It's been a wild first half, and here's the report:Learning Outcomes:
I feel like I have succeeded at several of my learning outcomes, and I have fallen short at some of them. I know that I have gained a great deal of Shakespeare literacy--especially considering where I started. I have read Henry V, Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, and the Tempest, and this has expanded my Shakespeare knowledge and familiarity sevenfold. I feel like I have met my goals regarding Shakespeare literacy.
I haven't done as well on my second goal, which is to analyze Shakespeare critically. I haven't dug as deeply into his writings as I had hoped, so I will focus on that for the second half of the course. I want to have his writings under a analytical microscope; I want to discover new things about these plays, why they were written how they were, what was going on in the world at the time, and how they have been received since then. I will improve at my analytical efforts.
The other two learning outcomes involve engaging Shakespeare creatively and sharing him meaningfully. I believe I have done fairly well in these ways. I have not yet done a performance of Shakespeare stuff, but that will be done soon, thanks to my classmates. I have enjoyed especially my findings on the Taming of the Shrew, connecting it to John Wayne's McLintock. I also enjoyed sharing my findings on Romeo and Juliet in this post; I learned a lot from watching the modern adaptation of the play and seeing performances done by today's filmmakers and rock musicians alike.
All of my research and learnings have been based off of the actual plays written by the Man himself, off of the introductions to the plays in The Necessary Shakespeare, off of SparkNotes.com, and off of a variety of random websites, articles relating to Shakespeare and his works. I have really enjoyed (and have tried to connect my ideas to) a couple of my fellow classmates' blogs, including Whitney, Brooke R., Max,and Claire M. I thank them for their studies and their posts, as well as several others in the class that have found great things about Shakespeare.
My study of Shakespeare has been more engaging than any other study I have done on Shakespeare in my life. It has been most interesting to search for media representations of Shakespeare's works, modern adaptations, and unique performances of his stuff. I think my pattern has been to look at modern adaptations of his plays, but I want to tweak that and turn it into a deeper, more thought-provoking study. That is one thing that I will definitely try to improve upon for the second half of this course. I did the most studying on the Taming of the Shrew, and I would like to extend that until the end of the class and dig into more interesting aspects of the play. I also believe that these practices of study and research can benefit me as I search for interesting ideas and methods for being an English teacher in the future. I want to keep things interesting for my students and I want to know how to find cool things on the internet. This class has helped me with that.
I have done a good job at looking at modern representations of Shakespeare's plays, and I have also stretched myself to connect his works to other performances and ideas. I know that I need to do more in-depth study, analyzing, researching, and posting of thought-provoking and meaningful topics. I need to post more often, but also post more meaningfully. This needs the most attention for the remainder of the course.
In addition to the names listed above, regarding positive peer influence in this class, I should thank Cara C., Sarah B., and Johnny S., for their influence on my studies this semester. Cara and Sarah both helped me get into the class at the beginning by watching Henry V with me and talking about the movie. My fellow Johnny in the class has given me good ideas in class for studying Shakespeare creatively; he has shared his findings and has led me in good directions for my own findings. Thank you all!
So I have done some good things so far, but I need to do more, more often, and more meaningfully. Let's make it happen!!
