Sharing responses to first term

I've collected all the responses to the first term feedback survey, and added some comments and thoughts on what people had to say.  The whole works is available on the Web site, and you're invited to read through it and respond, anonymously, as before, to anything anybody else, including me, had to say.You may want to qualify or clarify something you said, or express agreement or disagreement with someone else. Whatever: this discussion is one I will attend to carefully.

Sharing the results of readings

You should, over the holiday, aside from relaxing and restoring yourself, have spent enough time with a play to have done the following (as outlined in Prompt #32):

 . . . read the script, written a substantial descriptive reflection (think of what you're doing as telling the rest of us what we, as people who want to know about Restoration and Eighteenth Century Drama and Theatre, need to know about that play, in case we don't ever read it), and consulted at least three authoritative resources.

We'll use the same main wiki page that we've used before for wikis on plays. I've begun listing the plays, but realized halfway through that I'd lost the list of plays we selected at the end of last term. I'll finish the list in class. (This time I've decided to use [square brackets] rather than CamelCase as a way of signalling the wiki to create a new page. I'll demonstrate how to do that -- I think it makes a more readable text.)

What we'll do, starting as soon as we're through beginning of term business, is post your reflection on your play in the appropriate wiki page. Your new page should have your name at the top, and then the title and author of the play, and then whatever you have to say about it. Your resources should be listed at the bottom, in MLA format.

Your reflection should by there before tomorrow morning;obviously, the sooner you can get it posted, the better. I'll be available during class time, in EC 108 or the lab, to help; I'll also be intermittently accessible via email (I have a class at 7:00 tonight, so won't be reading email during that time).

For next time

Obviously, the next thing to do is for everyone to read what people have to say. I suggest you begin by reading the ones below your own in the list, and read as many as you can (start at the top when you hit bottom). For each one you read, respond with whatever questions, comments or reflections you have at the very bottom of the wiki. Make your comments helpful -- vague praise or vitriolic condemnation doesn't do anybody any good; help the writer see ways to improve her reflection, because, well, guess what we're going to do next.

Make sure to sign your comments, and make clear what you've said as opposed to what others have said. Notice, when you're editing, the little icon that says "horizontal rule" when you hover your cursor on it -- it's just to the right of the coloured text and background ones -- and use that to separate your comments from those of others.

On Wednesday we'll talk about what we're seeing in our reading, and between then and next Monday we'll continue reading and begin editing the wikis in response to suggestions.

Down the road

We're going to be narrowing down our selection of plays to a smaller number for groups to read and pay some more serious attention to; be thinking about that as you read. We're also going to be looking for some important contemporary (that is, written between about 1660 and 1789) writings about theatre and drama that we'll send people out to read and report on: be watching for possible texts.  Some examples we already know about are Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy and Goldsmith's A Comparison Between Sentimental and Laughing Comedy. There are others; when you see them mentioned or referred to, make a note of it.

We're also going to be returning to the existing wikis and improving them (along with new ones we create). You can begin by editing the ones you've been involved in to make sure the names of the main creators of the wiki are identified at the top.