Stephen Hamrick
Evaluations
Spring 2005
English 290
10:00-11:40 TH
Minnesota State University Moorhead Student's Evaluation of Course and Instruction
This evaluation is designed to aid the faculty member in improvement of instruction. It may also be used in university decisions affecting this instructor. Your answers will be kept anonymous and the faculty member will not have access to these forms until after grades for the course have been submitted.
A. What did you like Most about the course?
B. What did you like Least about the course?
C. Would you recommend this instructor to your friends?
D. Any additional comments regarding the course or instructor?
(a) Exceptional (b) Very good (c) Satisfactory (d) Poor (e) very poor
1. How would you rate the instructor's overall teaching performance?
2. How would you rate the instructor's knowledge of the subject matter?
3. How would you rate the instructor's respect and concern for students?
A. I love the books.
B. Size of the classroom.
C. Yes.
D. N/A
1. b, 2. a, 3. b.
A. The subject matters, hearing certain views pertaining to Lord of the Rings.
B. Only one opinion of the books was viewed. Online tests.
C. If they agreed w/his views on Lotr.
D. N/A
1. b, 2. a,3. c.
A. Reading and discussing the silmavillian.
B. The over infusion of allegorical and symbolic meaning into the Lord of the Rings. The class room.
C. Only if they have a strong will.
D. Very well-read & good at text analysis.
1. c, 2. a, 3. c.
A. The subject matter.
B. Exam times & and quizzes & being apart from the class.
C. Yes.
D. N/A
1. a, 2. b,3. a.
A. The lectures the reading.
B. N/A
C. Yes.
D. I have a lot of friends interested in this course and I lope the class is offered again soon.
1. a, 2. a, 3.a.
A. Video clips,in-class discussion, on-line exams.
B. Online-line discussions.
C. Sure.
D. N/A
1. c, 2. b, 3. a.
A. Taking tests and quizzes on DCL.
B. Sometimes too much lecture, not enough discussion.
C. Yes.
D. N/A
1. b, 2. a, 3. b.
A. The material.
B. N/A
C. Maybe not sure.
D. Nice job.
1. b, 2. a, 3. a.
A. Well, the subject matter. I love Tolkien. Hamrick taught a wonderful course. He should get a free car.
B. Well, I took the course as an upper level course and therefore had to do some addition work. I detest writing papers so it goes.
C. YES!
D. I loved the course! Thanks so much!
1. a, 2. a, 3. a.
A. The material we studied.
B. He over-analyzed “The Hobbit” a few times.
C. Only to serious English Lit students.
D. N/A
1. b, 2. c, 3. c.
A. The online discussion.
B. The (sometimes) lack of class discussion.
C. Yes-definitely.
D. N/A
1. b,2. a, 3. b.
A. I liked the subject matter.
B. I sometimes thought we may have “over-analyzed” some areas of Tolkiens books. (If one can do such a thing)
C. Yes. He has a thourough understanding of the subject matter.
D. He called us “folks” a lot…I don’t know what I think about that.
1. b, 2, a, 3. c.
A. Lectures.
B. N/A
C. Yes.
D. Excellent.
1. a, 2. a, 3. a.
A. The reading material.
B. The tests.
C. Yes.
D. N/A
1. a, 2. a, 3.a.
A. The fact that it was about the Lord of the Rings.
B. The out-of-class quizzes & tests.
C. Yes, for certain classes. Not this one.
D. Professor Hamrick makes Christian allusions/lectures on Christian values when such discussions are only peripherally applicable. Occasionally, such discussions have valid scholastic purpose, but far too often, he is simply lecturing about the Bible & his personal faith. As a non-christian student, I would encourage him to apply for work at Concordia, where he would most likely find himself at home.
1. c, 2. b, 3. b.
A. The course was very interesting-it enhanced my reading of the various texts greatly.
B. I felt that as a non-English major, I was at times at a disadvantage conceptually. I was unaccustomed to reading the material in the way the course demanded. Also, I was very intimidated by the online discussions. I felt that my contributions might not equal the caliber of the majority of contributions.
C. Possibly.
D. N/A
1. b, 2. a, 3. a.
A. Everything pretty much – I liked how you had us read passages later on. Although it was fun to listen to you read also because you did some charaterization.
B. The room we were in.
C. Sure.
D. I think you’re a very good public speaker. I wish though that you had made the good test answer examples available sooner.
1. a, 2. a, 3. b.
A. Discussion of the texts & the openness of which questions, answers, & opinions were received.
B. Sometimes felt rushed – Not enough time to cover everything.
C. Already have.
D. Very professional, always courteous to students- Helpful & supportive.
1. a. 2. b, 3, a.
A. That not only were the lectures so interlaced with direct readings from the book during the lectures but that the professor brought in outside sources (i.e. Tolkien’s letters,) the discussion the panopticam (sp) I also liked that he referred to changes that Tolkien made from earlier versions of texts. It made for some interesting compare & contrast.
B. I wish he had shown more clips of movies. Not because they are ‘movies’ but because it would have helped break up the length of the lectures. (I love Tolkien but 1 hr & 40 min. can get kind of long at times.
C. Most definitely.
D. Great job and good course!
1. a, 2. a, 3. a.
A. Attention to close reading.
B. I would have liked a smaller setting. So people can interact.
C. Yes.
D.- More focus on terminology (i.e. “this is a metaphor”) to enrich close reading skills. –also, some people feel intimidated? – that is, on the spot and feel perhaps the instructor physically standing near the student affects this? Personally, I don’t feel this way.
1. a, 2. a, 3. b. Again some students feel pressured to say the right thing, and take it personally when they do not-but I’m not sure what can be done about this.
In the space below, comment on the instructor’s performance in this class, his/her degree of preparedness and any other aspect of his/her teaching you would like to mention. Also comment on reading, workload, exams and papers, and rate this course in relation to other English courses you have taken.
I enjoyed the class very much, but I would prefer to take quizzes and tests during class. I often had technical difficulties or questions that the proctor couldn’t answer, and most of the time slots conflicted with work or other class schedules.
The professorclearly knew his material at a level that was amazing. He was able to talk about the subject with much knowledge. I feel, however that it was somewhat unfair to only recognize one viewing of the text & trying to make everything tie in only to that perspective. The problem w/ online tests and quizzes is that sometimes the time the quiz was available didn’t work well. Missing a quiz because your one minute late for it is, in my opinion, absurd.
Literature classes are always about symbolism & allusion within the text, which is fine, but I felt that this class sometimes took it a little too far.
I did not take this as a higher level course so my workload was minimal. The only problem I found was the random questions on the exam. I had an unfair balance of questions many times that caused repetion of answers – such as getting Merry and Pippin for exam questions.
Everything in this course was great. The instructor was always prepared and always led a great discussion. The only thing I would change would be to have the online reading quizzes in the afternoon as opposed to the morning.
The professor performed well in class and was always prepared. The reading assignments, exams, & quizzes were all properly spaced and related well with other English classes. The on-line exams worked really well, for the most part; however, some work needs to be done on them. The on-line discussions was the least beneficial work of the whole class. To improve, I think was discussions should be required.
Professor Hamrick was always very well prepared for class and always had meaningful lectures based on topics for the assigned readings. The reading and workload were not a problem ever. The exams were sometimes difficult but that is to be expected. I have only take survey classes before so it is hard to relate this class to one of the previous courses.
Overall I think he did a good job for a first run through of the class. I do however have so concerns. The class I feel should be a higher level than 290 in general since it wasn’t widly known it could’ve been taken at a higher level. Also I didn’t like the online exams though I do understand the purpose. I would like to see the class at MWF as well as paper assignments and if online exams are still needed after that they need to be at least an hour and a half, but great job I learned a lot anyway-Thanks.
The course was extremely enjoyable. The professor is very knowledgeable, always prepared and organized, and taught the class very well. We had a lot of material to cover and therefore had to go over things rather quickly at times, but that was never a bad thing. The professor was always available for questions or any other help that was needed, very approachable, and did the best he could to answer questions or provide additional help. If I wasn’t graduating this fall, I’d take more courses from him.
He was always prepared for class and was always willing to talk with students. He really encouraged group discussion in class as well as online on the Desire 2 learn message board. He gave me a new perspective on Tolkien’s work and taught me lots of things I would have never thought of on my own. The only complaint I have is that there were a few occasions when we were studying “The Hobbit” where, I feel, he over-analyzed things a bit. Other than that, I found his class very interesting.
Prof. Hamrick is a good guy, His love for Tolkien spilled over into his course/teaching, and I appreciate someone who is passionate about their course. The comparing of film to the text was interesting and somewhat helpful. Prof. H’s expectation for reading workload was somewhat strenuous at times, but I have an extremely busy schedule so that is really my own problem. The tests were a bit tough to get used to. Some of the quotes sections were hard to identify who exactly was speaking and I didn’t feel as if I was given the opportunity to fully answer the questions because of this style. Compared to other English courses: This one was as good if not better. Tolkien Rules!
Hamrick did a fine job teaching the class. The one complaint I have about this class is concerning the online test format. What a headache! I wish there were some way to give people the choice of taking the test online or just writing on paper.
The lectures lead by Dr. Hamrick were exceptional. He was always ready for class and had immense amount of close-readings and evaluations of the text available at comment. Reading load was not to much as others may profess and was adequate for a semester class. In relation to other English courses I have taken the level of literary consideration especially relating to close-reading of the text, the themes, etc. as opposed to strict plot discussion was excellent. One of the best courses I have taken.
I enjoyed the in depth look at one of the greatest sagas of our time. I thought the instructor was very prepared for every class, even when he was sick. I did however, think the exams were asking for a lot. We read 5 detailed books in one semester. Analyzing 1 book is hard enough. I think the tests asked for very detailed answers that just couldn’t have been realistic with a large class load. So my suggestion is to scale the tests down a bit. Other than that, this class was awesome.
Professor Hamrick knows the course material well, but the class suffers from his perhiphoval segues into marginally relevant subjects. Also, the online testing is disappointing – to get any feedback (aside from an overall grade), we have to make an appointment to see him.
I’ve only taken one other English course at MSUM and the one was 18 1/2 Brit Lit – it was much more intimate and required more writing – lots of writing. I don’t think, though, that was necessary here. Overall – I’m happy I took the course and learned much. I also appreciate Hamrick’s style. He kept me going and made things very interesting.
Instructor’s performance- very strong. Well developed lectures, discussions workload-extremely manageable,
Prof. Hamrick was an excellent teacher and I think he handled this class very well. He worked hard to always be prepared & in the event that he was not was very apologetic & professional about his mistake & quick to remedy it. He was good about answering questions & finding answers to those he didn’t know. Also he was always courteous & respectful of the students in the class & their opinions. He is very accesable during office hours & after class as well. The reading assignments, workload, & tests were fair & reasonable. Papers were returned quickly & efficiently. This course was very enjoyable & I would definitely recommend it to a friend if it were offered again.
Professor Hamrick was an engaging lecturer, keeping my attention throughout the class period. He was always prepared in all respects except for some technological mishaps with the overhead projector. Reading load was fair, a bit tough at times due to Tolkien’s density. The course workload for assignments is definitely fair. One of the best English classes I have taken is Tolkien 490.
Hamrick is an excellent teacher. There were times that he was a bit unprepared near the end of the semester, and he ended up repeating some material from the previous class period. The workload got to be a little heavy at times which made me wonder if this class could be split up into more days (i.e. a Monday, Wednesday, Friday class), though I don’t know if that would in fact help. The exams for this class were great. I greatly preferred the essay and short answer to the multiple choice though.
Attention to close reading good, but needed definitions and basic explanations of literary terminology so we can apply close reading skills. I would have liked a “round table” setting so students could interact. The essay portion of tests should be handwritten students like to make outlines, see the entinity of their essay, and easily make corrections. In class writing assignments or journal writing might help too. Online discussion Great/Multiple choice tests sometimes vague (I felt at times any answer could be right and then was tortured with :none of these). Overall, awesome! Oh, access to Exam Feedback in private consultation only seems unnecessarily restrictive.