Honors American Literature Mid-Term Course Evaluations
What was the best part of this class and why?
I enjoy the ideas I get from the class. Since all of the literature we have read is about human life and thought, it is easy to apply new ideas to my life. These ideas both torture and aid me.
I like the open discussion format. The way that on good days everything gets said entirely informally and connected to whatever the starting idea was.
I love the people in this class, and how everyone is enthusiastic about what we are learning. I have also been intrigued by the different philosophies that we are learning. These ideas have affected me personally as well as in discussions in class.
I really enjoyed the class projects, including the Scarlet Letter project. They created breaks in the everyday scedule and were very hands-on. I also liked the grammar sessions in which we learned about grammar and sentance structure. I did not learn the English language grammar very well in middle school and such, and I felt like I really got to learn about the english language and the information will be useful.
I really like the group of kids. I feel comfortable with practically everyone and really like the discussions we have.
I really liked the Scarlet Letter project because it gave me a lot of freedom and room to do what I wanted as long as I stuck to the guidelines.
I think the best part of this class so far has been the discussions where we all get really excited and there's a lot of energy. When we have discussions like this, we all feed off of each other and come up with amazing ideas. Discussions like this are so fun to have and they really leave me with a sense of accomplishment.
The best part of the class is the group dicussions when all of us are speaking and I get to hear many different ideas and opiniopns about the literature we are duscussing. I really treasure getting to hear all the other's ideas, because it helps me to understand the literature more and also to get to know my classmates better.
The best part of the class, by far, was the Scarlet Letter project. I felt that it was a great way to be original and get out of the standard 'pithy quote' trend. I tend to love all of the activities that we do which are 'different' from the standard class discussion format - even if it is just going outside to read out pithy quotes.
The best part of this class are the people in it. It's really a great group! I also think that Mr. O'Leary is doing a good job preparing us for the AP test. Doing the essays over and over is really helping. and I'm definitely improving.
The best part of this class has been the discussions we have. Whether in small or large groups, talking about the true meaning of Eden or candy bars, there is always something meaningful, some deep conclusion that keeps me thinking.
The best part of this class was when we would do something different and fun. Some examples of this include the Scarlet Letter project and the day we did trust building activities.
The best part to this class was the people in it. It seems like everyone feels free to share their throughts, and I have learned so much from what my classmates have said about the books.
The materials we have read so far have been exceptional. They have made for great class discussions and pithy quote essays, and i am looking forward to the rest of the literature in this course.
Very reasonable work load, fair grading, etc. Nice class chemistry. I enjoyed the small groups and didn't mind doing weekly surveys.
Well other than the lineups I thought that the small groups went well, especially towards the end of the quarter when we expanded the group size. The smaller groups allowed each of us to bring to light more ideas about our readings. It also raised the comfort level with the other srudents. The reason I like the lineups is because it makes us explain ourselves, but at the same time its entertaining.
working in small groups on our Scarlet Letter projects was the best part of this class because it really helped me to appreciate and understand the book.
What part of this class would you improve and how?
As alluded to above, I would do more original activities and let our creativity flow in other ways than pithy quotes and alternative assignments. I feel that it is very important to learn English not only through reading but through expression, whether it be improvisation or other art. I do realize, however, that this class is designed to prepare us for the AP test, and thus we cannot get too off topic. I would also like to mention that I can't say I'm very enamored with our new textbooks. Although some of the writing is interesting, much of it is a bit dull. It would also be good if we had a better way of discussing it.
As much as I really enjoy this class, I feel as though it is often repetitive. For example: while the pithy quotes are interesting, they can get boring because we did them everday for a couple of weeks. Discussions in general can be very interesting, but when it's all we do, we lose a lot of our enthusiasm. I feel like it would be nice to do more interactive activities or projects. I also feel as though I would like a little more instruction in some areas. I feel as though spending a little more time in class on the AP practice essays would be helpful. Not just going over why others are good, but also going over what we can do to make ours better.
At the beginning of the quarter, I found the class discussions about the summer work and Thoreau rather repeditive, but we have been varying the work more lately, so it has improved.
Discussions are sill lacking. On your part Mr. O, I think it would be beneficial to the class if you jumped in more with discussions, because we tend to lose direction quite often. I realize you are trying to let the students lead the class, but I think we need a bit more guidance.
I didn't like that at the beginning of the year we did the exact same thing everyday, and that the homework was so heavy. The worst of the homework was having to read an entire Emerson essay in one night (which would take me at least an hour) and then write a pithy quote about it (usually half an hour). It seemed unfair to have to do all this work and then not do anything different with it in class the next day.
I feel sometimes it can be monotonous. Maybe doing some different activities once in a while would break the mold, like the group building activity outside.
I think that some of the things we do are repetitive, but they don't really bother me that much. If that was to be improved it would be nice to do a different activity or like do a presentation like we did last week.
I would change the way we do class. I found that it became terribly monotonous when we were doing the same thing over and over (i.e. pithy quote, small groups, large group), and I know that most of the class did as well. I think the best way to improve that would be to do different activities, such as the presentations on the Scarlet Letter we did this week. It seemed that we got more out of these than any of the pithy quote groups, so perhaps breaking the monotony with some hands-on stuff every now and then would be nice.
I would definatly improve the everyday monotony. I just feel like we do the same thing every single day. Maybe we could throw in a game or project every once and a while (the Scarlet Letter project was great! as well as the daily line-up). See additional comments...
I would improve how we work on our homework. I feel that we spend a lot of time discussing the reading but it would be really interesting to do some more projects with it.
I would improve our discussions. They were not usually animated and felt either too structured or too loose.
I would improve the several consecutive weeks of nothing but pithy quotes. I think that in order to make Emerson's essays and the Scarlet Letter more interesting and acessable to students you need to break up the monotony. I found those weeks to be very tedious and every day I dragged my feet walking to English class.
I would provide some variety. I love the pithy quotes, but varying group size, format etc. daily, or close to. this would provide more interest to people less in love with pithy quotes.
I would try to make the class have more variety. It seems that every day we do the dame things:pithy quote discussions and grammer. It think that we spend a long time on each piece of literature and many of us feel that the material and ideas are getting old. This takes some the excitement and motivation out of the class discussions and the enthuasism for coming to class.
This is class is extremely repetitive and it is really bothering me! We have so much potential and I don't feel like we are given the opportunity to grow and express ourselves. I know that there are other activities that we can do with english besides just pithy quotes and class discussion, because I've been in classes where did them. This class is boring me. It is all very challenging literature, but doing the same things everyday is making me slightly insane. If we could change things up a bit by doing less pithy quotes and more group activities, and when I say group activities I do not mean the mere discussion of the text I mean things that we can be more creative with and have more fun with. English doesn't have to be boring, and I know that you are capable of making this an amazing class.
This is repetetive, but somethinhg different! There is a neuro pathway in my brain at least an inch deep created from discussing ptihy quotes. I know that there is the AP test in the spring and everyone must prepare, but why don't we write AP tests in class, or write a giant one together, or have Mr. O'Leary not talk for an entire block so that we are left to our own devices. Anything to mix things up.
While i do get something new out of every pithy quote discussion, i feel that a discussion everyday was a little repetitive. I thought that projects like the one we just finished were much more stimulating and easier to enjoy.
What has been the most important thing you have learned about philosophy and why?
about philosophy? I definatly learned a lot about transcendental believes and feel that is pretty important. i like transcendental ideas and it was fun to find universal truths and such.
Coming into this class I had no knowledge of the ideas from the transcendental thinkers such as Emerson and Thoreau, so everything we read has been new material. I think that many of the theories of life that Emerson and Thoreau wrote about answered many of my own life questions or at least made me feel comfortable that I was not the only one thinking about our purpose in life.
Emersonian and Transcendentalist philosophy is new to me this year, and I enjoy it very much. I have found myself applying some Transcendentalist ideas to my life. On the other hand, however, we have also been challenging some of the Transcendentalist ideals in class. This has showed me that even we as students have the power to challenge the great American thinkers and develop our own philosophies.
I enjoyed the teachings of Thoreau. For me his lessions were very pertinent to my life, and easy to apply for day to day. I love the line, 'as if you could kill time without killing eternity,' I think that is a quote I'll keep with me forever.
I guess that it is in every piece of literature we read. That is important becuase it gives me something to look for, and gives the book a messege about life it can pass on to the reader.
I have learned about trancendental views, which have been very interesting to me. I liked the ideas of non-conformity and self-reliance, and that people should try to break free from society. This has let me look at the world differently.
I have learned to not be biased by what other people write. This is helpful because it finally enables me to listen to me own beliefs and think for myself.
I realized that philosophy is not a law. When someone like Thoreau says 'Everyone must retrun to nature' (or something along those lines), I do not have to believe him. Philosophy can be anything I myself believe is true. I find inspiration from other people who have tried to figure out what I am puzzling about now. Emerson says 'To believe that what is true for you is true for all men, that is Genius'. I don't even know if i agree with that quote but I do know that Emerson pondered this idea as well.
I think the most important thing I've learned about philosophy is to be open to other people's ideas when we are discussing it. If you are shut down and not willing to listen to other people's ideas, then you won't be able to get the most out of that discussion. Sometimes people have a totally different perspective than you do and you have to be ready to take that in.
I'll assume that's supposed to say english. The best thing I've learned isn't even really about english and that is that people in the past thought differently then us. Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER drove this home for me. Hawthorne has different ideas then we conventionally have, but the puritans have really diferent thoughts ideas beliefs and so on. THis actually started as a critisism because i thought Hawthorne had exagerated his character's abilities to break from their society. The most important thing I've learned about philosophy is that two thinkers can belong to the same school of thought and be profoundly different, and ellicit entirely seperate reactions from me.
I'm really glad that we read all of Emerson's essays, because they have affected me personally. However, I am also glad that we are now starting to read literature that is not so optimistic. I like seeing both sides of the coin, and I also like debating philosophical ideas in class.
Philosophy, I have learned, is different to every single person. To group a person into a type of philosopher, like a 'trancsendentalist,' for example no longer makes sense to me. Reading through Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and others, I have come to see that, though some ideas are similar, grouping them all together makes them lose their individuality, and their meaning. Everyone has their own philosophy, famous or not, and every one should be considered and given its own attention.
The most important thing I have learned about philosophy is that people in general see things in the world that they have inside. These things can be symbols, such as natural objects in trancendentalism, how the nature and observation can show you more of who you are. Events in literature, such as in The Scarlet Letter, when Hester is alinated and separated form the other [people in her society can be looked at in different ways; that she was shut out, that she wanted to leave, that she did not have a connection to living like the other people in the puritan society or that she perferred living closer to nature, or perhaps it is a combonation. These events are often taken in different ways, depending on how she looks at if, from her perspective. Basically if is that there is never one right answer to how people should be or how they should live.
The most important thing I have learned about philosophy is that so many ideas, feelings, and metaphors are related to nature. Before reading the works of Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, I had no idea that so much could be compared to the natural world. I think that this knowledge will help me appreciate the connections trancendentalism in other writings that I read.
The most important thing I have learned is how to rely on myself and make my own decisions.
The most important thing that I've learned is to be true to your own heart and ideas. Clearly I believed this before, but this class showed me how reliant upon society I truly am. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I've learned that I have to careful that I'm doing things because I believe that they are right and not just because that's what society tells me is right.
The whole idea of Transcendentalism and the connection between nature and humanity has really struck me this past quarter. It has helped me not only to appreciate transcendental ideas in literature, but has also made me more aware of nature in my own life and i notice so much more the effect it has on me everyday.
What has been the most important thing you have learned about the process of learning in this class and why?
By looking for excellence in literature for the pithy quote assignments, i noticed so many details and was always surprised by the abundance of amazing quotes. i learned that if i look for the good in an assinment i will always find more than i expected.
'SELF RELIANCE'. I have realized that my score on the AP test will directly reflect the amount of effort I put into this class. And no fairy is going to help me out (unless you count the RANDOMIZER), so I will have to do the learning myself.
Honestly, I haven't felt like I've learned much from this class. I worked on my memorizations skills when learning rehtorical devices.
HUH? The most important thing i have learned about the process of learning is that if you go over a bok in minute detail and take out pithy quotes then you end up knowing it better.
I have learned that I learn by doing hands-on, diverse activities. When we did nothing but pithy quotes, I found that I was barely skimming the essays in order to get the nightly ordeal over with. I learned that I thrive in a less rigid enviornment, where I can have more freedom to do things in a way that works for me.
I have learned that in order to learn one must participate. I have come to realize that when I participate in discussions about the books we read in class, I understand them a lot better.
I have learned that it is very easy to be taught something, but that, for me, I have to experience it first hand in order to actually learn it. Class discussions are also very helpful in understanding ideas.
i have learned that the process of learning can somethings be slow. we discus a lot in class, and even though it can be monotonous, slow, and sometimes boring, when you actually pay attention you can really learn about the book or piece of writing.
I have learned to think on my own and not rely on other people. This is important because it will help me when i am off on my own and trying to take care of myself.
I'm learning how important it is to pick apart a book for rhetorical devices to better understand its meaning. I've previously looked for different meanings or symbols, but this is the first time I've really had to look closely for literary device. Seeing these devices lets you get used to the writer's style and what he is trying to say. It also makes it easier to use them in your own writing.
I'm not quite sure what this question is trying to get at, but I will answer it as best I can. I have learned to appreciate the amount of learning that we can experience in a pithy quote discussion, but I have also discovered that it is important to learn materials in a variety of different ways. Doing the same thing over and over again can get a bit repetitive, and alternative assignments are a welcome break.
I've learned that its important for students to take initiatives. The way your class if organized, it is important that the students dicatate the way the class if run. I've learned how to contribute more, by making more of a contribution.
The most important thing I have learned about the learning process is that there are many different ways to approach it and not everyone learns in the same way, I found it interesting that some people (okay most of us) did not like the pithy quote groups, or did not like certain books, but others loved them. This showed me that everyone is indeed different not only in the way they learn best, but also in the way that they perceive the world.
The most important thing I have learned about the process of learning is just how important the teacher is. I feel as though the teacher isn't really doing as much as he can to help us. I feel as though english is a subject that can be taken in so many directions, it's hard to know which way to go. The teacher shouldn't have a specific direction in mind, because then the students won't have the opportunity to share other new ideas. However the teacher should know what's right and wrong and be willing to share that with us. I feel as thought that is not happening. There is very little instruction in this class. We have no specific direction (which is good because it leaves the possibility for new ideas) but we have no idea what's right and wrong. Or more specifically, if we do know what's right and wrong, we don't know how to get to what's right.
The most important thing I have observed about the learning process is how individually we read or write through our own perception and then we come together with all of our theories the make a grand idea. This helps us to understand what we are doing, it makes us listens to our peers and what they have to say, and we learn to have a controlled debate on certain subjects where there are disagreements.
The most important thing that I have learned is is that however much I put into the pithy quotes or discussion, the more I get out of it and the more important it is to me. It I challenge myself to just do something and try to do it well and try to get nerw ideas about it, I find that it usually happens and I enjoy the class much more.
The most important thing that I've learned about the process of learning is that you get out of it what you put in. If you work hard on the pithy essays then you will understand the meaning of the book. Unfortunately, it seems that Mr.O thinks that this is the only way to learn. We do only one thing ever and that is read at home and then discuss in school. There are other ways to understand the text besides group discussions. The repetition of this class is leading me to believe that Mr.O is not a very creative individual. That upsets me because I think that we could learn so much better if would could explore the works in more original ways.
Describe a work or works in this class of which you are proud.
I am proud of my alternate drawing pithy quotes. I am now so much proud of the drawings themselves as the thought process in these particualr ptiyh quotes. When I draw I think a lot, so the quote I droaw about is thoroughly analyzed. I have had my best revelations rise from my scribbling. I am proud of the ideas I had from those drawings.
I am proud of my DLP's that I have done in class up to this point. It makes me feel good when I consistently do well on the DLP because I know how much time and work I put into the assignments throughout the week.
I am proud of my Scarlet Letter project. We spent a lot of time on it and I was pleased with the end result. I thought it was not only fun but a chance to breathe a little bit.
i am proud of one of my alternative pithy quotes. i decided to draw a picture and ended up spending a ton of time on it, figuring out what every little detail represented. the picture didn't turn out very good, but i was proud of my resoning and connections.
I am proud of some of my conclusions from my pithy quote essays. Not anywhere near all of them, but a few were sort of ground breaking realizations for me. I am proud of our work as a class on the Scarlet Letter projects. Everyone put his or her best effort into the work, and the results were great.
I am proud of some of my pithy quotes and how much easier it has gotten for me to write them since the beginning of the school year. The ones that I really got into and wrote way more than the 180 words, just because I got fasinated with my train of thoughts are the ones that I am proudest of.
I am proud of the group project that we just finished about the scarlet letter. Our group worked hard to present our information in a new and interesting way, and I believe that we succeeded. I hope that this project proved to Mr.O that we are capable of learning and expressing ourselves in different ways and that we are able to do well with more open assignments.
I am proud of the The Scarlet Letter project that my group did. I think that we did a thorough analysiss of the book, and came out with a good final product. It alsi helped me understand a lot about how the book relates to today.
I am very proud of my AP prompts because i have put a lot of effort into them and feel that i have done well.
I am very proud of my group's Scarlet Letter project. We worked long and hard on it, and it seemed like the class, as well as Mr. O., enjoyed it very much. It was great to be able to bring our own creativity to the book and show our original view of what was going on.
I am very proud of my literary essay that I did over the summer. I felt that I explained what I thought in the best and most concise way. I also really liked my ideas, and liked what I was writing, and received a good grade too.
I felt that the Scarlet Letter project was one of my best works in this class. I was really proud of my entire group's artwork and proud of the amount of time and energy that i put into the art and most importantly the literary analysis.
I was proud of my Scarlet Letter Project. I thought my group provided an excellent presentation.
I was very proud of my summer essay, i am also proud of the pithy quote i wrote about beauty, I think I did the best job of actually expressing what i felt.
I'm proud of my Scarlet Letter project.
I'm really proud of some of my pithy quotes. I work really hard to find a quote that I can relate to myself, and sometimes surprise myself by making a connection to another work. Sometimes, if I feel I've written a good pithy quote assigment, I'll feel very accomplished.
Unfortunately, there aren't any works in this class that stand out to me. Their are only satasfactory, no matter how much time I put into them. The summer work is the piece I'm most proud of I suppose.
Describe work in this class in which you have challenged yourself to attain quality.
AP prompts are heinous. I need at least 45 mins. of procrastination before I write anything about the prompt. I believe I challenge myself every time I write one of these buggers and especially since I am trying to get faster at the analyzing/thinking part of the prompts.
I challenged myself to do better with my AP Comp Essays. They aren't particulary easy for me, but I feel like I tried and suceeded in doing better with them, and perhaps attaning a higher level of quality.
I had a really hard time starting the literary essay for the summer work. I had no idea what to say or where to begin, and I felt all this pressure not only for a good grade, but from myself, because I really wanted to do well. After a very rough beginning, I was able to really pull through and turn something that I was dreading into something I actually enjoyed writing.
I have challeneged myself to work harder on my pithy quotes, and to really understand what i read at night, instead of just reading because i have to.
I have challenged myself on the pithy quotes and the AP literary essays. It is hard for me to quickly write the AP essays, but I try to put as much into them as I can. The pithy quote essays, I tried to challenge myself to think about them, and to find as many pithy quotes as I could before narrowing them down to the ones I could think and relate to the most.
I have really challenged myself on my DLPs, and I think that my efforts have, so far, been sucessful. I try to keep my time down to 40 minutes for each one, and handwrite all of them so as to accurately simulate the AP test. I think I've been doing surprisingly well on them, and I am continually challenging myself to attain quality with them.
i really challenged myself when it came to the AP essays. I didn't get a good grade on the first one and i though i had spend a good amount of time on it. obviously, the work was the quality that was asked for so i really worked very hard on rest. the grade improved a little, not reaching my goal, but at least it seemed like i improved.
I tried very hard to do quality work on my AP prompts. I think they are getting better because I have really started to make an effort to do the best job that I can on them.
I work hard on my AP prompts.
I worked hard on the the Scarlet Letter project, because I didn't want to let my group down. I knew that it was not just my grade that was riding on this, but also the grade of my group members. I was also inspired to try harder on this project because it was interesting. This was the first time that we were allowed to lead ourselves and make decisions for ourselves in regards to this class. In the beginning of the class Mr.O said that he wanted us to take a more leadership role, so that he would have to do very little, and that he believes that classes get the learn best, and enjoy class the most when this happens. I question if this is really how he feels. On the day when we played the 'sitting in a circle game' Mr.O gave us very little instruction and we took off with the activity. We assumed that this was the extent of Mr.O's involvement and that we were to figure out to preform this task on our own as a way to learn to work together as a team. Apparently we were wrong. It seemed that Mr.O got upset at us, and stopped our attempt at completing the task in order to give us further instruction. Even in class discussions Mr.O speaks for the majority of the time. This enables us to participate less and take a more observatory role. It does not seem that Mr.O truly wants us to be self-reliant or self-leading.
I'm working really hard to better my essays. I have always had trouble with essays and not being wordy, but I focus a lot on trying be more clear and concise.
In all the pithy quote essays, i worked hard to find a quote that i felt would be not only meaningful to myself, but to others and important to the overall reading. I connected the quotes to other works of literature and thought that my analysis was always well thought out.
In the beginning, I feel that I challenged myself greatly with the pithy quote essays. Unfortunately, that challenge sort of waned as I began counting words, finding that I only had 130, and saying I was done anyway. Something that I have continually challenged myself with is the tests and quizzes we have had. I am not really much of a discussion person, so I instead tried to succeed at the more straight forward things of the class. THough I still didn't do great on every test, I feel that I challenged myself.
Pithy quotes. I always work hard in them because i think they are a good medium to refine my own thinking about all the things that interest me.
The AP essays are definitely the most challenging for me in the class, but I make sure finish them in the allotted time. I try to take them just like I would on the AP test, that's why I am so happy when I finish.
The AP practice essays are things that I really challenge myself on. I would like to do well on them so I spend a lot of time on them. However they only recieve satasfactory grades. I would someday like to get a really good grade on one to I try my hardest on them.
The Scarlet Letter project was a challenge, because our question was difficult to fully answer. We really had to work hard and be creative to do a good job.
Please share any comments you would like to make about this class or about the instruction in this class.
I really feel I am becoming better at analyzing literature. I really enjoy the lining up before small groups. It lets me know things about my classmates that I would never have otherwise knows, and it can be very interesting. I think our group discussions are better when we are reading a book or something controversial. It can get boring when people simply read a quote and talk about it when there aren't two opposing ideas about it.
For me, this class has been very informative, if not always enthraling. Learning the rules of grammar is very helpful. I enjoy the class, although the readings for homework can sometimes be a bit monotonous. Overall, though, I think the class is going well.
Go for it.
I feel no personal relationship with Mr.O, which makes the class difficult. I feel that he is very fair, but I just do not feel involved in the class.
I have really enjoyed the class, just so everyone knows. Though there are occasional problems, I feel that we work extremely well together.
i just want to mention the Scarlet Letter objectives test. i felt like in class all we talked about was the depth of the book and the symbols in it, instead, the test was on the characters, what actually happened, as well as some conclusions we never reaches. i didn't feel some of the characters were very important because they were only mention once and quickly as well as some of the scenes. I also am uneasy about the grading rubric used. i don't really speak up in class that often because it is hard for me to put into words what my thoughts are sometimes and i feel pressure to speak in order to get a good grade. when i do end up speaking, because of this pressure, i end up fumbling upon words and saying something stupid or not what i really wanted to say. I also was upset about the summer reading project. i felt that the grade refected what you would like us students to be as writers, not the effort or quality we put into the project. when i got my grade back i was very dissapointed! i actually put a ton of time into that summer work, and it was a lot, and i felt the grade did not reflect that fairly. to put in a good note though, i really do like the line-ups because i get to know my classmates and what they like. i also liked the scarlet letter project because it really let our creativiy show and what a change in the everyday schedule.
I like this class a lot! I'll be sad when the semester is over.
I really love this class and am enjoying all the philosophy and ideas we are learning. I just feel like some of my classmates are upset with the routine schedule of how the class goes each day. I really like what we are doing, and feel that I am learning a lot from the literature we arereading.
I think that overall, all this class needs is some more diversity. We do basically the same things every day, with a few exceptions. I know that many other people have been getting frustrated with the monotony of the class as well. Please just make it a little more exciting!
I think that you as a teacher do an excellent job. I have heard complaints about your lack of words, but to tell you the truth i like it. It makes us sit up and pay attention.
I would really like to recieve more instruction in this class. I am very willing to learn but so far I haven't been given information on how to improve. It would also be nice to have a class that is not so repetitive.
It's been great!
Love it. Great class. Keep it up Mr. O.
The Scarlet Letter Objective Test was very difficult for me. I somehow got the impression that it would be related to symbolism and major themes of the book. I read the book thoroughly, but I really don't have a very good memory for small details. I was, however, confident that I knew the major themes and conflicts in the book. When I took the test, however, I was disappointed to see that it had a lot to do with the small and sometimes unimportant events that had transpired in the book - something that I was not at all prepared for. I also found that many of the questions could have multiple interpretations, and that Mr. O was not very receptive to arguments for alternative answers even though I thought I made a very good point. Also, as I have mentioned above, I feel that instruction of the class could be a bit more varied. Pithy quotes, or quotes from a book, quickly become routine, to the point at which I feel that many people are simply 'doing the assignment' and not actually getting anything out of it. On a positive note, the people in the class, and Mr. O, make up a great group. We all work very well together and are able to share our ideas with minimal conflict.
This class has well exceeded my expectations coming into it in September. After the summer project i thought I was going to be a long semster, but as we discussed the summer readings and I began to understand the details, it became more interesting. The transcendental ideas have really brought to light many of the things in life that I have questioned every day of my life.
This group of students is amazing. I wish that Mr.O would give us the chance to show him that.
Please rate the intellectual challenge of the pace of this class, with 1 being low and 9 high.
Average Rating 6.24
Please rate the intellectual challenge of the content of this class, with 1 being low and 9 high.
Average Rating
7.18
	Average Ratings
Mr. O'Leary deals fairly with students.	3.88
Mr. O'Leary has high expectations for student conduct.	4.29
Mr. O'Leary stops inappropriate student behavior.	4.06
Mr. O'Leary respects me.	4.06
Students respect Mr. O'Leary.	3.94
Mr. O'Leary is interested in me as a person.	3.18
Mr. O'Leary has high expectations for student work.	4.29
Mr. O'Leary can explain/present classwork in more than one way.	3.18
Mr. O'Leary provides activities that help students understand the coursework.	3.65
Mr. O'Leary tells us how we can use what we learn.	3.24
Mr. O'Leary knows his subject well.	4.88
Mr. O'Leary expects us to take responsibility for our own learning.	4.59
Mr. O'Leary is organized.	4.29
Mr. O'Leary gives homework related to the subject.	4.59
Mr. O'Leary makes learning interesting.	3.24
Mr. O'Leary uses different ways to assess my learning.	3.29
Mr. O'Leary evaluates my work fairly.	3.82
Mr. O'Leary is available to help me.	3.82
Mr. O'Leary enjoys teaching.	4.29
Mr. O'Leary informs me of my grade.	4.76
Mr. O'Leary designs quality activities and assignments.	3.41
Mr. O'Leary's tests and quizzes are fair.	3.76