Review ~ Progeny Press ~ Macbeth

I am a huge fan of Shakespeare, so I was delighted to receive for review the Macbeth E-Guide from Progeny Press. This is a downloadable guide that I decided to print out, but you have the option of just looking at it on a computer.  I always find Progeny Press study guides to be very thorough and this one did not disappoint. The discussion questions really helped us dig deeper into Macbeth. What an exciting play! During our review time, we had a unique opportunity to see Macbeth performed in an outside theater. It really made this play come to life for us. Being able to use the the discussion questions from this study enhanced our learning so much further. I doubt that the kids will forget this Shakespeare play. 

One of the things that makes Progeny Press guides stand out against others is their hands-on activities. It is hard to find hands-on activities for junior high and high school students. My kids love hands-on or interactive activities, and they retain the information much better if they have done more than just read and write. Progeny Press suggested that we watch a video about Scotland, especially the Highlands. We watched all the episodes on Scotland that Rick Steves has created. However, there are lots of other documentaries on YouTube, if you wish to watch something else. My kids also really enjoyed the Scrambled Quotation, which is sprinkled thoughout the study. They were memorizing famous quotes without even knowing it!

My kids are studying British literature this year, and I am busy counting hours toward their credits. This program, if used in its entirety, would grant a student 8 to 10 weeks of credit hours or about a quarter of their course work for the year. We do not have the attention span to stay interested in just one play for that long, so we only did parts of the study guide. That is another great thing about Progeny Press. It is a very flexible program and it is easy to skip around and only do what will enhance your student's experience.

My son is special needs and really needs most of his high school programs adapted. He can't really handle intense writing programs and needs the information delivered in smaller chunks. All that said, he is very intelligent and doesn't need anything dumbed down. He just needs it very clearly stated. The discussion questions are just the right amount of writing for him. However, there are lots of excellent writing projects that are suggested for the neuro-typical student. The expanded writing projects really make it a very complete high school program.

This program gets a thumbs-up from us. Our children found it enjoyable and liked the vocabulary questions, scrambled quotations, and hands-on activities the best. My students are not huge fans of Shakespeare like I am, but due to this study guide, they came away with a better appreciation of Shakespeare. To see what others on the review crew had to say, click on the banner below. We reviewed different guides and age groups. 

Blessings, Dawn