Many of our students may whine and groan at the thought of reading Shakespeare. It feels very distant to their lives, and at first glance, it is. How can they possibly identify with an old guy who goes on a killing spree for power? It doesn't have that John Green "OMG he gets me" vibe unless they have a teacher to show it to them. When I student taught Macbeth, I decided to have my students study serial killers in conjunction to reading Shakespeare. I'm quite the Murderino and can usually be found on the couch with my cats watching a true crime show. I knew that many people had a similar fascination with serial killers that I did. Boy was I correct! My students devoured the material we read about Dahmer. They seemed to enjoy making connections to Dahmer's reason for murder and Macbeth's. I was thrilled.
Here is a variety of freebies to help you incorporate these murderers into your classroom:
However, after teaching it to them like this for the next 3 years, I knew it was missing something. They might be interested in murderers, but they weren't connecting to the material personally. (Hopefully, they weren't personally connecting with murder...)
My solution was to integrate teenage mental health into the unit. This really opened up the unit to allow us to explore a variety of topics within mental health. No one really knows Shakespeare's intent for his plays, but in Macbeth, I think it's safe to assume that he was fascinated with mind or "the heat-oppressed brain" There are a variety of references to "madness" and hallucinations galore, so mental health is clearly being discussed here. Shakespeare just didn't have the medical knowledge we have now to assess mental health issues.
Within my unit, students will examine the mental health of Lady Macbeth or Macbeth through what I have called a medical treatment plan. To begin, however, students work in groups to assess the mental health of one of the 3 killers that we have already discussed. Here is a link to the free group medical treatment plan: Medical Treatment Plan Group I make sure that students are aware that using the internet is not a valid way to diagnose a real person; however, for the sake of the assignment, students will be using evidence and credible sources to make an educated guess on aspects of a person's life. Here is a link to the free resource they use to analyze Lady Macbeth or Macbeth: Medical Treatment Plan Individual After we have read the play, we begin to work on the teenage mental health essay. Here is the resource listed in my TpT store, if you'd like to add this to your curriculum. Students are writing an explanatory essay about the impact that mental health has on teenagers today. The resource provides you with an assignment sheet, rubric, articles, and an essay planner -- everything you could need to achieve this assignment. Generally, students find this challenging but enjoyable, as they are researching a topic that is especially prevalent in our political climate right now.
If you're interested in more Macbeth resources, please check out the links below:
Macbeth is far from the most relevant text we read during the year; however, that doesn't mean that it's not significant and important for students to read. I hope this blog has given you ideas for how to incorporate mental health into your unit or sparked an idea of how to keep Shakespeare relevant to kids today. Happy teaching!
Amanda