South Windsor High School students in the ECE UCONN Writing and Multimodal Composition class are working to perform a scene from William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, in order to showcase their learning. The objective of this unit was to perform a 3-5 minute performance of a scene from Macbeth that answers an inquiry question.
The assignment encouraged students to think like directors. Utilizing various resources around the school and providing their own props, groups worked to interpret the play’s themes through a modern lens. Following the performances, students presented their videos to the class, defending the stylistic choices they made to enhance the storytelling and answer their chosen inquiry.
This project proved to be a favorite among the students, offering a creative outlet to explore Shakespeare’s complex language and dramatic style. By moving beyond traditional essays and into hands-on performance, students engaged more deeply with the material, proving that active participation is a vital tool for mastering challenging literature.
“This project represents a unique style of learning because it improves the skill of breaking down text and using context clues to understand what’s going on,” SWHS senior Alanna Larmand said. “This is an extremely helpful skill and tool to be able to use in the future.”
The point of this experience for the students was to be able to demonstrate the progression from watching different scenes in class to being able to apply what they learned and perform a scene.
“This video performance forced students to close-read a scene and seek an answer to their inquiry question through their cinematic choices,” ECE 1007 teacher, Mrs. Quinn said. “Students employed visual, spatial, linguistic, and gestural modalities for this assignment, which fits into this multimodal course well.”
While the project was a serious academic endeavor, it wasn’t without its “occupational hazards.” Senior Logan Donovan, who portrayed the ambitious Lady Macbeth, took a literal approach to his character’s downfall. While filming a scene that required a dramatic fall from a stool, Donovan accidentally face-planted on the floor. Though the mishap resulted in a few scratches on his chin, he now looks back on the incident as a highlight of the project and a favorite story to tell.
“My injury resulted from enjoying this learning experience, I jumped off a stool two times for two different camera angles,” Donovan said. “This did not hinder my performance at all, it just hurt for about 2 minutes and I was able to continue filming the scene. I think my play is gonna be one of the best so I am happy to be able to act out the scene and perform for my class.”
At the end of the performances, students were able to reflect on the choices they made in the scene and understand what they have been learning on specific choices and intentionality. Lots of students enjoyed being able to reflect on their work and demonstrate to their peers how they were able to incorporate certain parts into scenes.
“Reflecting on my video helped me prove the choices I made while filming in order to convey the emotions and hidden meanings of the scene,” SWHS senior Olivia Childree said. “I thought it was really fun choosing what specific camera angles and lighting I wanted to use in my scene. I did enjoy reflecting to the class about why I made those particular choices.”
Overall the students really enjoyed being able to reflect on their learning and use skills that they gained in this class to perform and have fun creating their scene that also engaged the students.
