1. Warm-up – word association
Macbeth Reading 1 Date:
Objectives
Introduce reading plan and schedule.
Read Macbeth Act 1 scene 1-3 (10-15 minutes)
Talk about the opening of the play
Mark important quotes and complete exercises to deepen our understanding of what’s going on.
Warm-up – word association
Write down everything you know about ‘Witches’, as in those scary old ladies from Halloween, T.V. and Movies.
(We’ll come back to this after we introduce the reading plan)

2. Reading plan There are five acts, average six scenes per act.
Reading several pages each day, minutes, I calculate 15 classes to complete the reading with questions and notes.
Each Macbeth class, we’ll do a warm-up which shall have you think about ideas linked to what’s coming up.
We’ll read several pages.
We’ll do tasks related to what we read – making it about you.

3. Warm-up task
The first thing we see in the play are three ugly gruesome witches. While the fear of witches was a genuine concern at the time, they’re also a powerful image meant to spark dozens of ideas in your head. But what ideas? .
Your task: Let’s bullet point everything we think we know about ‘Witches’ and what’s associated with them. Short points: Who, what, why, when, where, how? Raise hands and share ideas.

4. Today’s Reading Act 1 Scene 1 (1 minute)
Three witches; evil beings with supernatural powers, have gathered to talk. They seem to know events that are about to happen, including a great battle and a warrior named Macbeth who will be there.
Act 1 Scene 2 (4 minutes)
Scotland is in the middle of a civil war. Scottish rebels have joined with Irish and Norwegian forces. The Scottish King, Duncan, gets a report about how the hero of the battle; Macbeth.
Act 1, Scene 3 (8 minutes)
Macbeth and his friend Banquo meet the Witches and hear the great prophecy.
Audiobooks at – ends at 13.30

5. Notes – Act 1 Scene 1 and 2
Scene 1 introduces the witches who seem to have the gift of prophecy. The know a battle is about to take place, that Macbeth will fight and win in this battle and they know where he will be afterwards. This will all be proven true before their next predictions are made.
Scene 2 introduces the world the play is set in. A wounded sergeant gives a report of how the battle is going. The two armies were evenly matched until the hero Macbeth performs several impossible tasks. He defeated the Irish, he defeated the Norwegians and killed several commanders. At the same time, a traitor; the Thane of Cawdor, is killed and the king gives his title to Macbeth as a reward.

6. Notes – Act 1 Scene 3
Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches. Here the witches make predictions about the future for the two soldier. They call Macbeth the Thane of Glamis (which is is), the Thane of Cawdor (which he is about to be) and the King of Scotland. This shocks him.
Banquo asks for his future then. The witches tell him he will never be king but his children will be (not Macbeth’s). They then disappear.
A messenger comes to tell Macbeth that he has been promoted to Thane of Cawdor, making the witches first prediction come true. This gets Macbeth thinking about the second prediction; that he will be king. He considers whether the witches words have put the idea of murdering the king into his head.

7. Time for Reflection - pair work
Write down the two quotes below and what you think about them.
“Fair is foul and foul is fair” (Act 1, scene 1)
“to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths” (Act 1, scene 3)
Write and perform a scenario / story about the following, based on what happened in the play but about yourself. You have just won something important to you (a match, a game, an argument) when you come across three old ladies. They tell you the future and that you will be in a position of power. You think you will have to do something bad to get there however and this scares you.

8. Cooldown
Write down what you want to be in the future and what you will have to do to get there?
Are there shortcuts? If there were, would they be a good thing.