Valarie Arms

School: Drexel University
Department: English
Location:Philadelphia, PA
Overall Rating
rated by 11 students
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Rating Comment
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 Racist. Funny that she teaches the class about Holocausts and she is a racist herself.
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 Pros: Didn't take attendance even though in the syllabus it's required
Not that hard of a course
Cons: Can be a hard grader sometimes
I got an A- in the course even though I didn't work that hard. I did bad on the first project but then went to her office hours and made corrections with her and redid my essay which she changed my grade for.
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 Pros: Easy grader
Lets us out early half of the classes
Majority of classes spent doing class discussions
Cons: Sometimes contradicts herself and makes explanations of the projects sound much more complicated than they need to be.
The course itself is very interesting, and the books are definitely worth reading even outside the class. She also has us watch movies each week. We post on our readings (which we've already discussed in class) as well as the movies. The presentations are easy, I just wouldn't recommend joining the class late.
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 As long as you do the online posts by the time she wants them done and pay attention to the syllabus, you'll do well. She always emails and answers questions quickly. All her projects are pretty basic and not graded that harshly. Be prepared to do an oral presentation at the end of the term. She always grades projects quickly too.
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 A real gem at Drexel...work may seem like busy work, but if you keep your ears open you will learn ALOT from this woman (and not even just how to write). Don't take if you are going in to the class resenting being forced to take English, but you will love it if you like a bit of a challenge and picking up some interesting sides to the language.
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 Not very organized and class can be pretty boring. Doesnt give out much work and isnt to tough a grader. Will takes points off if you dont say what she wants to hear.
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 I took her hybrid class that's once a week. As a teacher she's Ok however she's incredibly unorganized. I almost never knew what to post on the message boards because she would post the assignment in one of four different spots on the internet. It shouldn't be this hard just to figure out what the homework is. She would also e-mail students the night before class with instructions for the next day so if you don't check your email every hour you're screwed. Like most English teachers she has a childish way of grading in which she looks only for what she likes and gives grades on that rather than content.
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 Cares for students. Really listened to our feedback. This was a "hybrid" class. Met once a week and had to do some online posting on the class discussion board. Assignments varied from papers to exploring around the city and writing about our experiences. A great class for the incoming Freshmen needing to take an english class.
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 Great class. The professor really cares about students and tries to make sure that everyone has an open mind. She requires weekly journals but they are just for you to reflect on the readings and class discussions and how you feel about things.
The other requirements are an in class essay (there were supposed to be 2 but we only got to 1), an oral presentation and a project. She allows you to do anything for the project so if you dislike writing term papers you can do a brochure, a poster, a movie, compose music, pretty much anything you want. As for the oral presentation, it is pretty straight forward.
If you put a little bit of effort in, you will get a good grade. She is very reasonable and understanding.
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 Very easy grader. I hate English and I still got an A in this class. She might ask you to do a lot of different things (oral presentation, research paper, essays about the books we read, and journals) but it doesn't take much effort to get a good grade on them.
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 Good teacher overall. She gives several posts per week but there are no deadlines as long as you have them done at the end of the term. Grades easy on papers.

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