We had a lovely break over the last two weeks but now I am getting back into our home education and setting us up for our new topics that we are going to cover over the next 12 weeks (I like to work in 6 week blocks it is just a manageable time frame and works well for us). One of our big new topics, one that we are very excited about because my daughter enjoys Shakespeare, is going to be Macbeth. We are going to work through it slowly and we are going to do lots of questions (GCSE/IGCSE type question) and work on writing longer answers and how to structure the answers. It is going to be a big topic for us.

I have already gathered the resources that I want to use and we are mostly set up (there is some printing that I still need to do). But the one resource that I have already printed out in full, read it cover to cover, read it carefully, made notes on and was very impressed with is the Macbeth Revision Guide from the Twinkl Resources website. And yes I know it is a Revision guide and we are only just starting Macbeth but I often read Revision guides first when I am setting myself up on a topic.

So this post is just going to be on the Twinkl Macbeth Revision guide and I will write about our other Macbeth resources in different posts.

Okay it is quite a big resource to print out – 59 pages. But if you are working through Macbeth it is 59 pages that really are worth reading. It starts off with a bit about how they suggest you use the revision guide and about the exam (this guide is aimed at student writing GCSE English Literature but you can use it with anyone studying Macbeth). Then it goes onto Context (background which I think is vital), a Who’s Who page (We loved this quick summary of the main characters, I think it is really useful to show the kids this summary before they start so they understand how the characters fit together) and then a really good summary of the main events of the play. Again I thought this summary was excellent and great to read for any parent who is wanting to discuss Macbeth with their kids.

After the brilliant “main point pages” they go onto dealing with the 5 main themes in quite of bit of detail. For each theme they include a page talking about the theme, putting it into context, giving you key quotes (really loved this), then three mini-exam questions followed by a long exam question after which they show you two examples of model answers – a good example and a great example. Along the side of the model answers they also make notes explaining some points about the model answer.

So yes it is 59 pages, which may seem like a lot but it is 59 really worthwhile pages. And this is written as revision guide (and I think it will be an excellent revision guide) but it is also really handy to read before hand if you are the home educator or a parent who is going to be working through Macbeth with your kids.

I was so impressed with this Macbeth Revision guide (it was the first English Literature revision guide that I spotted on the Twinkl website) that I actually searched for others and found they have created quite a few GCSE English Literature Revision guides including ones for Romeo and Juliet and An Inspector Calls (they were two that we were interested in) but you can find the other guides here – GCSE English Literature Revision Guides.

Admin – This post is not linked to Twinkl in any way. I spotted the Revision guide, read it and was impressed with it.