A little progress report:

I have two parts to my personal education plan:



1. Choosing a play by the end of the semester that I want to direct. 
I wanted to have my play chosen so that I would have more time to fully flesh out my director's concept and all my ideas before I actually have to cast, rehearse, and produce this play. Being placed in the Drama group gave me the idea, along with Dr. Burton suggesting that learning is more meaningful and effective to us if we connect it with something we know or something we enjoy. I know that I am one day going to be a theatre teacher, I know that I am going to have to direct the school plays every year, I enjoy theatre and directing and I am excited by the opportunity that I have this Fall to direct a short one act... But I am also nervous. I liked the idea of being able to bounce my ideas off my Drama group, Dr. Burton, and the class.
Since deciding this is what I wanted to do, I have researched plays and compiled a list of the ones I am considering. I have eight plays on that list. I have already read one and started another. As I am reading these plays I am taking notes of pros and cons, I am writing ideas that I have as to how I would stage them, and I am writing my general feelings toward the show.
Once I have read all eight, I will decide which play and read it again, and again, and again. By the end of this class, my personal goal is to have chosen a play and to have a general concept of how I will direct it. I fully expect to either give a pitch in class or write a proposal paper on why I have chosen it.
I feel that this part of my learning plan focuses a lot on Learning Outcomes 3 and 4. I am engaging literature creatively and I am focusing on pedagogy as well.

2. Growing in my literary interpretation capabilities. 
My original self-directed learning plan focused solely on only one of the four types of literature; drama. This, however, did not fit in too well with the other things that I want to learn and am required to study. Because of this, I have focused each week on the type of literature we are studying so that I could better myself in those areas. I put off my original learning plan, saving it mostly for the week that it applies, and I did other things.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Know the Literary Terms: Coming into this class I really thought I knew most, if not all, of the ones we would use. I was WRONG! I have learned a lot of literary terms, and therefore learned a lot of new ways to analyze and interpret literature. I've also learned that there are MANY more to learn. The ones that I haven't known like I thought I would apply more to poetry than fiction, so this week I have been studying a lot of these. I'm sure I will learn even more in the coming weeks.
2. Know Literary Genres and Texts: Similar to learning outcome number one, where I lack in this is mostly in poetry. I've read the common readings, I've read a little in our textbook that we weren't assigned, trying to learn the different genres of poetry. Before this class, I would have told you there weren't any! Of course I know fiction has a lot of genres, most of which I am aware of, but I thought poetry was a genre. On my own, I've been studying these different genres, but I am still not very good at discerning them. I'll have to continue to study.
3. Write Literary Arguments: Personally, I think that I have gotten a little better at this over the last two weeks. Being able to read others and to talk about what works and what doesn't in class, I think I have a better handle on it than I did before. Still, with every blog post I write about a work of literature, I'm getting a little better at it. It also helps that people comment and ask questions. For instance, when I wrote about The Things They Carried Dr. Burton commented and asked me what I meant by something I had written. It made me stop and think about what I had meant and how it changed the story for me to feel that way. Also, when I wrote about Richard Wilbur's poem The Writer in my personal literary narrative it made me feel like I was on the right track when Leah and Jocelyn commented to say similar things that I had said. I felt like I had analyzed it correctly and found the meaning! In my first attempt at writing a literary argument in this class, Clarissa took something that I had said and and found her own meaning, and it made me understand that poem even better.
4. Engage Literature Creatively and Socially: I've been trying to make sure that my blog posts aren't strictly about literature, but have a little about me in there as well, like when I posted about my latest DIY project. I have actively commented on others' posts (more than the required 2:1 ratio) and have tried to reply when people comment on mine. I actually had a blog for one of my classes last semester, and even though it was a MEDIA class (TMA 457 Media in the Contemporary Classroom) we didn't use our blog to his extent. It was basically where we turned in papers, in blog format. I'm enjoying this means of completing classwork. I like how I have gotten to know classmates through their posts, and people have gotten to know me. I like the encouragement that is a result of commenting on others posts. There is something very intimate, yet safe, in the way we are doing this.
5. Use Emerging Tools and Pedagogy: One of the coolest posts that we had to do that fulfilled this learning outcome was the one on exploring poetry in media. It was my favorite one to write so far because it let us think outside the box that we typically place poetry in. Watching the astronaut sing David Bowie, or watching Lindsey's posts about Spoken Word, or my own on Slam Poetry, it was so cool to see what people came up with. It also made poetry seem more fun and accessible. I've used emerging social media tools like goodreads. In my posts I have tried to incorporate other media tools, such as pictures and videos. Where I am succeeding in learning outcome number five is where I am picking a play. That project  fits really well into the pedagogy part of LO5, but I still have a ways to go on it.

Over all, I feel pretty good about where I am in my self-directed learning plan. I've done a lot of work so far, but we are only half way and I still have a lot of work to go.