Progress Report on Personal Learning

1. Learning Outcomes -- The learning outcome I have accomplished the most is LO 1a, the breadth requirement: I have read a play a week, as well as writing about other plays that I have read prior to this semester.  I have also tried to fulfill LO 1d by making connections, looking into the history of the plays and their modern meanings and interpretations, as well as putting my personal spin on it by talking about German texts of the plays as well as German productions.
2. Reading and Research --I have read Hamlet,Richard II, Taming of the Shrew, King Lear and The Winter's Tale, as well as parts of Richard III and Henry VI.  There have been a few articles that I have read that have lent insight into the plays I have read, the one that I would most like to pursue further is the one I mention in this post about The Winter's Tale that draws a parallel between the play and Anne Boleyn's life and death.    I have also begun, as I mentioned before, a cursory research into the history of Shakespeare in Germany, the translations and performances and why they are so popular even when translated.  
3. Links and Connections -- The connection I make most often is to German, which is no surprise, since I have studied German for more than half of my life now.  I find it fascinating to look at English and German texts side by side and compare and see if there is any more or different meaning to the text based on the translation.  I have done this with Taming of the Shrew and King Lear,though I am working on a more detailed post about what I learned about King Lear from the German translation and its footnotes.  I have also connected my study of Shakespeare to my personal life and my interests in technical theatre by imagining how I would stage Hamlet and by watching YouTube trailers of German productions of König Lear
4. Personal Impact -- Here is where I admit to being a huge nerd, though that has probably already become apparent.  I enjoy textual analysis, I love looking at the words used and how words affect the meaning, thus I have loved comparing the original English text to a German translation to discover if there are alternate meanings or implications of a particular line or scene.  I do this all the time at Church as well, I bring my German scriptures and follow along as scriptures are read aloud in Sunday School, noticing where the German text gives additional insight.  I have written about this over on my personal blog.
5. Personal Evaluation -- I believe that I have written enough, even if I have not always written very substantially.  It has been difficult just trying to get through one play a week and write about my first thoughts while reading, that I haven't had the time to do deep analysis and write about it.  I do have quite a few posts in draft that I am working on that delve deeper, but hopefully now that the pace of reading these plays has slowed , I will have the time to reread some and do deeper analysis.  
6. Peer Influence -- I have had some good conversations, via commenting with Lindsay Brock and Sarah Bown.  I have found their posts interesting as they have written about things that have given me topics to think about.