The Romeo and Juliet discussion on the forum

This has been one of the richest such discussions I've ever been involved in.  If you've not read and contributed, your last English assignment (but one) is to do so, whether you saw the production or not (and if you didn't you have my profound sympathy).

A learning reflection

It'll be no surprise that I'd like people to reflect on what changes they see in the way they approach texts as a result of engagement in this process since January 8, and how they understand those changes to have occurred.  In this case I'm particularly interested in your reflection on the English seminars and the work we've done in connection with them.

What I'd like you to do is go back over your (and others') work in the last seven weeks (one way to remind yourself where we've been would be to revisit the prompts) and think about what changes you can identify.  They might be things you're already aware of, or things you haven't thought about till you look back over the process -- but the main trick is to tie the change to a specific experience: a text, a reading, a discussion, a posting by someone else, or a series of such things.  You might find it useful to consider the following possibilities, though I don't offer this an an exhaustive list (there could well be important things I've not thought of). Feel free to ignore the list and create your own.

• Have my assumptions about poems, fiction and / or plays been modified at all by this experience?
• Has how I think about what literature is and does been affected?
• Has the range of texts I might consider literature, and the way I approach them, been affected?
• Has the level at which I'm aware of what's happening as I read a text been affected?
• Do I feel differently about public performances of texts?
• Has my stance toward theatre, and especially Shakespeare, been changed or modified?
• Has the way I write, or the things I habitually use writing for, or my attitude toward my writing, been affected?
• Has how I feel about how my writing looks, and its effects on others, been modified?

I think it would make sense to spend a couple or three hours on this, and attempt both to keep it specific -- talk in terms of examples and instances as much as you can -- and to keep it to what would be a few pages.

When you've written it, save it to your Web site as englrefl.htm . You should do it as soon as you conveniently can, but in any case by the Tuesday we're back from break.

And bring back your anthology and leave it on the shelf in G6.  If you want to keep it, feel free -- but don't throw it away.  If you're not going to keep it, return it so others can use it next year.