask probing questions to help them determine why they chose these connections.
When you see that students have had enough time to group their hexagonal cards, display slide 7 and use the Elbow Partners strategy for nearby groups to explain and justify their sorting. Follow with a whole class discussion. Encourage questions and prompt student discussion.
Explore
50 Minute(s)
Display slide 8 and hand out the Macbeth: Soliloquy Excerpts. Explain that students will see and hear acclaimed performances of a soliloquy first of Lady Macbeth and then of Macbeth. If necessary, remind students that a soliloquy is speaking one’s thoughts out loud either alone or regardless of any hearers as is often the convention in a play. Following each performance, students will analyze each excerpt for leadership qualities.
Display the video embedded in slide 9, asking students to focus on general comprehension of the excerpt. (If you prefer, display slide 10 for the embedded video of a contemporary version of Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy.) Then display slide 11 and explain the Categorical Highlighting strategy in which students will look for and annotate information that fits in categories of leadership. Pass out highlighters, instructing students to mark passages in the excerpt with highlighter colors that conform to the following three leadership traits: A) Moral Courage, B) Loyalty, and C) Decision Making. Allow several minutes for students to analyze the first excerpt.
Display slide 13 and repeat the process for Macbeth’s soliloquy. After students have viewed the video, display slide 14 and repeat the Categorical Highlighting for Macbeth’s excerpt. Explain to students that as they reread the excerpts, they will again identify leadership traits from the text using the Categorical Highlighting or Why-lighting strategy. Assign students to complete the activity, then display slide 16 and facilitate a whole class discussion, asking “What do the soliloquies reveal about the leadership traits that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth possess?”
Explain
30 Minute(s)
Display slide 17 and distribute the “Predict-View-Reflect” handout. Instruct students to complete the “Predict” column using the prompts in that column. Use the transition questions on this slide:
What do you already know about the leadership traits of leaders in your communities?
What traits do you value in a leader?
What traits are essential for Oklahoma leaders?
When students have completed the “Predict” column of the handout, display slide 18. Explain to students that Rep. Arturo Alonso-Sandoval is an Oklahoma State Representative. Ask students to fill out the “View” column of the handout while they watch the video. Display the video embedded in slide 18. After the video, facilitate a whole-group discussion about ideas encountered in the video. Then instruct the students to complete the “Reflect” column of the handout.
Extend
50 Minute(s)
Display slide 19. Explain to students that they will be completing the Honeycomb Harvest again. During this round, ask the students to connect Lady Macbeth and Macbeth to Leadership Qualities. Redistribute just the leadership qualities from the Honeycomb Harvest hex cards to them. As they work, monitor and ask probing questions to help them determine why they chose these connections.
Have students then use the Elbow Strategy to talk with another group, comparing how that group constructed their honeycomb and contrasting their own work.
Display slide 20. Explain the Triangle-Square-Circle strategy and hand out copies of the Triangle-Square-Circle handout. Instruct students to complete the handout based on their thoughts from the activity and the lesson up to this point. Facilitate a whole group discussion.
Evaluate
50 Minute(s)
Display slide 21. Introduce students to the writing prompt.
Prompt:
Choose either Macbeth or Lady Macbeth.
Select a famous historical leader who you believe either shares similarities or contrasts with your chosen character. The leader you choose may be one from the original Honeycomb Harvest or may be another famous leader. Write a paragraph comparing and contrasting the leadership traits of these two figures. Consider their ambitions, decision-making, strategies, and overall impact on their respective societies.
Example:
If you choose Macbeth, you could compare him to Julius Caesar.
If you choose Lady Macbeth, you could compare her to Elizabeth I.
Go to slide 22. Tell students that they will prepare for their response to the prompt by completing a CER-ER. Pass out copies of the CER-ER handout and discuss the CER-ER strategy as a class.
The "C" stands for claim, the "E" stands for evidence, and the "R" stands for reasoning.
The CER-ER instructional strategy assists students in identifying a claim along with evidence to support the claim and reasoning for the evidence.
Once students understand how to use CER-ER statements, they can begin brainstorming and organizing their ideas using the CER-ER graphic organizer. Remind students that the evidence they use must be from the text of the play. Students will work individually on their CER-ER.
Resources
Bayraktar, Baris. (2023, October 24). Great Performances - Macbeth (2010) [Video]. Youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUKrxHUCmnU&ab_channel=Bar%C4%B1%C5%9FBayraktar
Dench, Judi. (2019, October 17). Macbeth by William Shakespeare [Video]. Youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7skhaOegpLA
K20 Center. (n.d.). Categorical highlighting. Strategy. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/192
K20 Center. (n.d.). Claim, evidence, reasoning (CER). Strategy. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/156
K20 Center. (n.d.). Elbow partners. Strategy. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/116
K20 Center. (n.d.). Honeycomb harvest. Strategy. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/61
K20 Center. (n.d.). Triangle-square-circle. Strategy. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/65
K20 Center. (n.d.). Why-lighting. Strategy. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/128
Shakespeare, W. (1992). Macbeth. Wordsworth Classics.