the physical abilities of sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste

a sentence formed of at least one main clause and a subordinate clause

a sentence starter that tells the reader where something is or happens

the use of simile, metaphor and personification to create vivid imagery

Writing part one of the opening of 'Macbeth'

English

In 'Macbeth', pupils learn about character, plot and theme in a Shakespearean play for the first time. In 'Shakespeare's ’Romeo and Juliet’: Diary and Narrative Writing', pupils will learn how Shakespeare explores multiple key themes throughout a single play.’

In 'The Highwayman: Narrative Writing', pupils developed their understanding of how to create atmosphere and engage the reader using figurative language. In 'Shakespeare's ’Macbeth’: Narrative and Soliloquy Writing', pupils will use figurative language to write a narrative based on Shakespearean tragedy and convey characters' thoughts and feelings through soliloquy writing.

In this unit, pupils have their first taste of Shakespearean play scripts. They analyse the witches' prologue of this iconic play as a starting point for writing a narrative opening. Pupils investigate the central character, writing a soliloquy based on Macbeth's famous dagger monologue.

Shakespeare's 'Macbeth': narrative and soliloquy writing

All night long, eerie shadows danced in the wind. 

Beneath the trees, eerie shadows danced in the wind. 

Flittering maniacally, eerie shadows danced in the wind. 

Which sentence starts with a fronted adverbial of place?

The barren landscape stretched for miles and miles. 

The barren landscape, which showed little sign of life, stretched for miles.

The barren landscape lay empty, stretching for miles and miles. 

Which of the following are complex sentences? 

What linguistic features can be seen in the following sentence? 'Above the heath, the eerie moon shone, trying with all its might to break through the dense clouds.'

Battered plants begged for mercy from the raging tempest.

A thick blanket of mist suffocated the trees.

The storm raged across the heath like a violent predator on the rampage.

The wind whipped wild waves of wilted heather into the salty air. 

The wild heath stretched out like a vast quilt of tangled threads.

a description of the setting, using all of our senses

direct speech to show the dialogue of the characters

What features should we include in the first part of our opening of Macbeth?

Which of the following words would accurately describe the atmosphere we want to create?

Fog wrapped around the heath like a suffocating blanket.

Match each feature to the correct example.

We'll start by describing from the top and work our way down. 

We'll start by describing things on the ground and work our way up.

How will we order our setting description? 

A chorus of chirping songbirds sang sweetly. 

Dried, withered grasses rustled ominously in the chilling wind.

Shrouds of mist drenched the shrubs that were trying desperately to survive.

Which of these sentences creates the right kind of atmosphere for our opening?

This lesson will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Writing part one of the opening of 'Macbeth'

Lesson outcome

This lesson will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.