Performances of Lear's Speeches

Students analyze King Lear's speech and identify his "darker purpose", and let them explore different styles for reading it aloud. They can perform the scene as well.

Students read speeches from King Lear. They examine the sppeach for meaning by paraphrasing and defining words. They read aloud with "storm" in their voices. Groups perform their speech and class discusses it in terms of inner vs. outer...

Young scholars add punctuation to a passage from King Lear and compare their version to the First Folio version.  In this Shakespeare and punctuation lesson, students discuss the difference punctuation can make on a set of words.  Young...

Students examine and create their own interpretation of a particular character from the play, King Lear. They read the speeches, write a paragraph about their character, and present a short performance of their scene.

Students explore that audiences and critics have been arguing over the end of the play for four hundred years. After reading Nahum Tate's 1689 happy ending to the play, students can better consider why Shakespeare ended the play as he did.