Pulling It Together: A Brief, But More Relevant, Post

Last week, I wrote about contacting other scholars, and a few days ago, I wrote about the disappointment I was facing because no one wrote back to me. But that disappointed is lifted!

I got a reply from Julia Miele Rodas, who is currently teaching a Fictions of Disability class. And even though it might not have turned out how I originally expected, I was excited to receive a reply. I emailed Dr. Rodas to see if there were any people in her class who were focusing on blindness and might want to talk to me. This is the email I got back:

Nyssa--

Thanks for writing; I'm so glad to hear of your interest. Unfortunately, my students have not yet developed focused projects, so I don't know yet if anyone will be researching blindness specifically. And, since I'm a Victorianist, I'm not sure how much guidance I could give you when it comes to Shakespeare, but perhaps I can at least point you a little further down the road.

Attached are two pieces, one by myself and the other by Georgina Kleege, that might help jump start your thinking (hoping PDF format will be accessible). You might also want to consider taking a look at the "Disabled Shakespeares" section of this issue of DSQ (open access, link below).

http://dsq-sds.org/issue/view/42

Please touch base again to share thinking or questions--always interested . . .

Best,
Julia

 So now I have more reading material and someone I can email again with my ideas. I'm glad to have at least some success.

The altruistic scholar

Kara V publicly thanked those whose
feedback kept her from a wild goose chase

I want my students to realize how energizing and interesting it is to do research and reading -- for others.

Writing an academic research paper is typically lonely, and often feels like drudgery. Wouldn't be cool if, out of the blue, someone came to you with a great source that really supports your thesis or advances your thinking? And then -- think about it -- once you'd received that help, wouldn't you feel a bit more serious about your project?

So, go ahead and give that very experience to someone else. Call it karma, call it whatever, but see how very efficient and enjoyable it is to be an altruistic scholar.

What, you don't have time? You can only budget time for yourself and your own heavy load? First, you don't realize how much a very little goes a long way, and you may not yet have faith that such other-oriented thinking results in tangible benefits to you.

But have some faith, take some chances. I find that when I take chances on people, the way that parents and many others have taken chances on me, I rarely regret such reaching out. Think I'm giving a Sunday School lesson? Think whatever you like. But all I know is that it works.

A Quick Example
Let me model to you my own process for doing this by showing you how simple it was to help someone else out.

Help through Facebook

When I first started thinking about King Lear in terms of blind studies, I started out talking with my two best sounding boards: my husband and my mother.

When I talked with my mom about blindness in King Lear and the criticism about it (see my previous post for more details), we talked for a little bit about the modern conveniences that can help the blind. And then my mom mentioned something that I should have remembered anyway.

My mom set me up with her friend in Australia, a rehabilitation therapist, to see if I could talk to people who have lived with blindness and could provide some insight. Soon after, this family friend, Genie, sent me a message:

So, after Genie set me up with her friends who could help me out, I sent a group message to them and, after introducing myself, asked the following two questions:

So, in summary, I have far more social connections than I thought I did that could add relevance to my project! I will post about the kind of answers I get from this Facebook interaction, but this social element has really made me more invested in my project. I've received email encouraging me to pursue this topic, too, so I am motivated to finish this paper. As far as research papers go, that's something new for me.

And, as I'm reaching out through people I know personally, I'm also starting to work on a research wiki. It's certainly in its beginning stages right now, but if you can think of things to add to the FAQ, I would really appreciate it.

My next post will be going back to King Lear and doing my own close reading of the scenes surrounding Gloucester's blindness. Stay tuned for that.

A (Graphic) Novel Approach to Teaching Shakespeare

I enjoyed doing the research for this paper, mainly because I settled on a topic that I didn't know much about. I would have never ended up writing a paper on graphic novels if it weren't for all of the social input that people gave me-- and how cool is that? 

Overall, I'm mostly concerned with the focus of the paper... I think I'm still trying to cover too much. If you notice, I don't get to the nitty-gritty (the thesis) until almost the end of the second page. So I'm wondering what you think about the information that's included in the first paragraphs about "purists" and bridging language with other things. Do you think this detracts from the focus of the argument, or does it give the argument more meaning? Anything else you want to say is also appreciated. (Oh, and just FYI... I think I'll end up adding one more paragraph that talks about students and problems with Shakespeare language comprehension.)

A Video, Some Progress, and the Graphic Novel

Report of feedback from initial draft:

My paper has changed in massive ways due to some of the awesome feedback that I've received from people (I've mentioned some of these changes on previous posts). Since I posted my first draft, I've already made a major change in focus--I'm planning now to focus a lot more on the graphic novel rather than trying to talk about media, AND text, AND who knows what else I would have come up with... 

I posted a link to my draft on Facebook:

Non-Traditional Methods in the Secondary Classroom: Mini-Paper

Well, as a few others have stated--this is the REALLY rough draft of my paper. Because I've received sooooo much feedback from people (that's not a complaint, it has been really amazing) I only really narrowed down my topic this afternoon, and I still have a massive amount of research that I'm wading through. That being said, I expect the final product to be a bit (okay, a lot) more focused than it currently is. You might also notice that I only have one solid body paragraph arguing specifically for my thesis (about graphic novels). That's because I haven't decided what other non-traditional genres and media I want to focus on... like I said, I've found a lot of information and I'm just working at wading through it all. If anyone has any suggestions/preferences for what non-traditional ideas I should incorporate, I'd be interested to hear your ideas. Cheers!

English Companion Ning Responses

English Companion Ning seems to be another good source to ask current teachers about teaching Shakespeare (or any other topic), if anyone is interested. I would have included this in my last post, but all of these comments got hidden in my junk mail. Go figure. :)

http://englishcompanion.ning.com/group/teachingshakespeare/forum/topics/teaching-shakespeare-in-the-21st-century?commentId=2567740%3AComment%3A665340&xg_source=msg_com_gr_forum

Social Networking and Teaching Shakespeare

I just thought I'd share some of the cool experiences I've been having while trying to incorporate more social networking into my research. I mentioned in my annotated bibliography that I posted some questions to Goodreads, English Companion Ning, and Facebook... and Facebook certainly had the quickest results. The initial question I posted and the comments I began receiving are below. Note that, as discussed in class, I opened up the discussion with a pretty broad topic, just to get a general sense of opinions and interest in the topic. I did also mention (although, perhaps I shouldn't have) that the question was for a class/grade... this was mainly for the same reason that was brought up a few times in class: I was worried about people not responding. Luckily, I had a big response... and some conversations that continued after this first post.

"Halstaff" Annotated Bibliography

Social Graph. The most obvious/available one for this is to post my tweethis on Facebook, as that will make it available to my peers and homies. It will also serve to do a little fishing for enthusiasts about the topic. I've considered opening a Twitter account for about a year, but I haven't bothered. I very well may make that step in my life so as to be able to narrow down in scope my social targets. Otherwise, I can text peers as well.

New Media. I've dabbled in goodreads and imdb for a few. I've enjoyed reading several reviews on goodreads about not only Henry IV, Part 1, but I also ended up looking into what people had to say about the preceding play, Richard II, and also Henry IV, Part 2. I recently watched the most recent film adaptation of this play which is part of a BBC series titled The Hollow Crown, which covers from Richard II to Henry V. I'm not sure if I'll be able to check out other earlier adaptations of part one of Henry IV, but I think it would serve me well. Back to goodreads for a second, I also checked for groups on Henry IV, but I was given nothing. I'm thinking the next thing I'll do is check into blog searches.

Teaching Shakespeare in the 21st Century

After some deliberation, and a helpful comment from Ian on my last post, I've decided that I am going to focus my paper on teaching Shakespeare in a junior high/high school setting. I mentioned originally that my focus applied very specifically to A Midsummer Night's Dream, but with some comments from Kasey and Catherine I've decided to expand it and focus more on the teaching aspect. I'm not sure how I'll end up tying A Midsummer Night's Dream into this, but I'm currently thinking that this play will be a vehicle to demonstrate how someone could actually use my research in the classroom. 

At this point my very short "tweethis" statement would be: The way that Shakespeare is taught in high schools needs to be adapted to better fit the 21st century. (Notice that I don't say exactly how it needs to change... but it's a work in progress, right? :) And here's my annotated bibliography sharing some of the ways that I'm hoping to gain insight into my topic/better focus my tweethis:

Researching Shakespeare Socially

"Now, I am alone" -- Hamlet 2.2.558
"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers" -- Henry V 4.3.62

Why do those researching and writing about Shakespeare do so alone? Nothing could be more social than drama: the players, the audience, the great ensemble of people that come together to make and enjoy a performance.

Something changes when Shakespeare shifts from being entertainment to being a subject of study. Of course, classrooms are social environments, often lively with discussion, recitations, amateur soliloquies, etc. But when students and scholars get down to the serious business of writing and researching and writing, they are no longer (like King Henry's embattled Englishment at Agincourt) "we few, we happy few"; no, they are more like the introspective (and often melancholic) Hamlet -- left to themselves to ruminate on meanings in unhealthy isolation.

Should Shakespeare be studied collaboratively?

We live in a new age, a time in which it is more natural to be social than to be isolated, a time when it is unnatural not to be sharing constantly through the available social media through which we update ourselves and others, connecting through the rich variety of content so literally at hand today.

Sadly, too many students (and their teachers) segregate their socially mediated selves from their academic selves. But why should they? If via Facebook or Twitter I can express interest in current events or report to a network of friends about what gets my attention, why can't I (or won't I) narrate my encounters with Shakespeare (or any school subject)?