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 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
• 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

• I did most of my Shakespeare analyses on The Merchant of Venice. Here are a couple of my posts that discuss my critical research on the play:
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-annotated-bibliography.html
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/people-really-do-care.html
• But I also delved a little into Hamlet, for example in this blog post:
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/i-found-this-article-on-luminarium.html
• I also found a site that has a lot of critical essays about all of Shakespeare’s plays:
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/greatness-that-is-luminarium.html

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)
• Merchant of Venice: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/shylock-and-self-fulfilling-prophecy.html
• The Tempest: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/01/all-men-idle-all.html
• 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)

• I performed in my first two pre-video videos. In the first one, I monologue about the similarities between Jews’ situation in The Merchant of Venice, and in the second one I held up a quote from Shakespeare and then commented on it as it relates to Mormons today. It was very nerve-racking for me to be in the spotlight. The links to the two videos I starred in:
• Pre-preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afO0Vmquz7M&feature=relmfu
• Prototype: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az9Om7EISto&feature=relmfu

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.

• I put my paper in rough and final form in a very public google.doc and on my blog.
• Rough draft: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/to-be-mormon-or-not-to-be-mormon.html
• Final draft: http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/03/final-paper.html

Informal Writing. This mainly means through regular online writing

• I have shared ideas and tweethis statements on Facebook a few times during the semester to see what my friends who aren’t studying Shakespeare think:
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/04/shakespeare-on-facebook.html

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

• This is a blog post about my experience sharing my ideas about Shakespeare with other people:
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/02/phase-2-social-proof.html

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

• In this blog post, I researched a few videos that were comparable to what I made. I researched other videos about persecution—not only religious, but also prejudice concerning race and sexual preference.
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/04/comparable-media.html
• I also researched a lot of general stuff about Shakespeare, in particular Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, and Othello
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html

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.

• I posted all four of my videos online for anyone who wants to watch them. Here are the YouTube links:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-_98RboNAQ (final video)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQbOlF7JuyA (trailer for final video)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az9Om7EISto (prototype for final video)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afO0Vmquz7M (a preview of the preview)
• I also posted the final video on Facebook to see what my friends thought about it. Spoiler: they loved it.
• Several members of the class viewed my video and gave me criticism, which I very much appreciated.
• And I got one comment from a person I don’t know on the post containing my trailer video 
• http://ontiverosrachel382.blogspot.com/2012/03/trailer-like-no-other.html 

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:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZI2K8roLG8
• Pastor Robert Jeffress kindly calls Mormonism a "cult": how do we respond to that?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym0jXg-hKCI
• It Gets Better at BYU: not necessarily religious persecution, but persecution nonetheless. 
• http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1016&sid=19414666
• The church has to make a statement about racism after Randy Bott's interview about blacks and the priesthood.

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!

A Trailer Like No Other

Prepare yourselves, because this trailer for my project will blow your mind. It's just a teaser, so of course all of the points I'm trying to make will have a little more substance in the final version. 

I couldn't figure out how to put links and tags and stuff into the actual YouTube video. That would have been helpful, I think, but there's not much I can do about it.

Market Study

I've decided to aim my video at the Young Men and Young Women (teenagers) in the church. With this audience, then, I've decided that it would be useful to send it (or a prototype of it) to the youth leaders in the church and see what they think of it. I also want to show it to the people I hope would actually benefit from it (aka teenagers in the church).
So I've made up a list of some people that I am going to contact about my video. I've divided them into two groups: people who I want to see the video, and people I want to help me make the video.

• People I'll send it to:
• Bobbie Jaspers:  a former Young Women leader. She is still pretty involved with the youth in my home ward, so she would know if they would like or appreciate the video.
• Shirley Powell:  former seminary and Young Women teacher. She knows everything about everything the kids back home do, plus she loves me. She'd be happy to give me some feedback!
• Whoever the current Young Women President in my ward is:  I don't know who it is right now, but I'll get my mom to tell me. Obviously she would know what the Young Women in my home ward like and if my video would be something they'd watch willingly. 
• Joy Anderson:  ward Young Women counselor AND a former stake Young Women leader. AND she's my neighbor and my mom's best friend, so she pretty much can't say no to me. She has connections both in the stake and in my ward. I would like to see if she or someone else can distribute my video around the stake and see what other youth leaders outside of my ward  think of it. Maybe they can even show it to the teenagers in their wards.
• Jim Bell:  bishop of my home ward. Nuff said. He knows everything about the ward and the kids in it. 
• My mom:  she had 6 kids. She knows a little something about what they like.
• Dr. Burton's wife:  apparently he has talked to her and she's interested in it. She's a Young Women leader, so that's helpful. We'll see what happens!
• People in the limelight:
• Me. I hope I can get in contact with her.
• Sadie Klein:  lived in Florida, and went on a fifteen-minute rant when I asked her if she ever had any experiences because she was a Mormon. She's got plenty of stories and said she didn't mind being filmed.
• Travis Moore or Thomas Sheffield:  both of these guys have higher-quality cameras, so I hope I can borrow one so that the movie doesn't look super ghetto. 
• Jeni Perez:  I posted on Facebook about my project and she offered to tell me some stories about her experiences! I'll post about her response later.
• Katherine Morris:  one of Dr. Burton's former students. Apparently she's from California and had to deal with the whole prop 8 thing. I sent her an email so I'll post when and if she responds. 
• James Blackburn:  my roommate's fiancee. He's got a ton of crazy stories, too. I don't know if the youth will be able to relate to him because he has a beard and he's obviously much older than them, but we'll see what he has to say anyway. 
• The Ontiveros family:  my family (in case you couldn't guess). I have brothers and sisters who all, like me, grew up in a town with about twelve Mormons total in the school. We've all had to listen to people asking us ridiculous questions about being Mormon. I'll talk to all of them and see what they have to say.

I don't know how many people can be involved in my video because I don't want it to be too long, but I think everyone I contact will have something to offer that will help my video go in the direction it needs to. 

Updates to come later!

Prototype Video! Topic: Answering People's Ridiculous/Crazy Questions about Our Faith

Now that I have a semi-permanent idea about what my project will be, I'll share it. I want to make a video that shows people what Mormons have to deal with when people criticize the church, and then tell them how to handle these issues using digital media. I want to direct it toward the Young Men and Young Women of the church because I know from experience that they often don't know what to do in these situations. I want to make a video that teaches them positive ways of dealing with negative situations.

I don't know if this is enough of a connection to Shakespeare, but I'm trying to work it in. The basic format of each section of my video will be as follows: (1) a quote from Shakespeare that illustrates the issue I'm discussing; (2) a personal story about a person's experience with that issue; (3) my commentary on that issue; and (4) the solution or resources (with a focus on using digital media) people can use to handle the issue. I'm thinking about including three different issues to focus on. The issue I chose for my prototype video is "the crazy questions people ask us about ourselves, our practices, and out beliefs."

Just so everyone knows, this is a VERY ROUGH idea of what my video is going to look like. I'm going to film it with a higher quality camera and get better lighting, obviously. And it won't just be me talking straight at the camera the whole time, because that would be really boring to just stare at my face for several minutes. I hope to put in other people talking about their own experiences (I have a couple people already who have offered to be on camera!). I'm also going to put in pictures and video clips and maybe just have my voice over it and put in some other cool stuff. And I definitely won't hold up the Shakespeare quotes written on the back of my old homework because that's super ghetto. I'll have transitions and animations and stuff that will make that look better. Basically, this video shows the structure and format of the video so that people will know what the content will be.