ITALIAN 1
Elementary Italian -- Beginning
Description: Lecture, five hours. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2018 - I'm writing this on Tognozzi's profile since her name was on the study list for Italian 1, but Adele Sanna was the sole instructor for my class. I am absolutely brand new to Italian, so an A is definitely possible for anyone really. The class itself was super engaging. Participation is key (it's worth 15% of your total grade). Examinations count for about 50% of your grade, and the rest of your grade is determined by group presentations, an oral exam, and writing compositions (super easy). Sanna really was a great professor that eased the whole class into the complex world of the Italian language. In fact, I signed up for this class 2 weeks late and managed to catch up by Week 3 thanks to Sanna's help. Workload is super light (maybe like 5-10 minutes per day), and the exams are very manageable. Not much to say other than Sanna is a great professor and the class is very manageable as long as you can commit an hour a week outside of class.
Spring 2018 - I'm writing this on Tognozzi's profile since her name was on the study list for Italian 1, but Adele Sanna was the sole instructor for my class. I am absolutely brand new to Italian, so an A is definitely possible for anyone really. The class itself was super engaging. Participation is key (it's worth 15% of your total grade). Examinations count for about 50% of your grade, and the rest of your grade is determined by group presentations, an oral exam, and writing compositions (super easy). Sanna really was a great professor that eased the whole class into the complex world of the Italian language. In fact, I signed up for this class 2 weeks late and managed to catch up by Week 3 thanks to Sanna's help. Workload is super light (maybe like 5-10 minutes per day), and the exams are very manageable. Not much to say other than Sanna is a great professor and the class is very manageable as long as you can commit an hour a week outside of class.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2023 - Professoressa Truong is very sweet. This class really emphasizes student learning and is not going to be about hard grading. Do the homework assignments, which are biweekly, and make sure you do them before the class they are to prepare for even though she gives you a buffer of two days. I would say also go through the textbook, which doesn't take too long, because sometimes there will be material on the tests from the textbook that wasn't in class or on the Mindtap homework practices. I made flashcards on Notability which were really helpful! There were three quizzes (Respondus) and three writing compositions total throughout the quarter. The quizzes were not bad. She opens up practice quizzes which I strongly recommend doing multiple times, until you 100% twice in a row. Then you will be golden for the real thing. I usually got like one wrong on these. There are Oral sections on the quizzes as well, for which you will record yourself speaking. She grades the Oral parts pretty hard too, so make sure you're really using the Italian pronunciations. The compositions were also not bad. I could start and finish them in the same day. And she has a First draft and Final draft, so the overall grade is a combination, which is nice because if you apply all of her corrections then you're sure to get a 100% on the Final Draft (Stesura finale). Class attendance is MANDATORY. Even if you are sick, she lets you submit annotations to that day's lecture slides for HALF credit... so you really can't miss class even if it is excused. One time I did ask her if I could make up full points to see my brother's graduation, though, and she said I could via a one-on-one Zoom. So really you can't miss class, especially because participation is so much credit. Overall this is a great class, and definitely not one to worry about your grade in. I absolutely recommend if you are interested in learning Italian! I am not even taking it for any sort of credit as I have already completed my language requirement; just for fun! When else can you learn a language so intimately for (sort of) free??
Winter 2023 - Professoressa Truong is very sweet. This class really emphasizes student learning and is not going to be about hard grading. Do the homework assignments, which are biweekly, and make sure you do them before the class they are to prepare for even though she gives you a buffer of two days. I would say also go through the textbook, which doesn't take too long, because sometimes there will be material on the tests from the textbook that wasn't in class or on the Mindtap homework practices. I made flashcards on Notability which were really helpful! There were three quizzes (Respondus) and three writing compositions total throughout the quarter. The quizzes were not bad. She opens up practice quizzes which I strongly recommend doing multiple times, until you 100% twice in a row. Then you will be golden for the real thing. I usually got like one wrong on these. There are Oral sections on the quizzes as well, for which you will record yourself speaking. She grades the Oral parts pretty hard too, so make sure you're really using the Italian pronunciations. The compositions were also not bad. I could start and finish them in the same day. And she has a First draft and Final draft, so the overall grade is a combination, which is nice because if you apply all of her corrections then you're sure to get a 100% on the Final Draft (Stesura finale). Class attendance is MANDATORY. Even if you are sick, she lets you submit annotations to that day's lecture slides for HALF credit... so you really can't miss class even if it is excused. One time I did ask her if I could make up full points to see my brother's graduation, though, and she said I could via a one-on-one Zoom. So really you can't miss class, especially because participation is so much credit. Overall this is a great class, and definitely not one to worry about your grade in. I absolutely recommend if you are interested in learning Italian! I am not even taking it for any sort of credit as I have already completed my language requirement; just for fun! When else can you learn a language so intimately for (sort of) free??
AD
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - Professor Weisberg was awesome! I had a really tough time getting used to Italian grammar and just the language overall, but she was super clear and helpful in teaching you how to to be fluent in it! She was also extremely nice and patient. The workload is light and the homework assignments and compositions you have to write translate really well to what you're going to see on exams. I would highly recommend her for Italian 1 and any other class she might be teaching, é una buona professoressa!
Winter 2022 - Professor Weisberg was awesome! I had a really tough time getting used to Italian grammar and just the language overall, but she was super clear and helpful in teaching you how to to be fluent in it! She was also extremely nice and patient. The workload is light and the homework assignments and compositions you have to write translate really well to what you're going to see on exams. I would highly recommend her for Italian 1 and any other class she might be teaching, é una buona professoressa!
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