Progress on Personal Learning

By Rockcohen

I am going to give a review of my blog "Decrypting Shakespeare" hereafter for the benefit of Dr. Burton in examining my progress in the course, to clarify my efforts thus far and where I am going to my readers, and to provide a self-evaluation of my tactics so that I may engage Shakespeare even more acutely.  It is a good opportunity to ensure a tight focus as I continue to decode the mysteries of the "Shakespearian"...

1. Learning Outcomes:

I think that Martin has given a concise interpretation of my efforts thus far.  While I feel that my breath of understanding Shakespeare has augmented and I have occasionally provided inter-textual analysis, my in-depth research has suffered.  Luckily, as we move into specializing our learning I will be working on my play and this will require a large amount of research, which I will document on the blog.

2. Reading and Research:

I have read Hamlet, Richard the III, Measure for Measure, Othello, and the Tempest.  I have supplemented these readings by reading several critical sources as well as associated play work to aid in discovering what makes Shakespeare’s works unique and enduring.

3. Links and Connections:

I have regularly connected my blog to those of other students in the class as seen here, here, and here.  I have interconnected my study of Shakespeare with non-Shakespearian texts as well throughout the course.

4. Personal Impact:

I have enhanced by social learning skills tenfold thus far in the course. I have learned to use the blog space better, and created a twitter account that I will use later on in the course for a specific purpose.  I have better learned how to use academic filters in identifying documents of critical analysis to review.  While the course provided a loose frame work for discovering the usefulness of these tools, I have done the work, often independently, to learn them.  This skill will help me share the knowledge I gain in meaningful ways on a broader scale.

5. Personal Evaluation:

I think I have done wonderfully at stirring up controversy and at unearthing multiple loose ends.  I have a lot of work ahead of me in going back to earlier posts and providing the more detailed analysis that I promised my readers.  Doing so will have me digging into research, providing cross analysis of texts and their source work, and completing the play that Martin and I are writing.

6. Peer Influence:

Martin = As I mentioned before, he and I are working on a play together as a synthesis of our distinct learning approaches.  We have also discussed this outside of class.  He has spent a great deal of time focusing on characters, while I have obsessed over the language, and correlative plays.

Max = He has influenced the organizational approach that I take to my blog (I Love the Labels).  His blog outline has helped me to structure my own.  In class we had a lively discussion of Othello.  I look forward to continuing that when I review that play a second time.

Johnny = In class I have had engaging conversations with Johnny on multiple occasions.  Specifically, when we finished reviewing Hamlet Johnny’s comments led me to the post regarding Cross Characterization between Hamlet and Richard the III.