Reviewing My Progress During the Term

For my first post I made a personal learning plan which gave an outline of how I was going to accomplish the five learning outcomes of our Literature class:

1. Know basic literary terms and methods
2. Know basic literary genres and representative texts
3. Write literary arguments
4. Engage literature creatively and socially
5. Use emerging communication tools and pedagogical methods

When making my plan I identified where I was weak in my understanding and application of the learning outcomes. I decided that each week I would track my progress by logging my reading time in my posts and also by the content of those posts. After my midterm review I was told to make in improvements in the learning outcomes of Literary Terms, Writing Literary Arguments, and Creatively and Socially Engaging Literature. I also was told to not just use, but analyze new media which I have done in my more recent blog posts. I highlighted my new posts and improvements in green to show how far I have come in all five learning outcomes. I believe these posts represent the growth that I have had during this class:



1. Know basic literary terms and methods

I made a post about symbolism called The Things I Carry

In The Second Circle I talk about how important it is to define terms so that we can understand poetry. I also talk about how I spent a few hours reading about poetry in our textbook showing my efforts to understand poetic methods and terms and improve upon my weaknesses in that area which goes along with my learning plan. This post was my Personal Literary Narrative for the class.

In "Do not go Gentle" I talk about how was able to identify themes by using poetic methods.

I defined what Literature and its boundaries are in Are Motivational Books Literature?

In Patterns Followed, Patterns Compared I talked about the uses of exposition and dramatic irony.

I described the literary method of perspective in A Secretary in Bond's World

I talked about the uses of realism and fantasy in Realism vs. Fantasy

I defined and expounded upon Catharsis and the use of literature as an escape in Whatever You Imagine

I used thesis statements to seek possible paths for my paper on James Bond

In I'm Hooked I talked about the importance of literary hooks in novels.

"His Gun Spoke Twice From the Hip" defined and discussed the terms of exposition, rising action, climax, denouement, and tension.

2.Know basic literary genres and representative texts

In my posts involving Short Story, Invictus, The Inferno, Drama and Novel I was able to show my understanding of literary genre by breaking down the readings and their meanings. I also provided appropriate representative texts.

I explored the genre of Escape Literature in Exploring the Genre

In Shakespeare: Script vs Stage I talked about the difference between reading a drama and seeing one on stage.

I talked about the genre of drama in Everyman

I discussed the uses of travel blogs in Travel, Family, and The Internet.

In The Death of a Salesman I represented the literary genre of drama.

All of posts on James Bond focus on the literary genre of fiction.

In Do Not Go Gentle I represented Poetry.



3. Write Literary Arguments


In "Do not go Gentle" I make an argument about the possible meaning of the repeated chants in the poem.


With The Second Circle I made an argument for how the author's use of language set the tone for the work and the importance of understanding that knowledge so that we could gain a better grasp of it.


In "A Labour of Love" I was able to argue the importance of detailed language in fiction.


In A Secretary in Bond's World I argue for the women's perspective in Bond's world and the 1950's


In Grandpa's Generation vs Our Generation I made an argument for the model of masculinity found in the James Bond Novels, Mad Men, and our Grandparent's generation in generation in general.


I made five different thesis statements to argue my point for my Bond Paper


The Things I Carry made an argument about the importance of symbolism in literature and in our very own lives.

I made an argument for the benefits of technology in Travel, Family, and The Internet


4. Engage Literature Creatively and Socially


In my post on Invictus I loved Dr. Burton's post on delivery and rhetoric because they gave me greater insight into how I could interpret poetry based on how it is delivered.


"A Labour of Love" included comments by Dr. Burton, Jocelyn, and Briggs. All were very complimentary and they talked about the use of Imagery in fiction. I especially liked Briggs' comment on how reading literature could be a spiritual experience.


Charly's comments on my post about The Little Clay Cart helped me understand the connections the play had to other cultural spheres such as Shakespeare and Medieval Europe's social system.


I was able to discuss my paper on James Bond with my grandmother who is from the generation that I was addressing.


I was able to get feedback from friends, family, and others within my blog post post and outside it in Grandpa's Generation vs Our's


When I posted my five thesis statements I got useful feedback from Dawn, Sined, Prof. Burton, Charly, and Kimara on how to revise and shape my thesis statement.


With my early rough draft I gained some useful insights on how to make my paper sound more professional from Leah, Jocelyn, and Taylor.


In class we traded papers several times and I was able to make some great revisions after getting feedback from Briggs and Jocelyn.


Also I was able to further connect with others creatively and socially through my goodreads profile.


5. Using Emerging Communication Tools and Pedagogy


My poetry adaptation analysis showed connections between poetry and film. It used new media in the form of video.


My post on the differences between the original novel and film From Russia With Love also uses video.


In Patterns Followed, Patterns Compared I used two videos to discuss dramatic devices used in the Bond movies and I compared them with the novels.


With the Story of my Paper I posted a video that gave me some ideas for the why and how of my argument in my Bond paper.


In Soda, Headphones, and Chinese Characters I used pictures to symbolize the writing rituals that I have.


My post on Shakespeare: Script vs Stage had a video which I was able to analyze and use for my comparison between reading a play and its performance on stage.


In Grandparent's Generation vs Our's I used a video from Mad Men to illustrate the difference between my grandparent's generation and the hippie generation. Also, I used a video called the menaissance which argued for men today to go back to the values of our grandparents.


In Travel, Family, and The Internet I talked about the importance of travel blogs and facebook in staying connected in our society.


In Whatever You Imagine I used a song from the movie The Pagemaster to show how literature can influence our imaginations.


My post on Everyman compared the play with It's a Wonderful Life using the ending to discuss what is most important in life.


I used a video clip from Mad Men to compare visions of the American Dream with The Death of a Salesman