What a Black Belt Club member gets: 2 emails a week for parents and 2 emails a week for students
You do not need to know the text. Here are two real emails we send from Macbeth, exactly as members receive them: a plain-English summary with a way to check your child's thinking, and a short coaching routine you can use in five minutes.
This week's Macbeth in 60 seconds, and how to check the work
The scene in 60 seconds (Act 1 Scene 7). Macbeth has been told by three witches that he will be king. King Duncan is staying at his castle tonight. In this speech Macbeth is alone, arguing with himself about whether to murder Duncan. He can list every reason not to: Duncan is his guest, and Duncan is his king. The only thing pushing him the other way is his own ambition. He knows it is wrong and, in the end, he does it anyway. That is the idea your child is writing about this week.
This week's skill: turning the question into a clear argument (the thesis) and a plan.
What to ask for: the 5-minute plan and the thesis sentence from the question in the student email, "Explore how Shakespeare presents Macbeth's attitude to killing Duncan." You are not marking a full paragraph this week. Score each point 0, 1 or 2.
1. Does it use the key word: "attitude"?
- 2 = the thesis sentence says what his attitude is
- 1 = the word is there but the sentence only describes the murder
- 0 = it retells what happens
Solid sounds like: "Shakespeare presents Macbeth's attitude as reluctance that his ambition overrides."
2. Does the thesis take a position, with a "but" or "yet" in it?
- 2 = it says two things at once (he knows it is wrong, and he does it anyway)
- 1 = one idea only
- 0 = no argument
3. Does the plan cover BOTH parts of the question?
- 2 = one point from the speech AND at least one from later in the play
- 1 = only one of the two
- 0 = neither is clear
Total out of 6: 5-6 strong, 3-4 solid, 0-2 rewrite the thesis. This is a home diagnostic, not a GCSE mark.
Ask afterwards: "Which of the three would you fix first?" Letting them choose keeps it from feeling like marking.
The 5-minute plan: the habit that saves marks
Coaching focus: planning before writing. Other weeks cover retrieval practice, motivation and exam timing.
Why it matters: students who start writing straight away often produce a good first paragraph, then run out of ideas and forget the whole-play link the mark scheme requires.
The weekly ritual (10 minutes in total):
- Put the question from the student email in front of them.
- Set a 5-minute timer. They sketch four boxes: thesis, point from the extract, point from the rest of the play, final judgement.
- When the timer stops, stop them. They do NOT write the essay yet.
- Ask: "Which box was hardest?" That is what to practise next week.
Script to say: "Don't write it yet. Just fill four boxes with short notes. I'll time you for five minutes."
If they say "I don't get Macbeth": "Tell me one thing you do know about him. Now tell me one thing he does that surprised you." Either answer is enough to start a box.
If they freeze: "Start with the key word in the question. What is one thing you already know about it?"
Why it works: a plan turns a blank page into four small tasks, and it makes it much harder to forget the whole-play link.
GCSE Ninja is written by parents, not teachers or examiners, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by AQA. Model answers are our own examples, written to AQA's published mark scheme. They are not official AQA answers and we cannot guarantee any grade. Please check quotations against your own copy of the text.
