[lorend]

I took this course in 2007-2008, with Smith in first term and Ostovich in second term.

The course layout was as follows:
- five short essays (two in the term of your performance, three in the other)
- tutorial participation
- midterm exam
- scene performance
- essay based on scene performance
- final exam

Smith is an amazing prof. She is really keen to help students, and will go above and beyond standard helping of students. She's also hilarious. Her lectures are entertaining and well laid out.

Ostovich is really good helping students on a one-on-one basis. She also provided parallel texts for us to read (ie King Lier for King Lear), which gave the course more depth in a bunch of ways.

Both profs mark in a different way, and emphasize different things.

The scene performance was...challenging. but fun. Basically, a bunch of people choose a scene from a play read in the term and act it out.

I took this as a summer course with Dr. Smith.

Like the poster above I can't say enough about how helpful of a professor Smith is! Seriously amazing, she'll go above and beyond to help out her students. She's really cooperative with essay deadlines and really accesible by email.

The course breakdown was a little different with just her though,

Paticipation 10%
Quiz 10%
Short Essay 15%
Scene Performance 20%
Performance Essay 20%
Exam 25%

We read 10 Shakespeare plays, 5 tragedies and 5 romances/comedies/problem plays.

It's not that it's an 'easy' class, but Dr. Smith makes it easier--she's a really fair marker, she understands the pressures on students and makes sure you don't have to stress out. The quiz was easy if you read the texts, the essay questions were broad enough that you could write about something you wanted to write. The scene performance was stressful but really adds to your understanding of the work, it's actually a lot of fun and you'll be relieved when you present it!

Really a great course, if you have a chance to take it with Dr. Smith do it!