The Last Post

• We'll just go through a basic rundown of the learning expectations.
• 1. Gain Shakespeare Literacy
  
  
  Demonstrate mastery over fundamental information about Shakespeare’s works, life, and legacy

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

  b. Depth (more thorough knowledge of a single work)

  c. Performance (stage and screen)

  d. Legacy (history, scholarship, popular culture)

  
  

  Did pretty well here - read a bunch of plays, watched a bunch of film productions, went to a couple live plays. I learned a lot about Shakespeare, and specifically about the plays we read.
• 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 
  a. Textual analysis (theme, language, formal devices)
  b. Contextual analysis (historical, contemporary, cultural)
  c. Application of literary theories 
  d. Analysis of digital mediations
  
  
  I did a lot of this, especially in trying to analyze some of Shakespeare's most important speeches (in Julius Caesar and Henry V especially). I broke down most of them to the point that I could make a desperate attempt at trying to recreate them. I also analyzed other plays in the most general sense.
• 3. Engage Shakespeare Creatively
  
  
  
  
  a. Performance (memorization, recitation, scene on stage or video)

  b. Individual creative work (literary imitation, art, music)

  c. Collaborative creative project

  
  

  The soliloquy I wrote for William the Conqueror (literary imitation) was one of the most difficult things to write... ever. Not only does iambic pentameter kick my but, but Shakespeare was a genius. Trying to write something that could be passed off as him is like trying to compose a piece of music that could be passed off as Beethoven or Mozart (impossible). It was really fun to try, though.
• 4. Share Shakespeare Meaningfully
  
  
  
  
  This includes engaging in the following:

  a. 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.

  b. Informal Writing. This mainly means through regular online writing

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

  
  

  I first tried connecting with other people by using a wiki, to let the diversity of thought analyze a Shakespearean theme (existentialism) in a group setting. The wiki didn't take off too well, so later I spammed my Facebook and Twitter followings to look at what I wrote and comment on it. Later I took the piece of faux Shakespeare I wrote around to others and had them analyze it, video taping their analysis for our final project.
• 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.

  a. Consume - Effective and independent selecting, searching, researching, 

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

  c. Connect - Engage with other learners within and outside of the class to develop thinking and share more formal work.

  
  

  I don't know if digital literacy was something I was particularly lacking in, but I used the following:

  
  

  Google Docs, Prezi, YouTube, WikiSpaces, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, iMovie and Capture.ly as a part of this class. That's a pretty broad range of digital tools.