How to teach hexagonal thinking

Why this matters

A student can link every card on a hexagon board by mood, with blood and guilt joined because they are "both dark", and still have nothing from the play to say in the seminar. A finished board looks the same whether its links come from the text or from a feeling, and the teacher finds out when the seminar goes quiet.

What hexagonal thinking is

Hexagonal thinking is a discussion method in which students write ideas on hexagon cards and arrange them so that linked ideas touch. A hexagon has six sides, so each card can link to up to six others, and students write the reason for each link. Betsy Potash calls it "a method for considering the connections between ideas and finding the nuances in those connections", and asks students to back their links with evidence from the text (Cult of Pedagogy).

1. Fill a deck of hexagons with the unit's key ideas
2. Have students link the cards and write the reason for each link
3. Turn the strongest links into discussion questions

The Macbeth deck in this activity holds ten cards from the play, such as the dagger, blood, sleep and the witches' prophecy, and one blank card where the student writes a time they wanted something badly. Students draw a line between linked cards on a whiteboard, write the reason on the line, and finish with a seminar question.

One teacher can't read every board while the class is still linking cards, so a link that rests on a mood reaches the seminar unchallenged. In this activity, Sparky, Flint's AI tutor, reads each board a student sends and asks for the scene behind a link that doesn't name one.

Darius's chat: getting ready for the Macbeth seminar

Darius is a high schooler who plays point guard and has finished Macbeth. He knows the plot. When he links two cards, he goes by how they feel.

The whole class gets the same activity: the same greeting, the same whiteboard with ten hexagon cards from the play and one blank card, and the same task of linking cards and writing the reason on each line. Each student moves the cards on their own copy, and Sparky's next message depends on what that student wrote.

Sparky reads the student's whiteboardSparky sends the student back to the playA right answer gets a harder question

D

Darius

Interest: Plays point guardStarting point: Links cards by mood, not by scene

Sparky

Hi! You've finished Macbeth, so let's get ready for the seminar. Open the whiteboard below. It has ten hexagon cards from the play and one blank card. On the blank card, write a time you wanted something badly. Drag linked cards near each other, with room between them for a line. Draw a line between linked cards and write the reason on the line. Send me your board when you have three links.

Darius

i play point guard so my card is about wanting the starting spot. here's my board, i have 3 links

Sparky

I can see three links. Let's go one at a time. Blood and Guilt: "both dark". Which scene puts Blood and Guilt in the same moment? Can you name it and write that on the line instead?

Darius

after he kills duncan in 2.2 he says the whole ocean couldnt wash the blood off his hand. i wrote the line on the board

Sparky

That quote is exactly right: 2.2, and the line shows blood as something guilt can't erase. The witches' prophecy and Ambition: that names the scene. Strong link. Now the third, Ambition and Lady Macbeth. That's the right scene. What is she pushing him toward, and whose ambition is driving that push: his, hers, or both?

Darius

toward killing duncan. both, she wants to be queen but he was already thinking about it back in 1.3

Sparky

Exactly right. The link shows ambition running in both directions. Now link your "Wanting the starting spot" card to one card from the play. What would you write on the line?

Darius

i linked it to ambition. i was kind of glad when the starter got hurt, which is kind of like macbeth

Sparky

That's an honest connection. Now look at your board: which card has the most lines running to it?

Darius

ambition, it has 3 lines. it goes in the middle because everything bad he does starts with him wanting to be king

Understanding check

Now the harder part. Write one seminar question about Ambition being at the center, something a classmate could disagree with using lines from the play.

Darius

is macbeth ambitious?

Sparky

That one has a clear answer: yes, and the play says so directly. What could a classmate actually disagree about? Think about whether ambition is the cause of everything, or if something else might be driving him.

Darius

do the witches cause anything, or does macbeth only hear what he already wants?

Sparky

That's a strong seminar question: no single right answer, and classmates can argue both sides with lines from the play. Can you find one line a classmate could use to argue the witches are the cause, and one line to argue Macbeth's own ambition is the cause?

Darius

witches side: "All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter" in 1.3. ambition side: in 1.7 he says he has no spur "but only vaulting ambition"

Sparky

Both lines are right, and they argue opposite sides. Bring your board and this question to the seminar. Your own card shows that wanting something badly enough can make anyone think like Macbeth.

Backed every link with a scene or a line, then wrote a seminar question with a line from the play for each side

Darius wrote "both dark" on his first line. Sparky didn't name the scene for him. It asked which scene puts blood and guilt in the same moment, and Darius found the Neptune's ocean line in Act 2 and wrote it on his own board. His seminar question is his own too: when his first try had a yes or no answer, Sparky asked what a classmate could disagree about, and he rewrote it.

Sparky reads the card labels and the reasons written on each whiteboard a student sends. When linked cards sit edge to edge, their reasons overlap, and Sparky sometimes pairs a reason with the wrong cards or reports a line nobody drew. The greeting asks students to leave room between linked cards.

Darius is an example student, and Sparky's replies are shortened. The second and third pictures show the part of the board that changed.

What Flint did for Darius

• The greeting opened the starter whiteboard in Darius's chat, so he moved the cards and drew his own links instead of filling in a worksheet.
• Sparky read the reason on each of Darius's lines before it replied, and sent "both dark" back to the play instead of giving him the scene.
• When Darius wrote a yes or no question, Sparky asked what a classmate could disagree about, and he rewrote the question himself.
• Once his question worked, Sparky asked for a line from the play for each side, so he has evidence ready for the seminar.

A teacher can't do this by hand for 30 students, and Sparky does it in every student's chat.

Who is still linking cards by mood

When a student gives three wrong answers, Sparky flags them for the teacher under Needs attention while the class is still working. When students finish, Sparky grades each chat against the activity's rubric and sums up the class on the activity page: what most students did well, which mistake came up most, and what to practice next.

Set up the activity for free

The Macbeth hexagons activity is in Flint's public library, with the starter whiteboard, Sparky's guidelines, the greeting and a rubric already set up. Open it, select Try this activity to copy it into a free Flint account, and move it to a class. The whiteboard opens next to each student's chat, and the student sends it with a message when their links are done. In the activity settings, select Try session myself to test it as a student before you assign it.

For more English activities, see Flint for English language arts.