super boring class. i guess i took Maite Dezubiarre last quarter and she was amazing, so compared to her, she wasn't very good. she is a nice person and approachable but her teaching method is boring. she focuses too much on the specific writings of each explorer, on their grammar, the words they use, style, BORING! I would have been much more interestd in learning about the conquest and the BIG PICTURE, not the minor details. I hated writing the boring paper on how the writing of Colon, Diaz, Cortes are different. their styles, why they represented it differently. I wouldn't take her again. WOuldn't suggest her. She's a nice person, but focuses too much on trivial details intead of the big pic.

I loved Anna! She was my advising professor when I studies in Puebla, Mexico in the summer of 2004, and then I took her for 137. The literature for 137 consisted of a lot of historical texts concerning the Spanish conquest of Latin America. It's OLD Spanish, and it's dry history, so the reading could get a bit tedious at times. But she makes discussions interesting, and she really encourages the students to express themselves in class. She points out the most important passages and focuses you in on key concepts, so it helps you get something more substantial from the reading.

As a non-native speaker of Spanish, I've definitely felt lost in other lit classes and the professors have made me not want to ever speak up. Anna taught the class entirely in Spanish, but she makes it a very comfortable and encouraging environment for the non-natives (and natives alike. It's a good discussion environment in general).

I thought she was very fair in her grading. Participation is a HUGE part of your grade (I want to say it's 30% or something?), we had one little quiz just on concepts and places that we talked about every day anyway, and then a take-home midterm and final. Don't be fooled: they may be take-home, but they take up quite a bit of time, especially the final. Granted, I hadn't done a good portion of the reading during the quarter, so I had to catch up a bit in order to do the final, but I survived. The midterm was a 4 page essay; she gave us two topics. She just wants to see that YOU are thinking about and doing something with the material in class. She doesn't expect some out-of-this-world thesis or anything. The final had 3 one-page responses that were pretty straight-forward analyses of specific texts she gives you, and then there was a 700 to 1000 word essay that was a more intense analytical paper with a thesis and all that. Again, I'll say that she was very fair.

Each student also has to do a little 5 minute presentation. Super painless. She gives you some extra reading and has you present on it. My advice: KEEP IT SHORT! AND CLEAR! It really isn't a "presentation"; it's a concise summary of key points in the reading. She loves it when you're short and to the point. Many people rambled on way too long, and it gets quite boring to listen to.

I've heard from author students that she grades most of classes in the same way she did ours.

She's concerned with her students and loves interacting with them. She's an extremely caring woman. If you ever have any issues, she's very understanding and flexible. Go to office hours; she's wonderful.

I would highly recommend taking a class with Professor More. The 137 material was stuff that I probably won't really pursue further studies in, but, in retrospect, I'm glad that I got to read those historical documents. I learned a lot about the Spanish AND Latin American cultures with relation to the conquest. So it was totally worthwhile, even though it's not stuff that I would eagerly jump into another class for.