Professor Colacurcio is the textbook example of a professor who was once an inspired teacher but is well past his prime. It's clear that he has immense knowledge of the American literature he teaches, it's just unfortunate that it doesn't always come up in class. Instead, his lectures lack structure so are hard to follow and it can be difficult to parse what is personal anecdote and what might be on the test. I would also say that he expects close reading of all the texts: he is one of the only English professors I've ever had who employs really difficult regular quizzes on the facts of the reading.

170A with Cola was a nice break from the stem classes I'm usually taking. 4 T/F quizzes with short essays, two take home papers and an ID final, well worth my time. Though I didn't like the content studied in this class all that much (maybe besides two or three of the things we read), I feel Colacurcio pointed out parts I wouldn't necessarily have noticed in the few times I did attend lecture. No, attendance isn't necessarily mandatory, but unless you're an office hours person like I am, good luck knowing/understanding anything on the quizzes and final. So attend classes, TAKE NOTES or sink because you won't understand anything otherwise, and attend office hours to learn something worthwhile. He's a great professor if you listen enough to participate/attend OH enough to understand what you need to learn.

Professor Colacurcio is definitely old school. His lectures are fantastic and thought-provoking. His quizzes are tough and long, but he only assigns three. He gives you three days to do them and drops your lowest score. He is lenient with grades and with deadlines. His final was 10 IDs, but he gave 16 passages to choose from... not tough at all if you've reviewed notes. Even though he's gruff, his class is well worth taking. It's important to keep up with reading as much as possible and take detailed notes. Altogether, I would recommend this class to a friend. I learned so much!