Macbeth (Ignatius Critical Edition)

Just the right stuff! Thats what youll be thinking as you use this warm and inviting reading program from Memoria Press. The guides are well-organized, user-friendly, academically challenging, and graphically pleasing. Memoria believes that reading is not a passive activity, but that it requires an active, discriminating mind, one that has been challenged to think, compare, and contrast. That philosophy is evident in these guides.

Student Guides are consumable at the lower levels, providing space for the student to write. Each book/story/ poem is approached in much the same way, although with increasing depth vocabulary, comprehension and discussion questions, quotations, composition, and miscellaneous literary analysis activities (sequencing, literary terms, dictation, poetry connections, etc.). Upper level books (Gr. 2 and up) are organized around the Trivium, and activities are grouped into Pre- Grammar (preparation prior knowledge or experience), Grammar (presentation essential facts, elements, and features), Logic (dialectic reasons with the facts, elements, and features), and Rhetoric (expression explains in own words with supporting details). Although there is consistency from lesson to lesson, there is also an extra activity provided with each lesson, and these are quite varied. Background information on the author and book is included. Several high school level guides have transitioned to Second Editions, which are smaller-format (6"x 9") with a focus on student activities without lined spaces. Students would record their work in a separate notebook.

Teacher Guides provide valuable teaching information and full-text answer keys at all grade levels. Beyond this there are variances within the guides. Discussion talking points, reproducible quizzes and final tests (with answers) are included in numerous guides especially at the upper levels. The first grade program (StoryTime Treasures and More StoryTime Treasures) differs a little bit in content due to the lower grade level. The second-grade level includes pre- and post-reading exercises that focus on continued phonics development, syllabication and vocabulary for the emerging independent reader. For grades 2-9, we are now offering literature guide only packages that include all the student and teacher guides for each grade, no books. ~ Janice

This Shakespearean tragedy tells the tale of Macbeth's ascension to the Scottish throne following a series of prophecies made by a group of witches. Filled with deceit, treachery, and murder, this dark drama captures Macbeth's transformation from a man of honor and integrity to a man destroyed by his greed and treachery. Set in 1000 A.D. Scotland. ~ Enh