Some student reviews of Ted Cleary’s NYC writing class

While spending time interpreting the prompt and quotes, you helped me understand life and the issues surrounding it to a higher level.

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I really enjoyed your class.  It was beyond what I expected . . . I improved in organizing my essays a lot better . . . I started my diary again because you repeated it a lot.  I learned so much in your class.

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Thanks for these past 18 weeks.  I've improved a lot and learned much from the mistakes I've made.

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The trivia-like questions you asked us are really enjoyable.  They helped in improving my knowledge and I was able to use the information outside of class.  I think your teaching style is effective because you make jokes and mnemonics to help us remember things and they do help me remember.

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The class discussions were enjoyable and amusing.  I believe a class should not be full of lecture and yelling.  A good learning environment motivates students to do better in school.  Ted Cleary has successfully accomplished this ideal school environment.

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Keep on motivating students like me—I’m very lazy, and call on people who you know are totally out of it and put them on the spot…they are only lazy like me.

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Group discussion helped motivate me and bring out ideas.  While having group discussions, I felt it helped me put my mind and thoughts together, even out of writing class.  Also helps me in school.

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I found the effort you put into correcting and commenting on the essays very useful. I like how you implement life stories to keep us focused and lively.

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The writing class is unique and interesting.  I definitely learned a good deal more in two hours than in any class I've been to.  It definitely meets expectations and I had no problem participating as the class is educational and fun.  I especially like how the class does not focus only on writing as such, and therefore eliminates the monotonous feeling that I get in most of my classes at school.

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I like how you provide many different examples for a thing when you're explaining it -- makes it sink in more. 

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I would really like more days when the whole class reads a passage and then reflects on it.  They give me a new perspective in thinking about certain things and have thus expanded my pool of knowledge to derive my examples in the essays.

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Evaluation of the class: I thought it was really fantastic.  Mr. Cleary is a great writing teacher. I felt like my grammar improved by leaps and bounds during the winter semester.  I feel particularly proud of my pronoun-antecedent progress.  Huzza!

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I suggest you keep INSISTING on journal writing—it is very effective in improving writing.  I think I definitely improved in my writing; the journal entries really helped me, and I am recommending it to my friends in Korea who are beginning to learn English.

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Before this class I never liked writing any essays, since the only essays I would ever write were about books that were read in English class, all of which bored me because of the teacher’s obsessive focus on symbols, themes, or characterization, all of which I find to be a waste of time and frankly stupid.  However, this class allowed me to write about interesting and important topics that I care about.

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The most helpful part of the class was all the practice I received in my writing and the comments you made that made the practice even better because it showed me where I messed up.  I feel the class helped my writing ability greatly.

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The class helped me in my overall grammar and essay writing – class time was a pleasurable mixture of work and humor…after a while the teaching becomes imprinted in our minds and we can still remember and use what we learned for a long time.

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I liked all the life issues we talked about, and the jokes. They made the class more entertaining and less monotonous.

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This class is fun. I wanna have you again, so tell the office lady to have you teach the SAT classes, thank you.  What I remember most is when you brought in that [statue of a] bird that smelled like my cousin’s bathroom. I learned a lot about the Senufo hornbill.  Your stories are what I remember the most: educational and funny.

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You made the class fun to be in. IN OTHER PREP SCHOOLS I'VE BEEN TO, THE CLASSES WERE MAAAAAD BORING.  Even though this class was fun, I was able to learn a lotta stuff.  I loved how you talked about world issues because you said it in a way that I would remember.

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