Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

Welcome back to another lesson with me, Miss Chu.

In this lesson, we will be writing the second part of our character descriptions, but the last two paragraphs of our character description.

We'll be using our plans like we did in the previous lesson to help us to structure our writing and to use the success criteria as well, to make sure that we are on track and we've got everything that we need in our writing.

So again, like previously you need to find a quiet space away from distractions.

And then we may begin.

In this lesson, and it's no different to any other lesson, you will need these things, something to write on ,something to write with and your thinking brains and your thinking head switched straight on.

The agenda for today.

We're going to start with a writing warmup, and then we're going to have a quick recap on conjunctions because I've forgotten and you need to tell me, then we're going to look at our character description plans, and then we will begin our shared writing.

So our writing warm up for today.

The first part of our warmup is we're going to be saying a sentence.

We want to describe Macbeth using the adjectives listed on the screen.

Brave, fearless, powerful, victorious, remorseful, conscience-stricken, ambitious, hesitant, unsure and uncertain.

Macbeth is a fearless and powerful warrior due to this.

He thinks he is invincible.

Or you could say Macbeth is a powerful and greedy warrior.

Due to this, he becomes overly ambitious.

Pause the video and have a go at saying your sentence.

Great.

Now the second part of our warmup is we're going to write a sentence with an and, but, or causal conjunction.

You can see on the screen the and conjunctions build on a previous point, you are adding to the previous point.

You are not saying anything that is different to the previous point, nothing opposing.

In the but conjunctions however, you are saying the opposite.

So you will be using contrasting conjunctions here, such as however, despite this, on the other hand.

Causal conjunctions we use when we want to give reason for why we've said something, I've got two sentences that I've already written using two conjunctions on the screen.

Moreover comma he is a fearless warrior.

So I'm building on something else that I've said about him being a warrior.

As a result of his greed comma Macbeth became blood-thirsty.

Now it's your turn to pause the video to complete your task.

You may start with in addition to this or however, or any of the other conjunctions that you can see on your screen, pause the video and have a go.

Linking conjunctions.

Let's recap.

Let's remind ourselves what these conjunctions are.

So as I previously mentioned and conjunctions are when you build upon another point that you've already made.

So if you said Macbeth was fearless, you might say, in addition to this, he is also powerful.

Moreover, he is fearless.

The but conjunctions are when you contrast, he was fearless.

However, he became overly ambitious.

Causal conjunctions are when you want to give reason for something that you've said.

as a result of his greed, as a result of his over ambition comma he became blood-thirsty.

And then there are your time conjunctions, which helped to structure your writing, to give it chronology.

At the start of the play, he was like this.

After this point, he was like this.

And finally he became like this.

Let's now look at our character description plans from before.

And what I'd like you to do is I would like you to put the following adjectives in the appropriate columns.

So the first column we have Macbeth at the beginning of the play when he is a warrior and he's ambitious.

So second column is when Macbeth visits Lady Macbeth, and he becomes weak.

Well, he shows signs of weakness.

The third column is when Macbeth has killed Duncan and he feels extremely guilty about what he has done.

I would like you to say the words after me, fearless, unsure, powerful, triumphant, contrite, ashamed.

Pause the video and have a go at putting them in the correct columns.

Remember to label the top of the columns with the appropriate headings, to draw your lines with a ruler.

Now we are going to look at how we have split the character description into four parts.

We split it into the first part where we described him as being a warrior.

The second part, when he became more ambitious, and then we have the last two parts of our character description.

I've ticked off one and two, because we've done those.

And three and four, we need to write today.

So we have used our plans to write the warrior paragraph.

So ticked it off.

We've used our plans, right? The ambitious part, and I've ticked it off.

And we've got the last two sections of our plan to write up into two separate paragraphs.

So we're going to use these plans or this plan to help us.

What do we need to include in our writing to be successful today? Let's have a look at the success criteria.

Number one, we must include precise and ambitious adjectives to describe Macbeth at different points of the play, hopefully we have a lot of adjectives to choose from, from our plans.

Number two, we need to use linking conjunctions and, but, and causal.

The and to build ideas, the but to contrast ideas and the causal to give reason for why we've said something.

The third thing we need to remember is using time conjunctions, because we need to help us to structure our writing so that the reader knows which parts of the play we are talking about.

And lastly, make sure we include a complex sentence where a relative clause.

Shared writing, third paragraph, weak.

This is the plan that we will be basing our writing on.

So what qualities does he possess when he becomes, when he shows signs of weakness? He is hesitant.

He is unsure.

He's doubtful and he's uncertain.

Those are the kinds of adjectives we want to make sure we include in our character description.

We want to also include that Macbeth has two sides to him and Lady Macbeth had to persuade him.

She controlled him and manipulated him as well.

He struggled to make his own decisions and he lacked confidence.

So when you're ready, I will show you how to use your planning and your success criteria to do your third paragraph.

Let's use the plan and the success criteria now to write the next part and the next paragraph.

So we now want to say that he is weak or he has become weak in character.

Let's keep referring back to the point in which he changes.

So we could refer to the part when he has just won.

So from the opening victorious battle scene, what do we know about him? We know that Macbeth is a courageous and triumphant warrior, who is the last man standing on the battlefield.

So we're building a picture of what he used to be like.

Now we say, however, we're introducing, we're using our but conjunction.

However, we know that he can also be very weak.

Semi-colon he has two sides to his character.

Now we will go into why we think this.

Let's look at our time conjunctions.

What could we use at the beginning? Not appropriate any more, we've already said what he was like at the beginning.

We could say after or before a certain point in the play when he is weak this before he kills Duncan.

So let's use before.

Before he kills King Duncan, what's he like, do you remember what he was like, let's look at the qualities.

He was hesitant, unsure, doubtful, and uncertain.

We could use some of those words or we could maybe describe from the video clip, what he, what he looked like and what he felt like.

He was scared.

He is scared.

Before he killed Duncan, he is scared, trembling, nervous, and even admits to Lady Macbeth, what does he admit? That he does not want to commit murder.

Now we've said how he was acting.

Those adjectives and the verbs trembling, the verb trembling shows you what he was like at that point, when he was weak in character.

Following on from the last sentence, we want to contrast something we've just said, we could say however, or should we use another contrasting conjunction? Because we've already used however within this paragraph.

So we could say on, on the other hand his something wife.

We need to think of some adjectives to describe his wife, have a think now.

How could we describe her? Manipulative? That's a good one.

Persuasive? Wife.

What does she do? She convinced him.

Or convinces him to kill King Duncan, showing that what does this show us? About my best character, showing that he struggles to make his own decisions.

That is another reason why we are saying that he is a weak character, or weak end character.

Hopefully you've had a chance to watch carefully.

Now it is your turn to write about when Macbeth turns weak or show signs of weakness.

Remember to use the success criteria on the right, and also to have your plan right next to you to support you.

Shared writing.

Fourth paragraph guilty.

Once again, we will be using our plans to help us to write our paragraph.

We will use the adjectives on the left and the evidence to support that.

So at this point in the play, he is remorseful.

He's ashamed.

He's conscience-stricken and he's contrived.

How do we know this? Because he committed murders to reach his ambition.

And he kept killing to stay in power and he took it too far.

He betrayed the King and he starts hallucinating and overreacting.

Now we'll show you how to use the plan and the success criteria to form your writing, your informal writing.

We are now onto our last and final paragraph about Macbeth.

And in this paragraph, if we look at our plans, we are writing about how Macbeth moves from becoming weak to guilty because he has done the deed.

And now we want to say that he starts to feel guilty.

So let's look at the quantity.

So he's remorseful, he's ashamed of what he's done.

He's conscience-stricken.

He's contrite.

The evidence of him feeling guilty is that he committed murders to reach his ambition.

He kept killing to stay in power.

He took it way too far, and betrayed the King and he starts to hallucinate an ovary overreact.

So bearing in mind our success criteria, adjectives, linking conjunctions, time conjunctions.

And if we can, to include a relative clause, we now will start our paragraph about Macbeth's character as guilty.

Let's start with guilt is another huge part of not Macbeth's character.

We've got Macbeth's apostrophe character, because it's the character of Macbeth full stop.

And then here we can use one of our linking conjunctions, even though, even though Macbeth is, let's compare his physical strength with his mental strength.

So even though Macbeth is physically strong, you can give information, we see this at the start of the play during battle, even though Macbeth is physically strong comma, his mind, his mental ability, his mind is unable to cope with his guilt.

After, let's use a time conjunction now, after he kills Duncan, what happens? Do you remember from the clips, from watching the clips what happens? Look at the picture.

He's looking at his hands.

After he kills Duncan, it is clear to the reader that he is, he cannot believe what he has done.

He stares at his bloody hands in horror.

The guilt that haunts him, and we'd say haunts because he starts to see, well, he starts to hallucinate, the guilt that haunts him and causes, the guilt that haunts him causes him to hallucinate the ghost of Banquo.

When was this? We could give more information.

During the dinner, or the feast.

Now it's time to finish off the character description with a final or concluding sentence or sentences.

We could say that Shakespeare, what did Shakespeare want us to think about Macbeth? So Shakespeare shows Macbeth as a, what does he show him as? As a strong and determined soldier who, what happened to him? Who is destroyed, who is later destroyed by his ambition, we could say, and greed because he becomes completely obsessed with the idea of becoming King.

To become King.

And we want to build on this, so in addition, reusing and linking conjunction.

In addition, comma, he is easily convinced and influenced by others, which leads to his downfall.

Remember, this is a, this play is a tragedy.

So we want to make sure that this comes across in our character description.

He starts off as being a strong and determined soldier.

Someone that we look up to perhaps, because he becomes the Thane of Cawdor.

It's a very noble title to be given.

And then later on his ambition and greed is his downfall.

He's destroyed by this, these two characteristics, as well as ambition and greed.

He is someone who is a bit weak and is easily influenced and easily convinced by others.

So in this case, Lady Macbeth, which leads to his overall downfall.

Now it is your turn to write about when Macbeth starts to feel guilty.

Use your success criteria again, to remind you what things do you need to include.

And also of course, you need to have your plan right next to you.

Good luck and enjoy.

Excellent.

Now that we've written our two paragraphs, we need to read back our writing.

We need to check that and make sense.

We've got to get a sense of what the reader will feel.

Can the reader picture or imagine Macbeth clearly in their minds from your writing? We've got to make sure that we've got the purpose right.

To check for any punctuation that might be missing or is inappropriately used or inaccurately used, to check that we've used precise vocabulary, to check and change any spelling errors that might have occurred.

From the opening victorious battle scene, we know that Macbeth is a courageous and triumphant warrior, who is the last man standing on the battlefield.

However, we know that he can also be very weak.

He has two sides to his character.

Before he kills King Duncan, he is scared, trembling, nervous, and even admits to lady Macbeth that he does not want to commit the murder.

However, his manipulative, persuasive wife convinces him to kill Duncan, showing that he struggles to make his own decisions.

My fourth paragraph.

Guilt is another huge part of Macbeth's character.

Even though Macbeth is physically strong, we see this at the start of the play during the battle, his mind is unable to cope with his guilt.

After he kills Duncan, it is clear that he cannot believe what he has done.

He stares at his bloody hands in horror.

The guilt that haunts him, causes him to hallucinate the ghost of Banquo during the feast.

What I would like you to do now is pause the video and just make sure you can tick off with your finger just by pointing at the success criteria.

Have I included one, two and three, three and four in my fourth paragraph.

Pause the video and have a go.

And my concluding paragraph Shakespeare shows Macbeth as a strong and determined soldier who is later destroyed by his ambition and greed to become King.

In addition, he is easily convinced and influenced by others, which leads to his downfall.

So hopefully I have included in my whole character description, not just in the last two paragraphs, but when we use the success criteria to check over the whole character description, somewhere in my whole description, I'll have adjectives, somewhere there I would have and, but and causal conjunctions.

Somewhere I would have time conjunctions and somewhere I might have included a complex sentence with a relative clause.

I've included two, perfect.

I've included one.

Brilliant.

It is your turn now to check your writing and your turn to read aloud your whole opening, mainly to enjoy reading or writing, but also just to check that you have got the things on the success criteria, pause the video and have a go.

Well done everyone.

We have come to the end of our Macbeth unit and you've completed your lesson on writing a character description.

This is now your chance to share your work with Oak National.

We would love, love, love to see your writing.

And if you'd like to please ask a parent or carer to share your work on social media, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, make sure you tag at Oak National and hashtag learn with Oak so that we can see your wonderful pieces of writing.