Final Exam: A Shakespeare "salon"

My students will be gathering for a final exam event to sum up their learning of Shakespeare this term. They will be put into groups of three and will come ready to ask and answer questions related to each of the learning outcomes for the course. They will have a prompt to assist them in recalling the categories of conversation required, and this will also serve as a place where they can record insights made by the two other peers with whom they are speaking during this salon.

In the spirit of Renaissance "sprezzatura," the goal is not to take turns giving a "what I learned" speech. Rather, the goal is to work into the conversation, as naturally as possible, the learning outcomes and other required conversation items listed below.

There will be four salon sessions during the final, each with a different combination of students, and based around each of the following questions (drawn mostly from the learning outcomes):

1. What is essential for having "Shakespeare literacy"? 
   I have already listed four aspects: breadth (knowledge of a range of Shakespeare's works); depth (more thorough knowledge of a single work); performance (on both stage and screen); and legacy (history, scholarship, popular culture). Are there other aspects to Shakespeare literacy?
2. To analyze Shakespeare optimally, one must be sure to focus upon what? 
   I have already listed four approaches to critical analysis: the text (looking for themes, language use, formal devices, etc.); context (bringing in history and culture); literary theories; and "digital mediations." This does not exhaust all the ways Shakespeare can be analyzed, and any of these could be broken down further. When and how has analyzing Shakespeare been successful for you and for others?
3. How does one share Shakespeare meaningfully?
   I have already listed three ways: through formal writing; informal writing, and connecting with others both inside and outside of class. Each student should have more than one story about more than one kind of sharing Shakespeare. For this question, come prepared to illustrate a claim about varying benefits or challenges to sharing Shakespeare by referring to your own and to another classmate's experience in sharing Shakespeare. This should include experiences in obtaining various kinds of social proof.
4. What are best practices for 
1. learning and experiencing Shakespeare?
2. studying and researching Shakespeare?
3. writing and publishing about Shakespeare?
   
   For this last question, pretend that your classmates are new to the learning and writing processes that you have gone through this semester. Come prepared to teach a best practice by referring both to your own work and to that of at least one other student in the class. Do not feel as though you must simply recapitulate how this class has been structured. 

To prepare, students should come ready to make assertions or claims in answer to each prompt, and to do so in a way that would promote curiosity, engagement, or counter-arguments (much as a good thesis statement). For example, in reference to the first question above (about Shakespeare literacy), someone might open conversation claiming that "No one is literate in Shakespeare who has never read one of the Roman plays" or "One cannot be literate in Shakespeare if one has not memorized or performed some of his work." 

In their responses, students should be sure to 

• refer to works by Shakespeare that they have read, analyzed, researched, or viewed during the term.
• quote directly from more than one work by Shakespeare
• refer explicitly to work done by other students that helps to answer the discussion questions, and to people from outside of class with whom they have shared Shakespeare or gained insights for research purposes.