ENGL 140A
Chaucer: "Canterbury Tales"
Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Introductory study of Chaucer's language, versification, and historical and literary background, including analysis and discussion of his long major poem, "Canterbury Tales." P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - I am leaving this review because I always think about this class. I never liked The Canterbury Tales before this class and I don’t honestly see more value to it now, but I did enjoy reading them because of this class. Fisher is very helpful when it comes to comprehension and advanced analysis instead of focusing on the racism and sexism that is present. He doesn’t dismiss the racism and sexism, ut encourages us to work more with the language and what it does for the story and the audience, which is much more interested. There are frequent quizzes and the discussions are interactive so you want to have a fairly good handle of each assigned tale before class. His office hours are helpful. Overall a challenging class but I would take it again it I had to take something with something as difficult for me to engage with as CT.
Fall 2023 - I am leaving this review because I always think about this class. I never liked The Canterbury Tales before this class and I don’t honestly see more value to it now, but I did enjoy reading them because of this class. Fisher is very helpful when it comes to comprehension and advanced analysis instead of focusing on the racism and sexism that is present. He doesn’t dismiss the racism and sexism, ut encourages us to work more with the language and what it does for the story and the audience, which is much more interested. There are frequent quizzes and the discussions are interactive so you want to have a fairly good handle of each assigned tale before class. His office hours are helpful. Overall a challenging class but I would take it again it I had to take something with something as difficult for me to engage with as CT.
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I took 140A this past summer (09) on a recommendation that Huehls was a good teacher. While I found the material to be difficult at some time, Huehl's teaching style made it much easier to comprehend the material. He won't try to impress you, but he is fair and can be funny and works hard to make sure everyone understands the concepts. It was often hard to capture my analysis in a one-page response (we had to turn in 4 for the 6 weeks), but I liked getting to discuss nearly every author, instead of only a few in one or two large papers. The final was very comprehensive, but quite fair. He will help you review and is very approachable in office hours. I highly recommend Mitchum Huehls as a professor. One of my favorites
I took 140A this past summer (09) on a recommendation that Huehls was a good teacher. While I found the material to be difficult at some time, Huehl's teaching style made it much easier to comprehend the material. He won't try to impress you, but he is fair and can be funny and works hard to make sure everyone understands the concepts. It was often hard to capture my analysis in a one-page response (we had to turn in 4 for the 6 weeks), but I liked getting to discuss nearly every author, instead of only a few in one or two large papers. The final was very comprehensive, but quite fair. He will help you review and is very approachable in office hours. I highly recommend Mitchum Huehls as a professor. One of my favorites
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - Professor Jager is such a delight in the classroom! He's thoroughly engaged with students and passionate about what he's teaching. I firmly believe that you get the grade you deserve when it comes to his class. As in, doing the work and participating during lecture will almost always result in a good grade. Even if you're worried that you'll be overwhelmed by reading Canterbury Tales (so middle English), he helps you along the way. (Google is also free, and there are MANY sites offering modern translations to aid you on your journey.) My big recommendation is to utilize his office hours; he's a big help when you take papers/tests to him before they're due! Speaking of, he lays out the entire course at the beginning of the quarter, including providing the final exam and final paper.
Winter 2024 - Professor Jager is such a delight in the classroom! He's thoroughly engaged with students and passionate about what he's teaching. I firmly believe that you get the grade you deserve when it comes to his class. As in, doing the work and participating during lecture will almost always result in a good grade. Even if you're worried that you'll be overwhelmed by reading Canterbury Tales (so middle English), he helps you along the way. (Google is also free, and there are MANY sites offering modern translations to aid you on your journey.) My big recommendation is to utilize his office hours; he's a big help when you take papers/tests to him before they're due! Speaking of, he lays out the entire course at the beginning of the quarter, including providing the final exam and final paper.
Most Helpful Review
After reading these evaluations I was disappointed to find myself regretting taking this class with Maniquis. The first class was intriguing I suppose, but Maniquis lacked energy and listening to him required extreme labor. Lectures were slow-paced which was fine, but drawn out with tangents. He spent more time talking about what we SHOULD know rather than what we did know, or came to learn. I found his lectures unorganized, unstructured, and often not worth the amount of time I put in. For the amount of reading assigned, very little of it was gone over. What is the use of encouraging us to be on our 3rd reading of XX if there is no incentive besides being lost in its own complexity? I also found Maniquis to be a bit condescending in answering questions or responding to comments. I didn't get his method of "pushing" students to higher limits of thinking, sorry. I am sure some students will like his teaching style, though from the amount of Facebooking and iChat-complaining I observed in class, I'm not confident a lot of other students will take another class with him.
After reading these evaluations I was disappointed to find myself regretting taking this class with Maniquis. The first class was intriguing I suppose, but Maniquis lacked energy and listening to him required extreme labor. Lectures were slow-paced which was fine, but drawn out with tangents. He spent more time talking about what we SHOULD know rather than what we did know, or came to learn. I found his lectures unorganized, unstructured, and often not worth the amount of time I put in. For the amount of reading assigned, very little of it was gone over. What is the use of encouraging us to be on our 3rd reading of XX if there is no incentive besides being lost in its own complexity? I also found Maniquis to be a bit condescending in answering questions or responding to comments. I didn't get his method of "pushing" students to higher limits of thinking, sorry. I am sure some students will like his teaching style, though from the amount of Facebooking and iChat-complaining I observed in class, I'm not confident a lot of other students will take another class with him.
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