Week 16: Final Reflection

        Now that we’ve reached the end of the semester, it is time for a reflection on all that we have learned through the last sixteen weeks of class.

Poetry:

        Through our study of different literary and poetic terms, we were able to analyze a series of poems ranging from William Shakespeare to Robert Frost. Over these weeks, we learned about the importance of poetry and how to effectively convey our analysis through a short essay.

Prose Fiction:

        By analyzing Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” and Melville’s “Bartleby: the Scrivener,” we practiced examining short texts through the lens of different literary theories and their respective representations of literary movements.

Mythology:

        When it comes to mythology, we studied a variety of myths from multiple cultures and prepared ourselves for the potential of teaching these myths to our future students. We learned about what myths convey about society and how we can make myths interesting to analyze from the perspective of a student.

Media Literacy:

        We discussed the variety of ways that media has become so crucial to life inside and outside the classroom and the potential positives and negatives that result. We then created a lesson plan for teaching middle school and/or high schoolers about media literacy in the school environment.

World Film:

        Lastly, we watched a pair of films that highlighted the use of increasing globalization in the modern landscape. We discussed their representation of film genres and neoliberalism and how these concepts affect the overall themes of the movies. We then analyzed the movie in terms of our own experiences.

I have enjoyed learning beside you all this semester in ENGL 495ESM. I hope you all have a great summer!