Personal Learning Update

It's strange to think that our term is almost over when it's barely even started. I wrote my original personal learning plan with the main goal in mind of reading a few books that I've also wanted to and was able to incorporate them into our class learning outcomes.

1. Know basic literary terms and methods for analyzing and writing about fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction. I wrote a post about the basic elements of plot and dove further into poetry terms with this post about an Oasis song by analyzing the lyrics as poetry.
2. Know basic literary genres and representative texts in fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction. I wrote about Greasy Lake, which is a great representation of a short story. I wrote about contemporary poetry also, which was probably one of my favorite assignments of the whole semester. And I loved this drama, which is a film that has stayed with me in many ways.
3. Write literary arguments. I wrote about how poetry appeals to different styles of learners with its visual appeal, and was happy to see that Jocelyn agreed. I also made a claim that the best kinds of literature make you squirm, which got some discussion going :)
4. Engage literature creatively and socially. I created a Goodreads profile and talked about ways to make poetry interesting visually through methods like concrete poetry and played with color and form in my personal literary narrative analysis.
5. Use emerging communication tools and pedagogical methods. I talked about YouTube as a channel for poetry that appeals to the visual side and interpretation for visual and audio learners. And dang it, I've tried to join our class group on Goodreads like 6 times and it always says "page not found." 

I've talked about updates to my reading plan with my post about The Secret Life of Bees and The House on Mango Street, which so far I've really enjoyed reading. I've really enjoyed conversations with my group and others on my posts. The first was about Neil Gaiman. I loved Danielle's comments and suggestions about Gaiman and his unique writing style. I also appreciated Lindsey's comments on my post about The Secret Life of Bees, and Jocelyn's comments on New Media and Poetry. It's great to be able to speak with people honestly about their opinions on literature.

For the next part of our class, I want to focus on finishing the books on my reading plan and making more thoughtful and honest comments on other people's posts.