ENG4U – King Lear Unit Overview
One of the enduring understandings for this course is that students feel
comfortable reading difficult texts. To this end students will work in small groups with
some teacher directed instruction, with many resources available to help them
understand the content and context of the text.
The second understanding that runs through the course is a focus on the writing
process. Students will work individually and in small groups to analyze specific
character, theme and other literary elements, before planning writing and revising a final
summative written piece. All of the planning and revision will be collected and skills
developed over the course will be assessed and if needed, further instruction will be
provided.
Individually you will be responsible for handing in a folder containing the following:
• 4 Comprehension Quizzes for the Acts (your best 3 will be counted) with
questions and vocabulary taken directly from your package
• A Quotation Analysis
And in your assigned groups you will be responsible for the following:
• Staging an assigned scene, with practiced dialogue, completed staging questions
and proposal, and energetic performance with full costumes and props (if you
would like a challenge and would like to set your scene in a different time period
or setting, please talk to me).
• A Scene Map (you will construct a Bristol board poster on assigned scene(s), that
outlines major plot events, character development, a visual representation of the
scene, and 2 significant quotations) on the scene you are staging.
• Create character maps for the following characters: Lear, Edmund, Edgar,
Goneril, Regan, Gloucester, Albany and Cornwall. Each should have quotations
that show the development of the character throughout the play (5-7 for Lear and
4-5 for the rest). Hand in as a group package with your names attached to the
characters you have completed. Note: make sure to do 2 each, but with no
duplicates in your group.
Character Map Examples
Character Maps are meant to help you understand the arc of various characters (or more
specifically how and why they change throughout the drama). The following would be
an excellent example for Cordelia (write out quotation in full, then examine what the
quotation reveals and how it relates to the rest of the play):
“Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave
My heart into my mouth. I love your majesty
According to my bond; no more nor less.” (1.1.90-92)
In this quotation, Cordelia has just witnessed her sisters hypocritically praise their father
in order to receive a 1/3 of his kingdom. Cordelia, the closest and best loved of Lear’s
daughters, displays strength of character in not giving into her father’s vanity, displaying
an authentic love, not the flowery, false kind of that of her sisters, but this will not be
seen by Lear, leading to her receiving no part of Lear’s will.
Theme Presentations
In your groups you will prepare a presentation tracing the development of a particular
theme in King Lear. But as you will keenly realize, below are topics rather than themes.
Make sure to develop your topic into a specific theme statement.
Assignment Requirements:
• Prepare an overhead where you open with a definition of your topic as well as a
thesis statement outlining what you are arguing about the theme.
• Proof of a minimum of 5 quotations chosen from the entire text, illustrating the
development of your theme with an explanation of how this proves your thesis.
• Two discussion questions based on your theme designed to encourage class
debate and discussion.
Themes:
Blindness/Sight
Justice
Weather as a reflection of characters
Madness
Authority (real and assumed)
Lear & Gloucester & Fatherhood
Lear as a tragic figure (defend or deny)
Appearances vs. Reality
Rubric:
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
(A/K) Overhead is neat
and readable; contains
topic definition, clear
thesis and quotations
(T/A) Depth of analysis
appropriate for 4U
(C) Every group
member participates
(C/A/T) Questions
inspire class discussion
/10
/10
/5
/5
1
2
3
4
Thinking
Knowledge
Application
Communication
Total:
/30