Laura Webb CPD

Historically the blogs I have posted have offered 10 strategies/tips/ideas/thoughts about a particular topic. I nearly posted this as a thread but told myself that I’ve been enjoying a lot of blogs lately and it’s time to share more myself to (hopefully) help keep the edublogging world alive.

So it’s just a mini blog below about how I teach act 1, scene 1 of Macbeth and why I teach it in this way. I’m certainly no expert, but I’ve used this method for a fair few years and I think it has a long lasting impact on how students understand the text.

After a cold watch of the whole narrative, using this animated tale video and the timeline above, I move into 1.1 in the second lesson. There has been lots said for a cold read of texts but for plays I personally prefer a cold watch (I also do this for ‘A Christmas Carol’) so that students have a grip on the whole narrative arc. Why? Well I tend to find that students have a range of starting points for the text and so this evens the playing field. It also means we can consider foreshadowing, dramatic irony, staging etc, as we work through the play, rather than me having to withhold information as I teach.

Next up, a quick discussion about the function of the witches. I like the word function because it forces students to consider the role they play, and indicates someone is using them (i.e Shakespeare) for a certain purpose. A quick discussion to draw some ideas out – again, here, it’s important they’ve read/watched the whole text so they have some more developed comments to make.

Next, before we even look at the text, we watch five different adaptations of the opening scene. Why? Firstly, the scene is super short, so it’s only 2-3 minutes long generally. Secondly, I want students to understand that throughout our study of the play we are working with the text, but that Shakespeare has been adapted and when we watch versions, we are looking at a director’s or actor’s choices based on the original text.

After each version, a quick turn and talk to allow for students to discuss their own understanding of the scene. In the past I have got them to record this on a sheet, but I think if your school has a slick T&T process this is much better. I prompt them to discuss staging, performance, sound, atmosphere – essentially by the end of the five versions they will

• Have their own idea of how the play should begin
• Have commented on a range of adaptations and director’s choices
• Heard the scene five times so it’s likely already moving into their LTM
• Had a chance to discuss the atmosphere of the opening
• Considered different versions of the witches and how they might be performed and staged

Then, we move into some short annotations, a summary of the scene in the events tracker, and some consolidation questions at the end of the lesson.

How do you open your teaching of Macbeth?

And if you enjoyed this, let me know here and on Twitter, and I can share some more.

If you’d like more information about how I teach the rest of the play, you can click here to explore the CPD session I have available in my shop.

If you want to see the course reader I use that is referenced above, it’s available here for free.

And, if it’s useful, here’s the PPT I use for this lesson: