Help!- Amelia Rogers

            While I'm typically not a fan of “teaching to the test,” I feel like it worked out well for this class. Yes, the multiple choice was tedious but it was effective because it gave me a good idea of how prepared I was, and I saw myself improve over the year. The timed writings were also important for me to improve my writing, and they helped me break out of my former 5- paragraph essay standard style. I appreciated getting feedback on my writing and analyzing others’, but I think the small group discussions worked better than the whole class. People are more open to talking in small groups. Also, it would be good to encourage more constructive criticism because sometimes it felt like we were just tearing people’s essays up because it was anonymous. I enjoyed doing Socratic seminars but not writing the questions for them, and sometimes it seemed like we were discussing philosophical issues instead of analyzing style. I would keep them but change the focus.