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Contemporary approaches
to classic texts - William
Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Gill Robins, Upper School Leader/English Manager at Sun Hill Junior School, Hampshire
Shakespeare is increasingly studied in primary schools and Gill Robins shows how a contemporary approach
is a rich experience of communication in many forms, providing an introduction to the subject that enhances
children’s experience when meeting Shakespeare as a set text in Year 7.
Why teach Shakespeare at key stage 2?
For the last four years, our return to school in September has
seen the start of planning for our annual Year 6 Shakespeare
in a Day production. In partnership with the University
of Winchester Education Faculty, we have produced The
Tempest, Twelfth Night and, most recently, Macbeth. This
year, for the first time, we involved Year 5 pupils – the Tudors
is a central theme in our Year 5 curriculum, so we are also
able to set our Shakespeare study in an historical context.
For many years seen as the province of KS3 English
lessons and dreaded by generations of GCSE students,
Shakespeare’s plays are now increasingly studied in primary
schools. Our approach is active, allowing children to play
with the language of Tudor England whilst creating their
own interpretations of themes which are common to their
personal experiences. At the outset of the project in 2005,
a day-long workshop led to a production. Now we have
expanded our ideas into a two week long unit of work
entitled ‘Playing with Language – Shakespeare’s Macbeth’,
which allows the children to spend more time thinking
around the themes of the play, how and why characters
behave as they do and how the language of the play can
be re-interpreted within their own culture. As our planning
sheet also demonstrates, Primary National Strategy (PNS)
strands and phases lend themselves well to this sort of
exploratory work, whilst Assessing Pupil Progress (APP)
provides a clear focus from which to derive success criteria in
the pupils’ writing.
Finding our way into the narrative
Our hook for the project is different each year – this year
we used a PowerPoint presentation showing images of
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the setting of Macbeth, including the castles of Cawdor,
Dunsinane and Glamis, mist-covered Scottish moors, a
Tudor banquet hall and Birnam Woods as they are today.
This was accompanied by music – the second movement of
Gorecki’s Third Symphony was described by the children as
‘spooky’, ‘sad’ and ‘mournful’ and they felt that it provided
an emotional soundscape which matched the images they
watched. We also showed the children Brian Perrin’s 1964
lithograph Macbeth: Birnam Wood to High Dunsinane, which
is part of the Government Art Collection, and an acrylic
painting by L.A. Hutchinson entitled, Till Birnam Forest Come
to Dunsinane, a painting which provoked a great deal of
discussion about its similarity to Munch’s Scream. There was
also considerable discussion about the real existence of the
setting, as everyone had assumed that it must be fictitious.
The children then held a word blast using their Writers’
Journals. For the first two minutes they wrote down all
the words that came into their minds whilst looking at the
images, then they shared and borrowed words to create a
word bank to use when writing. We compiled a list of some
sixty powerful words. As we watched the images one final
time, an atmosphere of suspense pervaded the classroom.
This atmosphere was still evident as we settled down to
listen to a modern retelling of Macbeth (Matthews 2003)
in narrative form. Although excited about the prospect
of the workshops and costumed production which were
just two days away, they had temporarily forgotten this
in their curiosity to know what the story was about. After
reading the story, we reviewed it in an ‘Instant Plot’ activity.
Using just one hand, the children had to create an action
to show Macbeth returning to Scotland as a hero, being
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praised by the people, murdering Duncan, people rejecting
Macbeth and celebration when Macbeth the tyrant is killed.
We discussed and listed themes – following brief peer
discussions, the children suggested jealousy, love, bravery,
loyalty, guilt, hatred, death, ambition, envy, vanity and fear.
Many of the discussions were related to personal experience,
one group deciding that they understood how Macbeth
must have felt when he realised that Duncan’s sons would
be King of Scotland in his place, as they had all experienced
a time when a sibling or friend was given something that
they really wanted themselves.
After reviewing our knowledge of how to structure a
probing question, the children split into groups to hot-seat
a character from the story. All of these activities had one
aim – to get inside the story, understand the characters
and identify emotions which are common to us all. We
ended the day with a ‘Weighed in the Balance’ session, in
which children categorised the main characters as Villains
or Heroes, based on the evidence that they had acquired so
far. There was general agreement that only Lady Macbeth
was the true villain, as she showed herself to be ambitious
and willing to murder from the outset. Macbeth, in contrast,
was closer to the centre as he was a flawed hero – saving
his country in battle then gradually becoming bad as he
allowed his wife to play on his vanity, pride and envy.
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attempts, we discussed the meaning of the words – the
children quickly inferred that Macbeth might be going mad
(offering as evidence that ‘dagger of the mind’ meant that he
was seeing something that wasn’t there) and deduced that
this state of mind was induced by his guilt.
For the second activity, children were invited to form groups
of three and they were then shown the witches’ speech:
When shall we three meet again,
In thunder, lightning or in rain?
When the hurly burly’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won,
That will be ere the set of sun.
This time, they were asked to repeat each line, then spend
a couple of minutes creating actions to accompany the
words. After a couple of rehearsals, each group was
able to present the speech as a choral reading, complete
with actions, performing in the centre of a circle of their
peers. Throughout this activity, in addition to familiarising
themselves with the language, the children needed to
participate in a group to agree actions, perform as part of a
group and respond to cues within the text.
Understanding Shakespearean language
With a good working knowledge of plot, setting and
character established through drama, music, peer discussion
and image, we turned our attention to activities to develop
understanding of language. In the first activity, the children
were shown a few lines from Macbeth’s soliloquy on the
interactive whiteboard:
Is this a dagger that I see before me, the handle toward
my hand?
Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not and yet I see thee still.
Art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation,
proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
As each line was read, the children repeated it, fitting an
action with the words as they spoke them. They were asked
to find their own space for this activity and to concentrate
on their own actions. This gave them the opportunity both
to familiarise themselves with the language and interpret
it with personal actions in a personal space. After two
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Reviewing the knowledge created so far
The next activity was a very personal one. Each child was
asked to mind map what they had learned about Macbeth
so far. This was an unsupported activity, so it was interesting
to see that almost everyone chose plot, character and
setting as their subheadings, with the ‘Instant Plot’ hand
synopsis appearing on most maps. Their grasp of the
plot, the interaction of the characters and key settings
was also impressive – and all of this knowledge had been
created through action, using music, image and the spoken
word alone. At this point we also started a graffiti board,
using one wall of the classroom for children to post their
comments or questions. The wall quickly filled up with
personal comments about the characters, why they were
liked, disliked or sympathised with, and facts which had
been researched about Shakespeare. The wall also revealed
a growing interest in the Globe theatre, with every book
in the school library about Shakespeare, his plays, his life
and the theatre gradually finding a place in the classroom.
Children owned the knowledge on their graffiti wall and
it eventually became their research site, as they asked
questions to which they could not find answers or thought
aloud about why a character behaved in a particular way.
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As a form of communication, it exceeded anything which I
could have formally structured and the children valued the
opportunity to ‘follow our own interests.’
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The death of Banquo and his daughter in a drive-by ‘gangsta’
shooting was rapidly followed by a banquet scene, with a
white-masked ghost sitting in Macbeth’s chair. This group
used a narrator to move the action forward, with Macbeth
demonstrating his madness by walking into corners and
talking to himself about a ghost which nobody else could
see.
Then the play cut to a group of witches sitting around a
cauldron. The original speech was retained by this group,
before the stage was invaded by a fearsome band of soldiers,
complete with swords.
Shakespeare in a Day – the production
Finally, the long awaited day arrived. We are fortunate to
share this partnership with the University of Winchester as
they bring between twelve and fifteen students for the day,
allowing for a 1:4 adult to child ratio. The day started with
a viewing of the Animated Tales DVD – a DVD set of twelve
of Shakespeare’s plays ranging across comedies, histories
and tragedies. This is provided free to KS2 schools when
ordering the DCSF publication Shakespeare for all ages and
stages (details at http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk).
The children were split into five groups, with two or three
students leading each group. To allow space for drama
activities, prop-making and rehearsal, each group was
given an empty classroom, work area or part of the hall.
After a series of warm-up games, each group was told
which collection of scenes they were going to produce.
Brainstorms were held to decide on the idiom in which to set
their scene, before work began in earnest to script, cast and
rehearse. Some groups used a mixture of Shakespearean
and modern language, whilst others used their own
interpretation throughout. By lunchtime, props were
being made and everyone was busy and involved. After
lunch there was just an hour for rehearsal in the hall space
before parents and Governors arrived for the performance
of Macbeth as they had never seen it before. This year, the
children were asked to wear black, although in previous
years Tudor costumes have been provided by parents and a
local costumier. As in previous years, the clash of language
styles and idioms did not in any way disturb the flow of the
drama.
The first group on stage decided to cast Macbeth as Big Mac
DJ who envied DJ Dunc, the true King of DJ. When Big Mac
received a mobile call confirming a strange prediction that
he would win the Lottery, he started to think that maybe all
the other crazy prophecies might come true as well. While
his wife wheedles money out of him for even more shoes
(‘a girl can never have too many shoes’), he realises that DJ
Dunc is coming for tea that very evening. Distracted from
her shoes for a while, his wife hatches a plot to kill their
friend, so that Big Mac can become the undisputed King.
As Macbeth protested that he could ‘not be killed by anyone
born from a woman’, Macduff responded with, ‘I wasn’t
born from a woman. My Mum died and the doctors saved
me.’ The play ended with general rejoicing as Macbeth died
dramatically centre stage.
The final performances have now become legendary, with
humour figuring substantially in each of the productions.
An episode of Blind Date to test Caliban’s choice of Miranda
as a wife in The Tempest, Banquo’s death staged as a driveby gangland shooting in Macbeth and Malvolio set up
by text messaging to appear in his yellow cross-gartered
stockings in Twelfth Night are all testament to the children’s
creativity and ability to understand a character, interpret it
through their own cultural perspective and work in role to
communicate their understanding. Here are just some of
the evaluation comments from the children:
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‘I worried that the language might be confusing but
acting it out helped me to understand. The production
was best, because everything came together. It’s a really
serious story about death and murder.’
‘The words felt funny to say, like they were muddled. It
was strange but I enjoyed trying to say it.’
‘I liked using the old language. It sounded royal, like the
Americans think we talk all the time.’
‘Before we did this, I wondered if it was going to be any
good. It was great fun doing it a different way from
Shakespeare. I specially enjoyed the warm up games and
working out all our ideas. It’s a really good story.’
‘I wasn’t a great fan of Shakespeare. I thought the
language was confusing, but acting it out in my own
language helped me to understand the story.’
Post-production response to the text
After evaluating the digital images of the production, we
started to prepare for writing. We decided to concentrate on
the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and the conflict
between them which led to Macbeth’s eventual downfall and
death of them both. After drawing around two children and
pinning their outlines to the wall (one for Macbeth and one
for Lady Macbeth), we used ‘Role on the Wall’ to understand
their behaviour. Everyone was given two post-it notes on
which to write a comment about each of the characters. In
groups, they read their comments, deciding how they had
acquired the information – had they inferred it or was it
factual information from the text? For example, a comment
that Macbeth was ‘strong, powerful, a good fighter’ was part
fact and part inference and deduction. Before sticking their
notes on the Wall, children had to decide whether they had
written an inside or outside comment, that is a personality
attribute or an appearance attribute. They then stuck their
post-it inside or outside the outline accordingly.
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◆ ‘It’s hard to do for someone you don’t know but it
helped me understand the character.’
◆ ‘This really got me thinking, especially when we had
to do inside thinking. I learnt from this that people
look good on the outside but can be bad on the inside
– like Lady Macbeth. She was pretty on the outside
but a very bad, murderous person on the inside.’
We used two more activities before we started writing – a
freeze-frame to explore the conflict between Macbeth and
his wife just after he returned from battle, and Conscience
Alley. The latter role play was probably the hardest one of all
– whilst being clear that murder was wrong, they were being
asked to suspend their own moral code and argue from the
perspective of a calculating murderer. Comments like, ‘Go
on, you know you want to’ and ‘You can be King’, together
with Lady Macbeth’s own threats from the text (‘from this
time I account thy love’) were used to persuade Macbeth
to murder. When Macbeth walked along Conscience Alley,
children contrasted his honesty, loyalty and bravery on one
side of the alley with his pride, ambition, weakness and
desire to please his wife on the other.
Blogs – 21st century response to 17th century literature
Other perceptive comments included:
◆ ‘He is a noble soldier, a good friend who was driven
crazy’
◆ ‘selfish on the inside because he killed someone
because he had power but wanted more’
◆ ‘brave, treacherous, guilty’
◆ ‘a warrior’s face which had scars from other battles’
◆ ’guilty, because he saw a dagger and a ghost that
weren’t there’
◆ ‘weak because he let his wife persuade him to
murder’,
◆ ‘a valiant soldier.’
Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, was seen as:
◆ ‘evil because she knows murder is wrong but has no
conscience’
◆ ‘hypnotic’
◆ ‘so guilty that she killed herself because she knew
that her husband had murdered the King for her’
◆ ‘clever because she got Macbeth to murder the King
for her then blamed it on someone else’
◆ ‘blood stained by her guilt.’
Two evaluation comments of ‘Role on the Wall’ spoke for the
whole class:
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The writing task took the form of a blog. After reading
a sample text, children worked in groups to note any
information which could be useful, together with any direct
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quotations which they wished to borrow from the sample
text. They then wrote their blog as either Macbeth or Lady
Macbeth. The results showed evidence of real insight into
character and an ability to write in role.
The University students also left writing tasks for their
groups, which the children worked on after they had
reviewed their knowledge of the required genre.
Macbeth in the wider curriculum
As our curriculum is theme-based, we also planned the
delivery of other subjects into the two-week theme.
Following the children’s interests, we decided to build replica
Globe theatres, combining English skills of online research
and note-taking with maths and DT skills in planning,
measuring, cutting and construction.
The children also used art skills to design and paint
production posters which could be used to advertise a
Macbeth production at the Globe.
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where numbers can be adjusted to match the children’s
mathematical ability, can be found at www.crickweb.co.uk/
ks2numeracy.html.
So what did the children learn?
These annual productions have become a valued part of
our school life and are much enjoyed by parents, staff and
children.
When we first produced The Tempest, we discovered through
a chance conversation with our KS3 partners that it was a
set text for Year 7, which meant that the children from our
school would be repeating the same play just a year later.
The Year 7 teacher considered changing the text, but then
decided to repeat The Tempest and find out if our children
approached the text differently, having already experienced
the play in detail. Conversations with our ex-pupils after
they had completed their study showed that they were very
positive about re-visiting the text and felt that their detailed
knowledge of the structure of the play allowed them to
spend more time considering the language, which they also
felt they found more accessible than they might otherwise
have done. The most recent cast of Macbeth all feel that
they will approach new Shakespearean texts in KS3 with
confidence to understand plot, character and setting. They
also feel that the language will be a challenge rather than a
barrier.
What of the future?
We have already agreed with University of Winchester
staff to run Shakespeare in a Day again next year, although
the play hasn’t yet been chosen. We plan to increase our
use of video cameras as part of our regular classroom
practice, which will allow pupils to evaluate their work
more effectively. We are investigating Kar2ouche, from
Immersive Education, a computer software package which
allows pupils to create their own scenes and settings
through the use of avatar-type characters (details at www.
immersiveeducation.com). In line with our exploration of
the use of still and moving image in the classroom, we are
also considering the use of stop-frame animation so that the
children can re-create their own scenes.
We have no doubt, after four years of working with this
project, that it provides our children with a rich experience
of communication in many forms, allowing them to relate
and respond to great classic literature through the very
contemporary social and cultural contexts which they bring
into the classroom every day.
Children’s books
Matthews, A. (2003, illus. Tony Ross) Macbeth: A Shakespeare
Story. Orchard. ISBN 9781841213446.
A rich mathematical task which involved planning the
banquet, purchasing and preparing food using groats,
proved engaging and the figures could be adjusted to
match the ability of the children. A similar investigation,
Acknowledgements
With thanks to Dr Hilary Lee-Corbin, Senior Lecturer,
University of Winchester, and the Year 2 BA students for the
workshop.
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