Macbeth: Act 3 Scene 4 - The Ghost (Banquet) Scene!

This lesson aims to improve students’ understanding of one of the key scenes in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth – Act III Scene IV. In particular, they learn to make insightful interpretations about the changing nature of Macbeth’s tone throughout the scene, and are enabled to understand how this would have affected Shakespearean audiences.

The lesson utilises a range of tasks, that require students to be visual and interactive learners. It follows this learning journey:
- Defining the key term ‘tone’ and establishing its importance as a literary technique;
- Understanding how tone is used to depict mood and attitude across a range of fiction;
- Reading and interpreting Act 3 Scene 4, and establishing how Macbeth’s tone alters throughout;
- Reflecting upon why this may/ what effect this may have had on audiences at the time;
- Summarising the events of the scene;
- Analysing Shakespeare’s intentions in sharply altering Macbeth’s tone throughout;
- Peer/self evaluating the learning in the lesson.

Included in this resource pack are:
- A well-presented, thorough, and informative, whole-lesson PowerPoint presentation;
- Resources for the reading and interpreting activity - full scene transcript with space for notes;
- A template to help scaffold the main task, complete with P.E.E instructions;
- Cards for the card sorting group activity
- A comprehensive teacher guidance form/lesson plan to assist delivery.

All images in this resource are licensed for commercial use, and are cited on the final slide of the lesson presentation.