Advanced Placement Classroom: King Lear ─ Grades 7-12

This resource for teachers offers hands-on ideas for teaching Shakespeare's King Lear to honors, pre-AP, and AP students, students in International Baccalaureate programs, or students in other advanced English and literature courses. The book's activities and assignments can also be used to teach nongifted students. The book's contents are aligned with the standards of the Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). The author provides ideas for reading, understanding, performing, and talking about King Lear, and includes quizzes, worksheets, lesson plans, and ideas for debates and discussions. Five distinct types of writing assignments are provided: argument essays, analytical essays, analyses of complex issues, independent research projects, and original creative-interpretive projects. For each of these types of assignments, the author includes writing prompts, questions, and evaluation rubrics. An appendix offers notations on King Lear's literary devices for the first 400 lines of the play. There is also a list of books for teachers, film adaptations, and Internet resources. Lampert is affiliated with the College of William and Mary's Center for Gifted Education. He chairs the English department at Jamestown High School in Williamsburg. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)