Getting On Target for Lear
HOMEWORK DUE IN CLASS FRIDAY 1ST OCTOBER
Learning Objective
We are learning how to:
· Find out relevant context facts and concepts for ourselves.
· Select from the mass of info available concepts which actually help us understand better:
o how and why the playwright wrote what he did,
o how his contemporary audiences may have understood it or been interested in.
· Combine our research with our reading of the text to interpret it in a well informed way.
Success Critera
You will be successful if you can confidently say:
ü I have found and read through at least 3 different sources for contextual info.
ü I have selected at least 15 quite useful facts or concepts and written them down.
ü I have picked at least 5 out as REALLY useful to help me understand the play insightfully.
ü I can orally explain the insights which these facts or concepts give about the play.
ü I can write down my insights in a convincing, articulate, literate way.
Task
Make a poster demonstrating your research and prioritising the usefulness of your chosen facts from most to least in terms of how they illuminate your understanding of the play as Shakespeare, his actors and audiences might have understood it, plus one written paragraph applying a fact.
1. Draw a poster in the shape of an archery target or darts board with “understanding King Lear as a Renaissance drama” at the centre or bullseye.
2. Research and note down plenty of potentially relevant contextual info and facts.
3. Sort what you’ve found out in order of most to least useful for understanding the play (you can do this by putting them on scraps/post-its and moving them around on your target).
4. Stick your research snippets on your poster with the best ones closest to the bullseye and the least useful ones right at the edge of the paper.
5. Speak your ideas out loud, explaining articulately what you now think or understand about Shakespeare’s King Lear as a result of each one (“We see from the idea that… that…” or “since at the Jacobean court… Shakespeare may have intended…” “Given that King James introduced the theory that… Shakespeare’s audiences may have seen… as… “).
6. Write up ONE of your most useful research facts in a paragraph exploring/explaining the insights which it has given you as you practiced orally at number 5.
Resources
Context sections of you materials pack.
Context sections of the wiki.
Context information on the Ian Mckellen DVD.
Context sections of the Ian Mckellen version website you looked at in the summer.
Virtual tour of The Globe theatre available online (see context section of wiki).
Games section of the wiki – Let the games begin doc.
Books to borrow from Ms Wilson or the library as listed in Reading Around section of the wiki.
Mr Pillow in person.
Mr Aubin in person.
Anyone you know doing English at Uni right now…