LATE Progress Report!

This is what my evaluation with Professor Burton is going to look like.

I misread the due date, and had to get some more work hours on Wednesday, therefore, this post is late and next to useless, but I figured why not post in spite of my stupidity. At least I got to show a picture of an explosion.

1. Learning Outcomes --I have made progress on Learning Plan Outcomes one, two, and three. As suggested by Professor Burton, I handled the breadth requirement first and foremost during the past two months by reading Measure for Measure, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, and The Tempest. I have tried to go over a sonnet once a week, except last week. I decided to apply the same principles I used in analyzing the sonnets to learning about Prospero's epilogue. I decided to include the label list I have as a widget on my blog to demonstrate my specific advances in each of my goals: 

   Labels

   LP 1C (1) LP1A (2) LP1B (1) LP2A(6) LP2B (1) LP2D (2) LP3A (1)
2. Reading and Research -- On top of the four plays I signed up to read (Measure for Measure, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, and Richard III) I also read and did some critical work with sonnet 147, sonnet 116, sonnet 94, and sonnet 18. I read segments from Robert Matz's "The Scandals of Shakespeare's Sonnets"  and Kuiper, Konrad. "Shakespeare's SONNET 116."What secondary (critical) works or other resources have shaped your learning? What independent kinds of inquiry have you pursued?
3. Links and Connections -- Within the report, do you link back to blog posts that demonstrate meeting the course learning outcomes? --Yes. Do you make explicit connections to other learning and learners or to non-Shakespearean texts?--Yes
4. Personal Impact -- I interviewed my friend Seth a few weeks ago, and his vision of Shakespeare was enlightening. He believed the opinion of his current director: Shakespeare should be performed today in a manner that would provide the same effect it would have when it was written. For instance, to achieve the same reaction of a black Othello in Shakespeare's time, Seth's director produced a version of the play with a female Othello. This theme allowed us to speak of more personal terms of how we thought Shakespeare affected the audience and what it was meant to do. I learned much about myself through what I believed a Shakespeare play should be and do. For instance, my belief that the language should not be altered, but the setting could and should match the director's theme shows that I am attached to poetic words, but less attached to spectacle. Analysis seems to be the chief concern with most of my posts, and I find my mind wandering further and further toward Psychoanalytical Criticism. The minds of Shakespeare's characters fascinate and terrify me, quite similar to the way my own mind fascinates and terrifies me. This class has solved my issues with blogs and blogging. I have much more faith in social networking now. Professor Burton has helped me see how much better people are at informing me of Shakespeare and such than Google.
5. Personal Evaluation -- I have done well posting two times a week, except for last week when work and Italian had me drowning in work. I have not done a good job on blogging about my progress with actually reading the plays, and keeping track of the media I watch. I have yet to even post the interview I had with my friend Seth because of various technical difficulties with the recorder I used. I have done well at analyzing the sonnets, and I think my work with them will carry into future posts on the plays.
6. Peer Influence -- Bryon has been a great help. His comments on my blog have been useful and encouraging, and his own blog has inspired me. I particularly enjoyed how he pointed his followers to Cara's blog because his interest in her page let me see why he talks about Cara's blog so much. Thanks to Bryon, Cara has also inspired me. Her post on Shakespeare's family and a bit of his history helped me get a better visual on how he was able to become such a successful playwright. Martin's blog is another favorite of mine, but he is such a genius that I always get intimidated when attempting to comment on his mind blowing posts. His research on insane world leaders opened my eyes to how those with might too often are allowed to choose what is right.