Despite the end-of-semester malaise we all experience, Act II of Macbeth elicited some probing questions and insightful comments. Students are delving deeply because the Gleedition enables us to spend less time on plot details, and more time on substantive issues of the play. While some may think that annotations on seven literary elements (including vocabulary) "do too much work" for students, I have to respectfully argue the contrary. In my experience thus far, the annotations are enabling students to grasp the play as if it were written in modern English (though the Gleedition does not dumb down the text or alter any of Shakespeare's brilliant language or syntax in any way). And because they are grasping the content, students are therefore discussing the issues, themes, characters, and relevance of the play on the intellectual level we expect of serious scholars.
Tomorrow we tackle Act III and I am employing a new technique. I am printing various passages w/the annotations (simply open and drag them into the printable area) and having students break into groups to both translate and analyze them. The idea is to decipher Shakespeare's rich language and understand how it adds to impact and meaning; to determine themes and character traits (both agreeing and disagreeing with the annotations) and tying them to the larger issue of what these reveal about humanity (In other words, what is Shakespeare's point?); and, finally, looking at the underlying issues raised in the play and how that helps us understand rights and roles of people in medieval and Renaissance Europe and how that applies to human understanding today. Once the groups have finished, we'll regroup as a class and I'll show the results on the projected screen as students break down their passages.
I'm excited about tomorrow and think this may be a really strong way to utilize the Gleedition in the classroom. We'll see!
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