Two simple lists, nine classroom activities.

Today I ran a workshop for the English department at a local secondary school.

The Head of Department wanted an introduction to the new Triptico website, with activities designed around Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

I thought the activities I created might be useful to share.

I started with two very simple lists.

The first was a list of characters from Macbeth.

We opened this same list with a number of different activities. You can click the links below to view each activity:

Use Commit or Order to decide upon the ‘Most Dangerous’ character.

Use Knockout to decide who is most to blame for the death of King Duncan.

Use Move to explore and discuss character traits.

Use Unique to find the odd one out, then explain and discuss each choice.

Use Compare to analyse similarities and differences between characters.

The second list was character vocabulary.

Here’s what we did with this list:

Use Reveal to display a word letter-by-letter and, as each word is guessed, ask which character or characters it best describes.

Use Move to analyse Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and King Duncan.

Use Cards to display each trait one by one and discuss how well it fits different characters.

Two simple lists, which took seconds to create, opened with nine different activities — perfect for quick starters, retrieval practice, revision, discussion and deeper analysis.

I also created a list using the names of the participants in the workshop.

We used this to make quick selections, create groups and build a simple ‘chain reaction’ activity:

A card revealed a name. That person suggested a key event from the play, then selected another card. The revealed name explained the significance of that event, then chose another card to suggest another event - and so the discussion continued.

It was a simple way to involve everyone and keep the conversation moving, with the next person in the chain selected at random each time.

We then explored some Plus activities, such as Hidden Card and Board Plus, before ending the session by looking at how these activities can be embedded inside a lesson.

We also looked at how the different lesson templates can be used to create interactive slides for discussion, questioning and classroom participation, and how easily these activities and lessons can be shared with colleagues and students.

I hope these ideas are helpful. If you have friends or colleagues who teach English and might find them useful, please feel free to pass them on.

Finally, if you would like to know more about a practical Triptico workshop for your school or department, please feel free to get in touch.

I created Triptico as a teacher for use in my own classroom, so the focus is always on simple, practical ideas that teachers can use straight away.

Thanks as ever for supporting Triptico,

David