The Scottish Play (LS-IT-641)
Visual artists have been inspired by Shakespearean stories for centuries, especially by those who provide a combination of universally debated topics such as order and chaos or fate and free will, fascinating or tormented characters, and supernatural elements. This is the starting point of this CLIL learning scenario designed for teenage learners of English as a Foreign Language who will explore Macbeth and some artwork inspired by the play. The LS has been designed for implementation in either a physical environment (in class), fully online, or in blended learning mode.
Learning process
Introductory activities allow the students to familiarize with Europeana resources depicting scenes and characters from the play, learn about its plot, characters, and themes by watching a TedEd video, and collaborate in group work activities. They will later contextualize the story by learning about the Elizabethan Great Chain of Being and use all the knowledge acquired and the information researched to take part in a structured debate.
In the final part of the LS, they will focus on the language needed to compare and contrast works of art and will produce an artifact of their choice, inspired by what they have learned about the play.
During the activity students are required to work individually and collaboratively, using thinking routines such as Think, Pair, Share, active learning tasks, and activities meant to promote critical thinking such as discussions and a structured debate. They simultaneously consolidate their multilingual competence by using the foreign language to listen, read and communicate.
Assessment and Feedback
Formative assessment will allow the teacher to monitor the students’ learning and, if necessary, tailor the rest of the learning process to suit the students’ needs, while an agreed rubric will assess the active participation of the learners in the whole process and not just the final product. Finally, learners will have the chance to provide constructive feedback on two of their peers’ works by means of an online form, thus reflecting on their own learning.
Would you like to know more about this learning scenario? You can download it below:
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CC BY 4.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Wellcome Collection.