Pre-Final Final Post

1. Know basic literary terms and methods for analyzing and writing about fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction: Throughout the year I have been using literary terms to analyze these four major groups of literature.  My post Fast Times At Brigham Young University went through the various points of action in the play Moby Dude, OR: The Three-Minute Whale. Drama With Sasquatch and Coming around to drama also made use of terms by evaluating different types of stages and acting that I have experienced.  
Mother Knows Best, Nephi's Psalm, and Paper or Plastic both assess various genres of non-fiction work.  The numerous subgenres of non-fiction writing function as the literary terms when analyzing this type of writing.  My final literary paper required use of many of the terms used in fictional as well as poetical evaluation.  

2. Know basic literary genres and representative texts in fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction:  In my final paper I compare Ulysses to Homer's epic poem: The Odyssey.  In fact, my final essay is all about genre categorization and what classifies something as a poem rather than a novel.  My posts:Wasting Time and Parallel Lines Touching (Pt. deux) compare Modernist fiction to Modernist poetry.
Have You Ever Noticed?, in addition to the three non-fiction posts I mentioned above, discusses representative texts in the nonfiction department.  For drama I wrote about Miller's tragic Death of a Salesman in the post The Wrong Dreams.

3. Write literary arguments: Of course the big literary argument of the term has been my final paper, but since the midterm I have written a few more.  Paper or Plastic contends that the internet is eliminating the need for libraries, magazines, etc.  Drama With Sasquatch compares the theatrical elements at a concert with other dramatic settings.  Wasting time argues the benefits of reading challenging works of literature as opposed to those that bring people together and are commonly understood.  Lions, Owls, and Acronyms Oh My! points out the positive attributes of using credible online sources.

4. Engage literature creatively and socially: My post Mother Knows Best demonstrates how I have gone out of my way to talk with others about literature.  I was able to get some great insights from my mom about the personal essay Take, Eat.  Social Media vs. Socializing discusses how I received feedback for my essay ideas outside of the classroom.  In addition to these posts I have continued to have good comments from everyone in my poetry group for the majority of my posts.

5. Use emerging communication tools and pedagogical methods: Lions, Owls, and Acronyms Oh My! discusses the benefits of doing literary research on the internet and getting help writing persuasive arguments. Paper or Plastic points out many of the benefits of using the web for reading non-fiction publications.  

In addition to acheiving these outcomes I had a goal to memorize two poems How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways and Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.  Commiting these poems to memory has helped me spark conversations about literature with friends and helped me to discuss poetry in social settings.  A full report on this is outlined in the post Mesmerizing Memorizing.