Macbeth and the Dark Ages supplement

NEXUS guides provide ideas and information for an interdisciplinary approach to great works of literature, including Shakespeare's Macbeth and Julius Caesar, Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, The Lion in Winter, and Antigone, just to name a few. (Please see related review.)

Supplements are available for each guide, containing teaching suggestions, discussion questions, research topics, and activities. The supplement for NEXUS' Macbeth and the Dark Ages provides teaching suggestions for art, history, literature, music history, and science, plus four reproducible articles (Medieval Armor, Braveheart and the Bruce, St. Margaret and her Royal Sons, and Romanesque Architecture).

Teaching suggestions are brief, giving research topics or suggested readings along with writing prompts, discussion questions, and activities that include sketching, design (illumination), literary analysis, and reading and/or performing a scene from the play. While in the science portion, there are suggestions for studying levers and the trebuchet, I would add building a trebuchet from a kit or perhaps having a competition (if you're teaching a co-op class) to see who can build a working trebuchet from household materials (like pencils and rubber bands -- an actual project I saw on a display table at an Open House celebration).

The supplement assumes some teacher knowledge of the various areas (no answer key is provided), though enough information is included to guide the teacher through the material, especially if you are researching along with your students. This inexpensive supplement offers a practical way to interact with the material in the related NEXUS guide, with suggestions that can be used for individual study as well as group projects.