After a marathon planning session I don’t think I ever would have started had I realized how long it would take, I have finally finished (I think) my UbD unit for Macbeth. Take a look at it and tell me what you think. I am not sure my performance task is exactly in line with the ideas I’ve used before for authentic tasks, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around some of the ideas I had for “authentic” tasks. They just seemed really silly. Instead, I thought my students could research the play’s various influences and come to a conclusion about why it was written in the way it was written. I actually think it will be more challenging than the “authentic” task I came up with, and it will help my students stretch their research skills.

I found some great resources while planning, one of which was A Way to Teach, a site created by Joe Scotese, a teacher at Chicago’s Young Whitney Magnet High School, and his students. A wealth of amazing handouts and lesson ideas can be found there. Registration is free!

Another resource I found is a collection of plans provided by and for UK teachers called Teachit’s English Teaching Resources.  You can still download many of the pdf’s, though access to some documents is for subscribed members only (subscription isn’t free).

[tags]english, literature, shakespeare, macbeth, lesson plan, resources, ubd, understanding by design[/tags]