3. Lady Macbeth

• English
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• Lower Secondary (Key Stage 3)
• GCSE

Introduction

An interactive lesson on Lady Macbeth - it uses adjectives and an adjective starter as a hook activity to the main content.

GCSE English Lit: Paper 1

Lady Macbeth

Welcome I hope you find this lesson useful!

At the end of the lesson, you will be able to confidently discuss Lady Macbeth as a character 

Lesson Aims

Feel free to modify these objectives

In groups, one of you will sit

with your back to the screen.

Your teacher will spin the spinner and display an adjective. DO NOT READ IT ALOUD!

The students who can see the screen must define that adjective without using the word or spelling it out (that's cheating!)

Then it's another group member's turn!

You have a minute to guess!

 Adjective Articulate!

Starter

I've used this before and it works well. You can run it differently if you like - this is a fun way to introduce different aspects of Lady Macbeth's character.

Lady Macbeth Character Summary

Each of the adjectives on the spinner can be used to describe Lady Macbeth... here are some with explanation...

Students should see the link between this and the starter activity!

Ambitious and determined: 

Strong desire for power, 

willing to do anything for 

Macbeth to become king.

Lady Macbeth Character Summary

Manipulative and ruthless:

Pushes Macbeth to commit murder, initially lacks moral hesitation.

Lady Macbeth Character Summary

Cold and calculating: 

Begins as the more dominant 

and fearless partner, prioritizing 

power over conscience.

Lady Macbeth Character Summary

Lady Macbeth Character Summary

Guilt-ridden and unstable:

Over time, guilt overwhelms her, leading to mental deterioration.

Tragic figure: 

Her ambition and actions 

ultimately lead to her psychological breakdown and death.

Lady Macbeth Character Summary

• You will be put into groups
   with a focus on a particular
   scene. Focus on the character
   of Lady Macbeth.
  
• Find suitable adjectives to
   describe her in this scene.
  
• As they appear on the board,
   they will need to be organised
   into their place in the grid

Group Activity

Each group could have one representative to drag their adjective into the correct box. 

It could also work with groups directing the teacher!

Group	Scene	Key event for Lady Macbeth
1	Act 1, Scene 5	Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth's letter and resolves to push him towards regicide.
2	Act 1, Scene 7	Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to go through with the murder of King Duncan.
3	Act 2, Scene 2	The immediate aftermath of Duncan's murder.
4	Act 3, Scene 4	The banquet scene where Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost.
5	Act 5, Scene 1	Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene, revealing her guilt and descent into madness.

Group Activity

A1 S5	A1 S7	A2 S2	A3 S4	A5 S1
a

Group Activity

Lady Macbeth Timeline

The mind map will have to be organised as contributions will land randomly!

Write a PEEL sentence that explains how Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth in your scene

Write a PEEL sentence that explains how Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth in your scene

Individual Activity

This could be either based on the original scene a student looked at in their group or it could be based on the feedback from the last activity about another of the scenes. I leave that to you!

To what extent does Shakespeare have Lady Macbeth conform or defy gender expectations of his time?

To what extent does Shakespeare have

Lady Macbeth conform or defy gender expectations of his time?

Any student can answer this as it is an opinion based question. No fixed answer.

Which do you think is Lady Macbeth's most distinctive character trait?

Which do you think is Lady Macbeth's

most distinctive character trait? 

Manipulative

A tragic figure

Ruthless

Ambitious

Unstable

Fearless

Resilient

Cold

Dominant

Something Else

This should provide interesting results that you could use to generate a brief discussion!

Which quality did you pick and why?

Which quality did you pick and why?

Write down something new you learned about Lady Macbeth in this lesson.

Write down something new you learned

about Lady Macbeth in this lesson. 

Have students enter three things they learned in this lesson. With this they can indicate their own learning efficiency of this lesson.

Write down something new you learned about Lady Macbeth in this lesson.

Write down something you

want explained in more detail.

Have students enter three things they learned in this lesson. With this they can indicate their own learning efficiency of this lesson.

How confident do you feel writing about Lady Macbeth?

How confident do you feel

writing about Lady Macbeth?

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