What role do the pupils play in Inquest - Macbeth?

Pupils work in groups in role as inquisitors on behalf of the Thanes. Set before the siege of Castle Dunsinane, pupils are asked to gather evidence and decide whether to recommend that the Thanes change sides and back Malcolm, son of the murdered King Duncan, or remain loyal to the great warrior Macbeth.

In order to do this they must question the characters in Macbeth. Through a careful choice of question and thorough investigation of the answers, pupils make their decision and provide evidence to back up their opinion.

After a thorough investigation, pupils are requested to prepare a presentation and inform the rest of the class what conclusions they have reached.

How does Inquest - Macbeth work?

Inquest - Macbeth is based around a simple, easy-to-use database. It contains a huge bank of characters; each of whom your pupils can question. Each question is responded to with an answer, also from within the database.

Once I have purchased Inquest - Macbeth, and I have all my passwords,
what do I do?

First of all divide your class into working groups (about 5 is good). Each group will have their own individual username and password to access the database. When it is time for that particular group to ask a question they will be invited to log on.

The first decision they make will be which character to interrogate. This of course, must be a group decision and the pupils will need some time to decide who their first character will be (and why).

They then return to the computer and select their chosen character. The screen will then display the list of questions which they may ask the character; they decide on their first question.

When the pupils are ready, they again return to the computer and click on their selected question. The response to this question will immediately appear from their chosen character.

It is advisable that this response be printed out. One member of the group should read the response aloud to the rest of the group, who at this stage may make notes and begin to decide on the next question they would like to ask.

At each stage the pupils must choose carefully as they cannot ask all the questions available for each character. When the group has asked the allowed number of questions for a character, the pupils are asked to choose their next character.