Here are excerpts from what students wrote in their evaluations of English
214: Introduction to Shakespeare, fall quarter 2001.
"I loved the use of film clips. It made it so much easier to understand,
and it was interesting to see how many different ways things could be
interpreted. The two projects were great. It's always nice to get a
chance to do group work and get to know some people when we have larger
classes like this. I honestly think that this was one of the best classes
that I've taken during my four years at Western."
"Film clips helped give different perspectives and interpretations
of the play. I liked the small group work; it was a good opportunity
to talk to others about the plays."
"I loved seeing the different versions of the play on screen.
It gave a picture of the play when the scene was sometimes difficult
to picture. It also added more to the understanding of the plays."
"I felt that having the class do presentations was very good.
It helped us to understand the plays much better. I liked analyzing
the film clips in class also."
"The instructor was very enthusiastic about the course material
which increases the students' enthusiasm as well. Also, we were given
the opportunity to present our own ideas about the material."
"The dramatic presentations were fun and the video clips were
effective and helpful with the text."
"The many movie examples were helpful."
"We saw a lot of examples and film clips that successfully brought
greater understanding to our text. We really dug into the material with
lots of themes, terms, and some ideas of the time, which added to the
meaning, but it never seemed like reading too much into it. I felt it
was very informative and mentally challenging. I think the projects
added a lot and the testing was very fair."
"The use of film clips to illustrate your point was great."
"The group project presenting bits of the play is great."
"I couldn't believe it but you made me never want to miss class.
I always wanted to hear what you had to say."
"I really enjoyed doing the presentations."
"Showing the film clips really increased my understanding of the
plays."
"The projects were successful in helping us to understand the
plays more."
"He was very good at showing us different viewpoints on the subject
matter."
"The use of film clips as well as our own acting enhanced our
understanding in complimentary ways."
"Prof. Geisler is an excellent teacher and kept my attention for
two hours every class period with his excellent teaching abilities."
"Film clips were excellent. Thank you for helping me to understand
Shakespeare better."
"Great film clips for better understanding."
"It was especially good to include video clips. I learned a lot
and gained insight by doing the play as group project."
"Watching the film clips was especially helpful in understanding
the text."
"I really appreciated the fact to link plays with film clips.
This brought something very interesting."
"I also liked the visual aids, i.e. the film clips."
"Visual examples helped me to understand the plays better."
"I loved having film incorporated into the class. It was a huge
help!!"
"I liked how the film clips were used in class."
"I really enjoyed the film clips. They helped make Shakespeare
more understandable."
"I liked the use of movie clips to provide examples of what you
are talking about."
"I thought the lectures were good; the use of video clips helped
to complement the lectures and discussion."
"The video just makes the text so much easier to understand."