Looking Back on the Semester

Somehow this semester has managed to be both long and short. In any case, it's time to evaluate myself against the learning outcomes.

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. From learning together about the educational context and history in Love's Labor's Lost to personal learning about the nature of the relationship between Jews and Christians during Shakespeare's time, I think this one is covered.
  

• Secondary Scholarship

  Develop familiarity with key secondary scholarship about and critical perspectives of Shakespeare's works. As tempting as it was to always go straight to JSTOR, I learned to use other databases and ways of looking at Shakespeare. Some (like the academic articles) were formal, and others (like fellow bloggers) were less so.
  

• 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've got an entire blog post dedicated to my annotated bibliography for my research paper. I also incorporated scholarly research into my repurposed project (as seen in my "Rethinking Repurposing" post). These sources often proved to be more of jumping off points than the evidence for my points, which suited the project well at times.
  

• 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)
  b. Depth (more thorough knowledge of a single work)
  c. Performance (stage and screen)
  d. Legacy (history, scholarship, popular culture)

I read a range of Shakespeare's works, even if some of them didn't get put into my final work. I looked at The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Henry V, The Taming of the Shrew, All's Well that Ends Well, and Love's Labor's Lost. I focused more on The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew for my research paper and repurposing project and accomplished the depth requirement. I saw different adaptations of both of these plays, as well as seeing the live performance of Love's Labor's Lost. In the process of making the debate video with Mikhaela for The Taming of the Shrew, we looked into the history of scholarship on both sides of our issue, and even came across some newer content that was similar to ours.

• 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 did several character and theme analyses during the semester, most notably in my lead up to starting my research paper with The Merchant of Venice. I also wrote performance reviews for the live shows we saw, and some other digital versions of Shakespeare (like the claymation version of The Taming of the Shrew). The contextual analysis I enjoyed most was in The Merchant of Venice when talking about views of Judaism.

• 3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively
  a. Performance (memorization, recitation, scene on stage or video)
  b. Individual creative work (literary imitation, art, music)
  c. Collaborative creative project

The first of my attempts to creatively engage Shakespeare was when I made my Merchant of Venice fake facebook wall. I also created several videos, one a debate with Mikhaela, another as my own project (a presentation to abuse counselors using Shakespeare). I contributed to our final collaborative project.

• 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.
  b. Informal Writing. This mainly means through regular online writing
  c. Connecting. Share one’s learning and creative work with others both in and outside of class.

I engaged in formal writing for the research paper, and publicly shared my process through my tweethis and rough draft, as well as my blog. A lot of my informal writing took place in my blog.

• 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.

I consumed a lot of others' work with Shakespeare. Not only did I develop preferences for certain of my classmate's blogs, but I also was able to search for media and information outside of our classroom. During our social proof focus especially, I learned a lot of different ways to search for others' ideas. I created content that could be shared. After my research paper, I made a video presentation using Prezi (which I learned about during this semester) that I could share. I connected with students inside the class and outside with other professors and peers at BYU.

So that's just about it for the semester. I've really learned a lot in this class, and not just about Shakespeare. I've probably learned more about making my work interesting, and making it matter to more than just me and the professor paid to grade it.