Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Big Five (Learning Outcomes...)

1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy: demonstrate mastery over fundamental information about Shakespeare’s works, life, and legacy

Breadth (knowledge of a range of Shakespeare’s works)

  • In class I read (or listened to) several of Shakespeare’s works and wrote blog posts about each one. These include:
    • The Tempest (http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/on-next-episode-of-tempest-chat.html),
    • Henry V (http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/i-found-this-article-on-luminarium.html)
    • The Merchant of Venice (http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/shylock-and-self-fulfilling-prophecy.html)
    • Hamlet (http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/do-you-hear-what-i-hear.html)
    • Love’s Labour’s Lost (http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/03/loves-labours-lost-acts-2-and-3.html)
  • I also viewed productions of The Merchant of Venice and Love’s Labour’s Lost and wrote reviews about them. Here’s my blog post about The Merchant of Venice production:
    • http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/childs-play-review-of-byus-merchant-of.html
Depth (more thorough knowledge of a single work)

  • I used The Merchant of Venice as the basis of my research paper and my final project. Refer to sections 2–5 in this post, as most of my Shakespeare knowledge was gained by reading and analyzing this play.
Performance (stage and screen)
  • I also viewed a movie about the scenes in The Merchant of Venice, which I wrote about in my media sources post:
    • http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-performance-analysis.html
Legacy (history, scholarship, popular culture)
  • Again, refer to sections 2–5 in this post for more information about my studies into Shakespeare’s legacy.
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:

  • Textual analysis (theme, language, formal devices)
  • Contextual analysis (historical, contemporary, cultural)
    • the different essays I read, mostly about historical influences on the text, but also influences of gender, race, and religion: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-annotated-bibliography.html
  • Application of literary theories 
    • the different essays I read, but here we’ll use the focus on existentialism: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-annotated-bibliography.html
  • Analysis of digital mediations 
    • video about The Merchant of Venice: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-performance-analysis.html 
3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively

Performance (memorization, recitation, scene on stage or video)

Individual creative work (literary imitation, art, music)
  • I created a video that compares Mormons and their oppression today to the oppression that Jews (particularly Shylock) endured in the Merchant of Venice.
    • The link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-_98RboNAQ&feature=relmfu
    • This work is very artistic in that it tells a story using only comments from people I interviewed and quotes from Shakespeare’s plays (mainly the Merchant of Venice). I found music that I thought went perfectly with the different moods in the separate sections of my video. Basically, this is a work of art and very creative.
Collaborative creative project

  • We all created 90-second video trailers to present as a group at the final presentation. I don’t know what the link to the page is, but when I find it I will post it. It’s like a web of our ideas, all of them connecting with each other and to the ultimate source: Shakespeare!
4. Share Shakespeare Meaningfully

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.

Informal Writing. This mainly means through regular online writing

Connecting. Share one’s learning and creative work with others both in and outside of class.

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.

Consume: Effective and independent selecting, searching, researching

Create - Producing content that demonstrates learning and which can be shared for others to profit from.

  • I created four videos total, three in preparation for my final video. The last two videos I made required extensive editing (I won’t tell you how many hours they took to make). I had never had any previous video editing experiences before this, but now I’m pretty much a professional.
  • I think that my video is very real because everything that my interviewees said were their own ideas. I gave them prompts, but often they went off-topic, and when that happened I got most of my useful information. These are real people with real problems who want to share their experiences with others struggling with these problems.
  • I feel that my final video addresses very pertinent issues about Mormons, the troubles they face, and how to deal with those problems. I think that members of the LDS church as well as those outside of the church can learn a great deal from my video. I learned a lot just making the video. The people I interviewed helped me see many new perspectives on the issue, which I hope I expressed in my video!
Connect - Engage with other learners within and outside of the class to develop thinking and share more formal work.

Shakespeare on Facebook

A montage of my favorite Facebook responses to my video, tweethis, and random ideas about Shakespeare.





Comparable Media

Here are some videos that I think are comparable to what I made:

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

My Final Video. Maybe.



So this is what I've come up with for my final project. I would really like this to be my last edit of the video, but if anyone has any ideas of how I can improve it--the music, the story, the flow, the Shakespeare quotes.
Let me know what you think!