Romeo and Juliet reflection

1.Reflecting on the fact that you studied and did some online research to learn about Shakespeare and specifically the play of Romeo and Juliet before we started reading it together, what are your thoughts on that process or method of beginning this text study?
I liked that we researched Romeo and Juliet before we did the play for a few reasons. One of the reasons being that if we didn’t research it, we would have been blindly picking characters we wanted to be. Another reason I like that we researched it is because if we didn’t, we may not have understood a lot of the plot.
2. How do you think it changed your experience of Romeo and Juliet, having studied it and learned so much about it before reading it together? Give one specific example to help support your perspective.
I think it changed my experience of this play because, when we researched it, we got to look at the characters, look at the plot, and got the overall feel for the story, making it a lot easier to understand, and choose your character.
3. Would you recommend for other students in the future to go through the step of studying Shakespeare and the play elements before reading it? Explain the reasoning for your answer. Pick one – yes you’d recommend it or no you wouldn’t.
Yes I would recommend it, just because if you don’t know the basic plot and the characters then you could get very lost in the play and not know what is going on. To research before you read it really helps the understanding of the play.
4. You journaled as Romeo immediately after he killed Tybalt and lost his friend Mercutio. Explain how you felt completing that journalling, first person writing: challenging, easy enough, a breeze? Explain what about it made it this way for you?
I felt as though that it was easy enough just because we had already known Romeo throughout the story and when you journaled as him it just seemed as though you were taking parts from the story. The only difficult part was making sure it was all first person.
5. Our debates: You’ve completed many other debates before, you’d shared. How was this debate any different from the others you’ve done previously, or was it different? If it was, in what way was it different? What parts of the planning work helped prepare you for the actual exchange of the debate?
I was different in the way that we actually had to plan for and had time for an opening statement, argument, retaliation, and a closing statement. On other debates we would just talk when we could but we would have to let the person talking finish. The parts of the planning that help was actually writing down the points we were going to say then summarizing them at the debate.
6. How do you feel your performance of your debate related to your preparation of the debate?
(Ex: I prepared a lot but performed poorly; it might have been because….. )
(Ex: I didn’t prepare much, but performed really well; it might have been because….)
I think my group did really well, we prepared a lot and gave a lot of points helping our side, we also prepared retaliation points to comeback at points we thought they had, and it worked. Over all i think we did really good.
7. What new elements of developing a presentation have you learned from preparing your Comparison Project? List two specific elements you tried that were different from what you’ve done before and how you felt they worked for you in the end.
I learned not to talk in first person during a presentation. I always write in first person during powerpoints and other presentations, but there really isn’t a use and it sounds bad. There isn’t a point in me saying I will or I will be telling, when they already know it is me. I also learned to use more pictures in my presentations to give so visual aspects to it. With more pictures the audience doesn’t get as bored, but gets more into the presentation.
8. Are you becoming more comfortable with speaking projects and activities? Explain.
I have always been pretty comfortable with speaking, but with so many speaking activities and projects I think it definitely enhanced my speaking ability and confidence with speaking just a touch.