Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Favorite Shakespeare

My favorite Shakespeare quotes from this semester come from The Tempest and Love's Labour's Lost they both show the  linguistically  comedic style of Shakespeare.

In Act II scene i, there is a stormy sea and the boat is about to wreck. Antonio and Sebastian tease and make fun to make their fear. I like this quote because it portrays the hopelessness of their situation in a comedic way. 

Antonio
"What impossible matter will he make easy next?" 

Sebastian
"I think he will carry this island home in his pocket 
and give it his son for an apple." 

In Act I scene i, the King and his men are brought Costard accompanied by a letter from Don Armado. Don Armado writes a very wordy and extravagant letter that Costard- a simple peasant- has been caught with a woman (Jaquenetta) and sent to the King for punishment. Costard performs some tricky word play to try to get out of trouble. I think it is hilarious because as someone who does not fully understand the upper Elizabethan language we identify with Costard and his simple language and understanding. 

               Costard
"In a manner and form following, sir; all those three: 
I was seen with her in the manor-house, sitting with 
her upon the form, and taken following her into the
park; which, put together, is in manner and form 
following. Now, sir, for the manner,- it is the 
manner of a man to speak to a woman: for the form,- 
in some form."  

After the letter was read--
Costard
"I do confess much of the hearing of it but little of the marking of it." 

Ferdinand
"It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment, to be taken with a wench." 

Costard
"I was taken with none, sir: I was taken with a damsel." 

Ferdinand 
"Well, it was proclaimed 'damsel.' "

Costard
"This was no damsel, neither, sir; she was a virgin." 

Ferdinand 
"It is so varied, too; for it was proclaimed 'virgin.'

Costard 
"If is were, I deny her virginity: I was taken with a maid."  

What have I done?

As the semester comes to a close I am evaluating what I have learned and done during my Shakespeare course to fulfill the requirements and learning outcomes established by my Professor. I have references several previous blog posts showing my work throughout the semester.

Gaining Shakespeare Literacy
Breadth-- To fulfill this requirement I read several plays including: Shakespeare's sonnetsThe TempestHenry V, Taming of the ShrewMerchant of VeniceHamletMacbethCoriolanus, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Love's Labour's Lost.      


Depth-- For our research paper we were required to focus on at least one play with excruciating detail. I consumed a different play each week during this process, but ended up with A Midsummer Night's Dream. You can find the details in the textual analysis blog post and in my final paper.
  
Performance-- As I continued further into the semester, I began to watch or visually consume many more of the Shakespeare plays I was reading. I do not refer to all of my viewing experiences but here are the blog posts that refer to the plays that I visually consumed: Henry V (film), 10 Things I Hate About You (a spin-off of Taming of the Shrew), Merchant of Venice (BYU play), Hamlet (film), A Midsummer Night's Dream (film), Love's Labour's Lost  (BYU play).      


Legacy-- To fulfill this requirement I really looked into Shakespeare in popular culture. I have three blog posts that really represents these findings: connecting with others and possibilities and market study. There are also several examples in my group prezi under the 'Why should we incorporate technology?' section.  

Analyze Shakespeare Critically 
Textual Analysis-- For deep textual analysis I concentrated on the use of language and themes in: The Tempest talking about the language and stylistic choices of Shakespeare, Shakespeare sonnets language in an English- Spanish comparison, and Macbeth and the witch's influence.


Contextual Analysis-- This is a very broad category that I mainly included in cultural analysis and a few in contemporary/ historical: The Tempest about Miranda and the representation of women, Henry V and the related representation of masculinity, Merchant of Venice and Shylock's place in society/ the play, BYU Merchant of Venice & Hamlet  BYU's adaptation of Merchant of Venice ties back to Hamlet (which is specifically geared for educated audiences), A Midsummer Night's Dream and relation to contemporary relationships we have to deal with in education, and Love's Labour's Lost and how BYU adapted it to a contemporary and historical time of the WWII era.


Application of Literary Theories-- Many of these conversations also fit into other categories, but I choose to talk about various literary theory topics such as:  The Tempest about Miranda and the feminism aspect,  Henry V and masculinity, Merchant of Venice and comparing those relationships to modern representations, Coriolanus and modernization through film, and Love's Labour's Lost and the modernization of the play to the WWII era,   


Analysis of Digital Mediations-- I really felt like these two posts fit this category the best: Merchant of Venice and Shylock's relationship with the audience through the film medium, and Coriolanus through digital art.

Engage Shakespeare Creatively
Collaborative Creative Project-- For my final re-purposed content I participated in an "Teaching/ Education" group with Tara Pina and Mallory Stevens. We worked and combined our material to make a collaborative trailer for our collaborative final prezi presentation.

Share Shakespeare Meaningfully 
Formal Writing-- This was fulfilled with my research paper and then as I re-purposed it with my group it became a less formal but more consumable form of the key ideas of my group's formal papers.  

Informal Writing-- This was fulfilled constantly through my blog. Blogging gave me an opportunity to informally process my ideas and essentially 'talk' things out with myself and then others could comment on my ideas.

Connecting-- Throughout the entire semester my professor really pushed for social proof-- reaching beyond the classroom for connections. I sent out several groups of e-mails and got various responses from high school teachers and professors. This really helped shape the outcome and direction of my paper because it made me aware of what is actually happening in schools rather than what I believe is happening. My most recent list for the social contacts that I have really kept throughout the semester and will contact to promote my final project are listed in my market study post. I also really connected with the people I did interviews for throughout my research process: Lisa Halverson, Dr. Dave Hunt, Brian Ellingford. For inside the classroom contacts, I shared my research paper with Tara Pina and, of course, later Mallory Stevens for our group project.

Gain Digital Literacy 
Some of the guidelines for this requirement are independent researching, producing content that can be shared with others that represents learning and connecting with people in and outside of the classroom.

I feel like I have showed a great progress and work of all of these elements through the other learning outcomes. My blog posts publish content that shows my learning in consumable pieces. The content of my blog posts show my independent learning and researching. Half of the Shakespeare plays I read this semester were independent learning (we did not read it as a class). I have also listed several times the blog posts that show my connecting with others inside and outside the classroom.

This Shakespeare class was a new and interesting experience. I think I was very successful in learning and accomplishing the outcomes/ goals my professor set up. I would give myself an A.... just saying ;) 

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Final Presentation

For my final project, I worked in a collaborative group because we had all done research and work on different aspects of Teaching Shakespeare and digital media/ technology. It was a really interesting experience trying to decide from each of our topics what to put into the final presentation. 

We ended up making a prezi presentation: Teaching Shakespeare in the New Age

It is very simple and short, so it is easy for various audiences to consume.

Group Members: Tara PinaMallory Stevens, Alicia Tovar  

Friday, April 6, 2012

Trailer for Project

Here is our collaborative trailer for technology in the classroom....


By: Mallory StevensTara Pina, and Alicia Tovar 

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Comparable Media

Throughout this creation process my group and I have looked browsed through some YouTube videos and Prezi presentations to get a good feel out for what we should do for our own. Some are good examples of things we should not do. and some are great examples of elements we want to implement in our final project.

YouTube videos:

Top Ten Tips for Using Technology

Why I Flipped My Classroom 

Prezi Presentations: 

Technology Presentation: This presentation has a good skeleton, but is incomplete 

Teaching: This presentation is very limited and must be presented for the audience to understand  

D School: This presentation is the one we found with a combination of drawing connections and embedded video that really gave us direction for our prezi

Sunday, April 1, 2012

A new way to interview

Friday afternoon, I had an interview with Mr. Brian Ellingford, an English teacher at Orem High. He uses blogging in his classroom to promote student writing.

Mr. Brian Ellingford

I made two videos during the interview, so you could hear what he does from the man himself. I think this works better than me simply quoting from notes of my interview because it validates my source instead of people just taking my word for it. In the final presentation, I may do a mix of explaining things from his interview and then posting the videos--we will decide how to fit the format best.  

Here is the video of Mr. Ellingford explaining why he uses blogging in the classroom and some of the logistics of the process.


Although Mr. Ellingford said the advantages of blogging outweigh the disadvantages, he outlines the problems blogging creates in this video. I have not edited it yet, but that will come later before I insert it in the final project.