Customer Reviews

King Lear: Side by Side

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King Lear has never been my favorite Shakespeare play. It's long and I find it hard to overlook Lear's initial foolishness to view him as a tragic hero. Still, it's required reading in my school - at the ninth grade!!!!!

So you can imagine the trouble my college-prep ninth-graders had every year until I discovered these Side-by-Sides. Students have the original text (because I do believe it is important for them to deal with Shakespeare's poetry, his use of similes, etc.), but they also have modern English translations to refer to if they get lost.

I know that before I used the King Lear side-by-side this year, my students read only enough of the play to bluff their way through class discussion and to pass the test. But this year I really think they got into it, the intricate characters, the sense of betrayal and loss. And I credit the fact that the difficult language did not get in their way.

I think I also got to see a play I'd never really cared for before in a new light.

These Side-by-Sides are excellent teaching tools - especially if you are struggling to meet some middle ground between your need to teach challenging material and the unpreparedness (or unwillingness) of your students to try.