progress report on personal learning.

1. Learning Outcomes. At the beginning of the semester, I initially thought I'd go with how Shakespeare is perceived in Japan, and to study the level of influence and popularity Shakespeare has in Japanese culture. But as I got into reading the plays, I noticed that there were only a few plays that have gained popularity in Japanese culture, so I knew that plan wouldn't work for all the plays I would be reading. So, I had to sort of ditch that plan, although it is still in the back of my mind when I am reading new plays, and now I'm sort of going for a let's-get-the-most-out-of-this-play approach. I feel that with every play I've read so far, I've used different methods in understanding what's really going on in the play. I know I need to be more concise in what I'm researching, but for now, it's been very rewarding and fulfilling to research topics as they come up. As far as specific learning outcomes, I think that I'm on the road to fulfilling the breadth requirement. For the depth, I think that The Winter's Tale has been the one work that I've researched the most, mostly because it is the one work I knew absolutely nothing about when I first began reading it. I've briefly touched on the legacy of Shakespeare, but I certainly could go more into depth on that one. I think the one thing I could work more on as far as analyzing Shakespeare critically would be to do more formal textual analysis. I have yet to read in to one of the plays with a specific critique upon beginning reading, but I plan to incorporate this more thoroughly the second half of the semester.
2. Reading and Research. So far this semester I have read Hamlet, As You Like It, The First Part of Henry IV, King Lear, and The Winter's Tale. I wanted to read a lot more, but one play a week is pretty condensed as is. Some of the secondary sources I've used have been the actual sources Shakespeare used, as well as Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare, which gives more of a historical background to what was happening within the plays. Also, at the beginning of the semester, I grabbed several books from the library, which all had different approaches to Shakespeare's works and cultural themes. I was able to find a few very helpful articles online just by typing what I wanted to find out in Google. I've also talked through several of the plays with my mom, which helped to get another perspective. As I'm sure is expected, I have a lot of questions during and after reading one of Shakespeare's plays, but often times I get intimidated trying to find the answer to, sometimes, really obscure questions. That is one thing I really need to work on for the remainder of the semester.
3. Links and Connections. I need to be better at making connections with classmates' blogs. However, I do think I make connections to non-Shakespearean texts, although not very frequently. Obviously this is one thing I REALLY need to work on. 
4. Personal Impact. I've always liked Shakespeare, and I thought I had a pretty good understanding of a lot of his works, but this semester, I realized that I'm becoming a Shakespeare nerd! Although I was very insecure about the whole self-directed-learning thing, I see now that it's helped me learn more about Shakespeare than I would have if I had been told exactly what I needed to do. The self directed learning has made me search out answers I have to the text, and has made me really dig deep into what themes are that I'm reading, and to ponder on what really is happening. Because of this, I think that The Winter's Tale is one of my favorites that I've read this semester, mostly because I knew nothing going in to it, so I had to work harder at understanding it, which has made my experience with this play more enriching. I'm talking a lot more about Shakespeare with everyone now. I'm able to connect Shakespeare to conversations my family is having, and I get excited when I can share with them something meaningful I have learned from one of the plays I've been reading. It's been a great learning process, and I feel very engaged and motivated to learn more about Shakespeare.
5. Personal Evaluation. So I think I've been doing pretty okay. One of the things I think I'm doing well with is just blogging pretty consistently. I was nervous at first, but then I just sort of forced myself to do two blogs a week, so that now I feel like I WANT to blog about Shakespeare nearly every day! I don't, but I do think about Shakespeare all the time now, and try to find connections in my every-day life that I can write about. I've mentioned in the other points what I need to work on, but one of the most important things I think that I need to do now would be to really do deep research and deep readings of the plays so I can gain more knowledge about the plays in historical, cultural, religious, etc., contexts. That way, I bet I could get a lot of my won questions that creep up answered more frequently. 
6. Peer Influence. Whitney Call always does very interesting and thorough posts. I love the approach of comedy that she has chosen to take on the plays she is reading. Also, Claire Hopkin makes some very interesting points, and her blogs will often pose questions that will make me think and try to figure out the answer to. Of course, there are many others whose blogs I enjoy to read and follow, but then my list of 2-3 would turn in to a list of...many more than that!