Professor
Jemima Pierre
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2022 - DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOUR TA IS NATALINA MONTEIRO!!! I read all of the reviews and thought this class would be an easy A in the summer with relatively interesting content but I was utterly fucked over by my TA. In the async format, the grading is split into 30% discussion board posts, 35% midterm, 35% final. The midterm is a take-home exam composed of short responses and two essays based on content from Weeks 1-3. It's a lot of writing and kinda time-consuming but mostly follows the content from the lectures. The final (I didn't take it because I dropped) is a similar format of being a take-home exam with essay questions on Weeks 4-6. Every week, you have to watch lectures, films, and do readings and write two discussion board posts and two replies. There are three "lessons" each week, each with its own set of readings and/or films as well as 1-2 30-60 min lecture videos. The discussion board questions align very closely to the lecture topics and aren't too difficult. This class would have been easy and stress-free but my TA graded unnecessarily harshly, giving out 2/3s and 2.5/3s on the discussion posts because she didn't think you "proved you read the material" even if you had. The only directions for the posts were that they had to be more than 5 sentences but her expectations were upwards of 400-500 words per post with time stamps and citations, even when the directions did not specify that. The 2s and 2.5s added up and made it basically impossible for me to get an A in the course before my midterm was even graded, which is why I dropped. She didn't grade anything until the end of Week 5 out of 6 so I couldn't even drop for a refund. She also never responded to my email asking about why she took off random points for my discussion posts. The class content is actually really interesting so it's a shame I had to drop because of a shitty TA :/ I'm sure the class is an easy A and well worth your time if you get another TA though
Summer 2022 - DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOUR TA IS NATALINA MONTEIRO!!! I read all of the reviews and thought this class would be an easy A in the summer with relatively interesting content but I was utterly fucked over by my TA. In the async format, the grading is split into 30% discussion board posts, 35% midterm, 35% final. The midterm is a take-home exam composed of short responses and two essays based on content from Weeks 1-3. It's a lot of writing and kinda time-consuming but mostly follows the content from the lectures. The final (I didn't take it because I dropped) is a similar format of being a take-home exam with essay questions on Weeks 4-6. Every week, you have to watch lectures, films, and do readings and write two discussion board posts and two replies. There are three "lessons" each week, each with its own set of readings and/or films as well as 1-2 30-60 min lecture videos. The discussion board questions align very closely to the lecture topics and aren't too difficult. This class would have been easy and stress-free but my TA graded unnecessarily harshly, giving out 2/3s and 2.5/3s on the discussion posts because she didn't think you "proved you read the material" even if you had. The only directions for the posts were that they had to be more than 5 sentences but her expectations were upwards of 400-500 words per post with time stamps and citations, even when the directions did not specify that. The 2s and 2.5s added up and made it basically impossible for me to get an A in the course before my midterm was even graded, which is why I dropped. She didn't grade anything until the end of Week 5 out of 6 so I couldn't even drop for a refund. She also never responded to my email asking about why she took off random points for my discussion posts. The class content is actually really interesting so it's a shame I had to drop because of a shitty TA :/ I'm sure the class is an easy A and well worth your time if you get another TA though
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Professor Pierre is no doubt an extremely knowledgeable and helpful professor who loves what she does and has much to offer. She is kind, accepting, and accommodating in every way. The workload is fairly reasonable with weekly readings (student purchased) followed by weekly reflection papers and three exams. With that being said, the structure of this class did not work well with me. This class should be considered two separate classes with how it is broken up and structured. There is lecture and discussion that both seem to encompass two completely different concepts, ideas, and set of materials. In discussion, students are expected to read multiple books and write weekly reflections on them. These discussions, which are heavily student driven, consist of students talking about the key points and ideas of the books. Conversely, when attending lecture, often the readings are not even discussed, brought up, or relevant to the lecture itself. These lectures also consist of Professor Pierre almost entirely reading slideshows verbatim. Personally, I feel attending lecture is useless when a professor takes an hour and a half to read a slideshow that is available online that I could read in 15 minutes on my own. Furthermore, she talks extremely fast and often stumbles over her words making it sometimes difficult to follow what she is saying or where she is going with her thoughts. Again though, this is counterbalanced by a very heavy reliance on slideshows but is also bolstered by her frequent asking of student questions with further explanations if necessary. Overall, Professor Pierre is a wonderful professor who no doubt has a passion for what she does, but personally, the style of her teaching doesn't work well with me.
Winter 2021 - Professor Pierre is no doubt an extremely knowledgeable and helpful professor who loves what she does and has much to offer. She is kind, accepting, and accommodating in every way. The workload is fairly reasonable with weekly readings (student purchased) followed by weekly reflection papers and three exams. With that being said, the structure of this class did not work well with me. This class should be considered two separate classes with how it is broken up and structured. There is lecture and discussion that both seem to encompass two completely different concepts, ideas, and set of materials. In discussion, students are expected to read multiple books and write weekly reflections on them. These discussions, which are heavily student driven, consist of students talking about the key points and ideas of the books. Conversely, when attending lecture, often the readings are not even discussed, brought up, or relevant to the lecture itself. These lectures also consist of Professor Pierre almost entirely reading slideshows verbatim. Personally, I feel attending lecture is useless when a professor takes an hour and a half to read a slideshow that is available online that I could read in 15 minutes on my own. Furthermore, she talks extremely fast and often stumbles over her words making it sometimes difficult to follow what she is saying or where she is going with her thoughts. Again though, this is counterbalanced by a very heavy reliance on slideshows but is also bolstered by her frequent asking of student questions with further explanations if necessary. Overall, Professor Pierre is a wonderful professor who no doubt has a passion for what she does, but personally, the style of her teaching doesn't work well with me.
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