Thursday, April 12, 2012

Semester Reflections

I remember filling out my goals at the start of the semester and now it seems unreal that the semester is over. I am now going to review how I think I met or did not meet my goals. The original blog is here: Start of the Semester Goals (Although I did just copy and paste my original blog for review here...)

Here I go...

Learning Outcomes

  • History, Context, Genres and Themes, and Ethics
    Explain the historical and literary contexts, genres and themes, and ethical dimensions of Shakespeare’s representative works. I want to delve a little more into the historical side of things. I really do like history and could definitely find some good scholarly articles that explain more of the historical context. Since I have already read a few of Shakespeare's plays and know a little bit about their themes, genres, and ethical dimensions, I think that I study and focus on the themes a little closer. I want to do at least one blog post per play on this learning outcome. 
    ***This is my reflections color*** I did do this for most of the plays that I read. I focused more on The Taming of the Shrew, but I still did looked into these categories for the other plays. (I should have made a link for this category so I could find specific examples.) 
  • Secondary Scholarship
    Develop familiarity with key secondary scholarship about and critical perspectives of Shakespeare's works. This is what I will do to find out my historical and contextual insights. I will use  blogging Shakespeare and the library resources to accomplish this.
    I spent a lot amount of time doing library research as well as online research for my research paper. Scholarship and critical perspectives of Shakespeare's work
  • Scholarly Research
    Perform scholarly research on Shakespeare’s works by identifying and evaluating appropriate research sources, incorporating these sources into a well-documented formal academic paper, and formulating arguments based on those sources. I feel like next week this one will be tackled. I did this with style. Research Paper 
  • 1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy

    Demonstrate mastery over fundamental information about Shakespeare’s works, life, and legacy
    a. Breadth (knowledge of a range of Shakespeare’s works) Reading to understand all of the plays that are assigned/chosen in this class I did this
    b. Depth (more thorough knowledge of a single work) I will choose my favorite of the plays and make drawbacks to it throughout the semester. Making sure that I can have enough knowledge to make critically engaging debates on it. I accomplished this with The Taming of the Shrew. I also really did have a debate on this. Trailer Video
    c. Performance (stage and screen) This one won't be hard, I performed Romeo and Juliet last fall and I love seeing different performances. I want to watch 2-3 productions of different plays and analyze them critically: theme, language, cultural. How well do they stay with the written script, what is taken out either for time or poor judgment. I watched several productions and analyzed them. I watched: Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, Kiss Me Kate- on video. I also watched two live performances- The Merchant of Venice and Love's Labor's Lost. 
    d. Legacy (history, scholarship, popular culture) I want to watch at least one loose interpretation of Shakespeare and analyze it. I want to see if it held true to any of Shakespeare's themes or devices despite the contemporary aspect. I also want to 'pin' everything I find on Shakespeare. I did manage to watch a loose interpretation, which helped me with my paper and then I also pinned a lot of the stuff I found on Shakespeare. 
  • 2. Analyze Shakespeare Critically

    Interpret Shakespeare’s works critically in their written form, in performance (stage or screen) and in digitally mediated transformations. This includes 
    a. Textual analysis (theme, language, formal devices)
    b. Contextual analysis (historical, contemporary, cultural)
    c. Application of literary theories 
    d. Analysis of digital mediations
    I already mentioned this in the last section, but I want to do this with 2-3 productions of Shakespeare's plays and one loose interpretation. Starting with Henry V. I definitely did this one. Kiss Me Kate was the loose interpretation. I also analyzed Henry V, The Merchant of Venice, and Love's Labors Lost.
  • 3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively

    a. Performance (memorization, recitation, scene on stage or video) I definitely will do this, but I'm not sure that anybody really wants to see me perform Shakespeare. I did this in my Modern College video. In the end I  recited some Shakespeare (someday I'll be famous--jk).
    b. Individual creative work (literary imitation, art, music) I could definitely do this one, I am a master with crayons. Well I consider my projects to have covered this, but I really wis
    c. Collaborative creative project I think we have one of these at the end of the semester... I will again say that the re-purposed paper and the teaser trailer accomplished this one.
  • 4. Share Shakespeare Meaningfully

    This includes engaging in the following:
    a. Formal Writing. Develop and communicate your ideas about Shakespeare clearly in formal and researched writing and through a format and medium that puts your ideas into public circulation. I believe this is due in Feb. and I will definitely blog about it. I already posted a link to this...somewhere...
    b. Informal Writing. This mainly means through regular online writing check, already doing this, but to set a goal I will at least do this 3 times a week. I did not meet this one completely on the terms I suggested. Sometimes I blogged more, but then as I started spending more time on the paper and projects, I blogged less than I probably should have.
    c. Connecting. Share one’s learning and creative work with others both in and outside of class. My husband will not like this one, but I will share with him anyway. I need to practice my creative performance on someone first anyway...I accomplished this in and out of class. My husband read my papers and helped me with my projects and I posted them so I could get feedback from the class too.
  • 5. Gain Digital Literacy
    Students use their study of Shakespeare as a way of understanding and developing fluency in 21st century learning skills and computer-mediated modes of communication. Those skills are grouped under the following categories.
    a. Consume - Effective and independent selecting, searching, researching, 
    b. Create - Producing content that demonstrates learning and which can be shared for others to profit from.
    c. Connect - Engage with other learners within and outside of the class to develop thinking and share more formal work.
    With the goals I have set for the other categories this one will be used as a means to accomplish them. My Modern College project that I did analyzed my method for this class. It is a very effective means to showcase what I have learned from digital media.




    Overall, I think I did really well. I learned a lot about digital literacy, Shakespeare, and myself and I was able to cohesively make project that I think shows this. This has been one of my favorite classes. I have had to stretch myself and I have proved to myself that I can do what I set my mind to do. I am very happy with the place I've come to at the end of this class.

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