Learning Outcomes

Gain Shakespeare Literacy:
This class has been great in advancing my knowledge of Shakespeare. I feel like we have experienced Shakespeare on so many different levels in this class be it theater, cinema, reading or even composing, these experiences, I feel, have really enhanced my understanding of not only the specific texts that we have studied but also my ability to recognize Shakespearean constructs. An example of this is Shakespeare's use of disguise as a way to add complexity to his plays. Before this class, when I'm not reading many Shakespeare plays consecutively the significance of disguise in his plays would slip through the cracks for me. For me specifically this class afforded a totally different view of Shakespeare's plays. I had taken a Shakespeare class earlier on in my collegiate endeavors and was given a pretty solid foundation in Shakespeare's works. That class had a greater focus on the life of Shakespeare as a man. This class, aside from focusing on completely different plays, showed me a view of Shakespeare that was not historically grounded and allowed me to learn and understand how to analyze and find relevant meaning for myself in today's world. Focusing on things like rhetoric and the significance of plot devices really opened up Shakespeare in a new way for me.
Analyzing Shakespeare Critically: 
The way this class was set up made it impossible not to approach Shakespeare without an analytical mind. I really enjoyed all the awesome conversations I was able to have with classmates. These conversations were really important to me because they, not only allowed me to hear other peoples view points, but also because they really let me talk and figure out my own confused ideas. Because we experienced Shakespeare in so many different mediums it was really easy to compare and contrast them. This natural analytical process was a lot of fun and made it easy to draw out the significance that Shakespeare's writing have in today's society. This was especially true when I began researching Coriolanus for my final paper. As I studied the text and watched the movie and read about different productions I was able to see how my ideas about nature vs. nurture and tragedy were really mattered and how Coriolanus is really a work a head of its time.
Engage Shakespeare Creatively:
Engaging Shakespeare creatively was not as high on the priority list as some of the other learning outcomes but I do feel that, given all the ground we covered this class did a good job and getting creative with Shakespeare.  Obviously this took place in the form of composing a Sonnet. For me, this was kinda difficult. I am by no means a poet and writing in  iambic pentameter for some reason was more difficult than I'd like to admit. However, I was happy with my final product and the experience of composing in iambic pentameter really gave me a better perspective on Shakespeare's genius.  I also think, to a certain degree, attending the children production of Henry V was a creative engagement of Shakespeare.  Being an audience member is an import part of theater and the way that production of Henry V was  the audience was very much involved in the overall artistic value of the play.
Share Shakespeare Meaningfully:
This class, more than any other, has forced me to break out of my shell.  I'm not naturally a social butterfly but with a little encouragement from Professor Burton I ended up having a few cool conversations with people I wouldn't have other wise spoke with about Shakespeare. As I a have already mentioned, the conversations in class and on learning suite were really important to me and I think they qualify this learning outcome as well. There was a great sense of community in this class and I think it was because we all were genuinely interested in what everyone else was researching because we knew that other students research would undoubtedly enhance our understanding and research.
Gain Digital Literacy:
Unfortunately I do not have a cool story about how the people I tracked down online responded to me in a positive way about my paper topic or thesis. The most I ever got was a "sounds cool" from some dude on a Good Reads Shakespeare forum. However, I don't think that is the important part about being digitally literate. The important thing is that I was attempting to cultivate research in a way that would give a whole new kind of legitimacy and depth to my paper. Many of the ways that Professor Burton showed us how to search for information and sources (twitter search, searching teacher syllabus') were a totally new to me. Though I did not have a ton of success through these avenues I feel there is a ton of value in knowing that these avenues exist and that they are legitimate.  There are tons of ways waste time using the internet this class showed me how to avoid that predicament and that there are a ton of cool people out there willing to contribute to my personal research. A big part of my digital literacy came from contributing to the class blog.  This was a completely new experience for me and I was definitely skeptical about having to do it. However now, as I type my final post, I can see that there is a lot of value in using the internet to validate your ideas. Even if it is a class blog that only a few people may ever see, putting something of the internet causes you to think a little harder about what your saying and thus forces you to understand a little better the things you are trying to talk about.