Lesson planning

13 Nov

Recently, I taught a lesson exploring Act 3, Scene 1 of Macbeth to my Year 11s. There’s a particular joy that comes when a lesson flows exactly as intended, when the planning and precision behind it lead to that shared moment of understanding in the room. This is a short blog on the planning process. It reminded me why thoughtful planning really is one of the most fulfilling parts of teaching. This particular scene is such a turning point in the play, the moment where Macbeth begins to unravel under the weight of his own ambition and paranoia. It’s the calm before the storm, but in that calm, Shakespeare lets us glimpse Macbeth’s deepest fears.

The knowledge

Macbeth’s soliloquy

I wanted my students to really sit within the soliloquy, to slow down and hear Macbeth’s voice for what it is: desperate, insecure, and haunted.

The quotes we focused on were:

“To be thus is nothing, / But to be safely thus”
“Our fears in Banquo stick deep”
“Fruitless crown”
“My genius is rebuked”

Each phrase tells us something essential about Macbeth’s psyche. The above is just a snapshot of quotations we looked at. “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus” reveals that his kingship means little without security; the crown itself brings him no peace. The “fruitless crown” captures the hollowness of his success; all his power feels wasted if he cannot pass it down. When Macbeth says “our fears in Banquo stick deep”, we see that Banquo represents everything Macbeth is not loyal, brave, honourable, and that comparison eats away at him. The line “My genius is rebuked” is fascinating. It shows us Macbeth’s sense of inferiority; Banquo becomes his mirror, reflecting the qualities Macbeth knows he lacks. Macbeth’s drive to eliminate Banquo, not just ambition, but envy and insecurity.

The Check for Understanding

This was the heart of the lesson and honestly, the part I enjoyed the most. I planned each check deliberately so that, by the time students reached their writing task, they could approach it with confidence, having been equipped with an understanding of the meaning of the vocabulary used.

I started with scripted questioning:

Why might Macbeth describe his crown as “fruitless”?
What does Macbeth fear most in this moment?
How does Shakespeare use contrast between Banquo and Macbeth to build tension?

Then, a hinge question to check whether students could articulate the shift in Macbeth’s mindset:

At this point in the play, has Macbeth’s ambition changed, or has it simply evolved?

A cold call followed, giving students space to build on each other’s responses, pushing them to refine and develop their ideas aloud before writing.

When they finally began to write about Macbeth’s character in this scene, there was a quiet confidence in the room, that kind of purposeful silence every teacher knows and loves. They weren’t guessing at meaning; they knew what they were writing about because we had built the knowledge step by step. I do enjoy thinking critically about the questions to ask so that students can thoroughly understand the text. You can also use mini whiteboards, especially for a rapid assessment of the class’s understanding.

Planning reflections

Sometimes we talk about lesson planning as if it’s just another task on an endless list, particularly if you are teaching a number of lessons in a day. But planning, when done intentionally, is a creative and deeply satisfying act. It’s where we shape the journey our students will take, deciding what they will know, how they will know it, and how they will show that knowledge. Observing Year 11 write with clarity and conviction, analysing Shakespeare’s language with precision and confidence, was the reward for careful planning. There’s a particular kind of joy in that: when your planning creates the conditions for students to think deeply, write brilliantly, and feel proud of what they’ve produced. And it’s those moments, in the middle of a busy term, that remind us why we do what we do.

Lesson planning

Leading a year group