King Lear Complete Unit Plan

This extensive 277 page unit plan for King Lear is completely designed around the philosophy of developing close reading skills and text based responses which require supporting evidence for nearly every aspect of each scene and act of the play. Our King Lear unit is completely original and has been keenly tuned to address a wide range of learners with varying reading comprehension skills. In short, this unit will help all students to look closely at Shakespeare’s craft and encourage them to write thoughtful, in depth responses and support their ideas with evidence from the text.

This 277 page unit plan includes the following:

A Table of Contents outlining the seven parts of the entire unit:

Overview:
79 pages of printable daily lesson plans and graphic organizers
26 pages of fill-in-the blank review activities and quizzes for each act
87 pages of homework activities
19 pages of individual quizzes for each act
27 pages of formal assessments
15 pages of daily quiz questions

Every activity requires the students to engage in close reading and provide textual evidence for the all of their responses.

•Every lesson can be taught using a myriad of teaching styles: Partner or neighbor cooperative pairs
 Small groups for cooperative learning
 Individual or independent practice
 Homework
• Each lesson is intently crafted to be used with smart board technology.
• All lessons are able to be reproduced and photocopied.
• There is a balance between the aesthetic appeal of each lesson and the practicality of black and white photocopying.
• Each lesson is set up as a self-contained graphic organizer with explicit instructions on how to complete the day’s activity.
• Each lesson has a “Closure” writing activity encouraging students to reflect on the key concepts learned during the day’s lesson.
• Any daily lesson can be done as a homework assignment (many chapters have multiple activities, so one can be sent home as a way to review or reinforce the day’s lesson) **this is something I do all the time for quick grades.
• Any daily lesson can be collected and graded.
• Any daily lesson can be collected to assess individual and class comprehension.

Part 1: Worksheet and Graphic Organizers

Act I: Daily lesson plans and activity sheets
• Cordelia’s Truths
• Lear’s Questions
• Kent and the Fool’s Criticisms
• Two Sisters: Appearance versus Reality
• The Importance of Nothing
• The Fool: More Than Just Comic Relief

Act II: Daily lesson plans and activity sheets
• Kent Comparison: To King and Duke Alike
• Kent’s Concerns about Hone
• Kent’s Moral Values
• Lear’s Knights
• A Daughter’s Love
• 100 Knights
• Lear’s Love Contest in Review
• New World Order

Act III: Daily lesson plans and activity sheets
• Imagery of the Storm
• Edmund’s Double Speak
• The Prophecy of Edmund
• Edmund Speaks the Truth
• The Truth of Madness
• That Way Madness Lies

Act IV: Daily lesson plans and activity sheets
• Lear and Cordelia: A Comparison
• “I Stumbled When I Saw”
• The Rise of Albany
• Albany’s Position

Act V: Daily lesson plans and activity sheets
• Love Triangle
• Good Versus Bad
• Transfer of Power
• Reconciliation
• The Nature of Evil

Part 2: Homework
• Act 1: Sight as Motif
• Act 1: Lear’s Removal as King
• Acts 1 Review: Predictions and Foreshadow
• End of Play Review: Banishment and Exile
• Acts 1-2 Review: The Two Sisters: Evil or Just Plain Mean?
• Acts 1-2 Review: Elements of a Shakespearian Tragedy: Goneril and Regan
• Acts 1-3 Review: “Let’s Pick Teams!”
• Acts 1-3 Review: “Let’s go to the Evil-O-Meter!”
• Acts 1-3 Review: A Tale of Two Soliloquies
• Acts 1-3 Review: Youth Versus Age
• Acts 1-3 Review: Generational Gaps in Profile
• Act 4: Suffering Leads to Awareness
• Act 4: Three Daughters and a Father
• Act 4: Two Lears: A Comparison
• Act 4: The Dynamic Development of Two Fathers
• Acts 4-5 Review: Create Two Teams
• End of Play Review: Parallel Stories: Lear and Gloucester
• End of Play Review: Thematic Issues: Blindness
• End of Play Review: Characters’ Personal Transformation
• End of Play Review: Thematic Issues: Atonement
• End of Play Review: Looking For Justice in Tragedy
• End of Play Review: “It’s all in Good Jest!”
• End of Play Review: Underlying Dynamic Change
• End of Play Review: Thematic Issues: Blindness Versus Insight
• End of Play Review: Kent’s Personality Traits
• End of Play Review: King Lear’s Transformation
• End of Play Review: Albany’s Dynamic Development
• End of Play Review: Edmund’s Rise: How did he do it?
• End of Play Review: Edmund’s Dynamic Transformation
• Letter Writing Exercise: Edgar to Gloucester
• Letter Writing Exercise: Eulogy For Edmund
• Letter Writing Exercise: Cordelia to Lear
• Letter Writing Exercise: Cordelia to Goneril and Regan
• Letter Writing Exercise: Edgar to Edmund
• Letter Writing Exercise: Goneril to Edmund
• Letter Writing Exercise: The Fool to the King
• Letter Writing Exercise: An Open Letter for Kent
• Letter Writing Exercise: Edgar to Edmund
• End of Play Review: Aristotle’s Blueprint of a play’s Anatomy

Part 3: Transitional Words and Phrases
• Over 100 words and phrases designed to enhance student writing
• Appropriate for all grade levels
• Appropriate for all levels of writing ability

Part 4: Fill-in-the-Blank Review
• Plot summary review sheets for each act
• Each review sheet follows the play’s plot in detail
• All five acts are included
• Word banks are included for each fill-in-the-blank activity
• Teacher answer key included for each act

Part 5: Individual Act Quizzes, quizzes total: 1 per act
• Each quiz contains between eight and ten questions
• Questions are designed to elicit short, thoughtful writing responses
• Students are required to use text-based evidence for all answers
• Students may/may not use their notes or annotated text (teacher’s discretion; based on the depth of detail required by the teacher)

• Wide range of answers are acceptable

Part 6: Unit Tests and Essay
• Two assessments:
• (1) 50 questions total: Matching, True/False, Identify the Speaker, Identify the Order, Multiple Choice
• (1) 50 multiple choice questions
• Designed to follow the play’s plot in sequential order
• Two separate answer keys
• Several possible essay questions

Part 7: Daily Quiz Questions
• 3-7 questions for each section
• Over 240 questions total
• Designed to elicit a one word response or brief explanation
• Intended to assess reading comprehension and retention