Evaluations

Because this was a summer course, there were no official course evaluations. However, I asked for some feedback from my students; selected comments appear below.

Selected comments

• Textbooks:
• Good and applicable. Perhaps there should have been more contemporary writings (i.e. newspapers, magazines, etc.)
• Homework:
• Thorough and helpful, but a bit daunting.
• Exams:
• Seemed fair. Were challenging but not overwhelming. Good mix of grammar, translation and comprehension.
• Class time:
• Class discussion more helpful than explanations in grammar book.
• Fair. At times, the pedagogical strategies seemed geared toward a much younger classroom, but I appreciated the tilt toward translation rather than grammar.
• Website:
• Very helpful! An excellent idea with great resources, very well maintained. Posting the overheads and answers to exercises was really useful for review. Thank you!
• Instructor:
• The instructor was excellent. She was more excited to teach this course than I thought was possible. She showed an extreme concern for making sure students understood. She was confident during lecture, easily understood. She was exceptionally available for out-of-class help. Her expectations were unusually clear.
• This instructor was amazing! Though it is difficult to teach and assess one’s colleagues (i.e. grad students), the instructor was professional, clear, and one was able to be teachable under her. She was very encouraging, always available, and her expectations were understood.
• Very encouraging and knowledgeable. However, still needs to distinguish between undergraduate approach and graduate approach. (To be fair, you adjusted to this mode as time went by.)
• Rebecca, I think you are a very conscientious, dedicated teacher.
• The instructor knows her stuff. Further, she’s well-organized and accommodating and quick to respond to questions and requests.
• Excellent. Very motivated and hard working. Always accessible. Open to suggestions on how to improve.
• Other:
• I respect the high demands in a class like this – but perhaps break down the workload to something more manageable and reasonable on a daily basis.
• For someone who has never had a single hour of French instruction in the past – I think I learned a lot this summer. Thanks for helping make that possible – and not all that painful.
• A good experience; I feel I learned a lot to prepare for reading competency.