KS1 & KS2 English curriculum

This unit builds on pupils' understanding of play scripts introduced in the Year 3 unit 'Reading and performing scripts'. Pupils experience an authentic Shakespearean script for the first time, analysing the witches' prologue and using it as inspiration to write a narrative opening that emphasises descriptive vocabulary to capture the scene's atmosphere. Pupils write a soliloquy from Macbeth's perspective, using tense variation, imagery and rhetorical questions. This unit prepares pupils for the Year 6 unit, 'Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet': diary and narrative writing'.

1. Understanding the context of Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'
2. Understanding themes, characters and plot in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'
3. Exploring characters and setting in the opening scene of 'Macbeth'
4. Generating vocabulary for the opening of 'Macbeth'
5. Planning part one of the opening of 'Macbeth'
6. Writing part one of the opening of 'Macbeth'
7. Planning part two of the opening of 'Macbeth'
8. Writing part two of the opening of 'Macbeth'
9. Peer editing the opening of a narrative based on ‘Macbeth’
10. Analysing the main character in 'Macbeth'
11. Analysing a scene in the build-up of 'Macbeth'
12. Identifying the features of a soliloquy
13. Planning and writing the 'against' section of Macbeth's soliloquy
14. Planning and writing the 'for' section of Macbeth's soliloquy
15. Planning and writing the closing thoughts of Macbeth's soliloquy
16. Peer editing a soliloquy based on 'Macbeth'
17. Performing a soliloquy in character as Macbeth