SPAN303 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Ligia Gonzalez SPAN303 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/23/2024	TAKE HER FOR SPAN303 she literally made this class so doable. She is so incredibly sweet and helpful and consistently checks in on us and our mental health. She grades very fairly and does everything in her power to make this class as little of a headache as possible. 10/10 recomend her, she is the nicest Spanish teacher ever and you are so lucky if you have her.
Ligia Gonzalez SPAN303 Anonymous 05/08/2024	Profesora González is an amazing professor and human being. The information taught in class is super interesting, and you can tell that she is passionate about it so it is easy to pay attention. The workload is completely manageable and not difficult at ALL if you go to class. She is super understanding and extended the deadline on our final paper a few times (GENEROUSLY) after the class told her that we needed more time. Obviously, the class is completely in Spanish but she is Venezuelan so she is very easy to understand. She brightens the room with her positive attitude every day, you will not regret taking her for SPAN303!
Ligia Gonzalez SPAN303 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/03/2024	González is a great teacher. She makes jokes and always knows how to make everyone feel more comfortable. I thought I was going to hate this class but it actually turned out that it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. She teaches the subject 100% in Spanish which helps you feel immersed in the subject completely. Would recommend.
Ligia Gonzalez SPAN303 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/02/2024	I hated this course haha :) Ligia is not a bad professor at all. She is actually very kind and sweet. You will talk 100% in this course because that's where the participation points lies. I am a spanish minor, so i have to take this class, but i do not agree with the fact that we have a final exam, a final paper, AND a presentation. It actually makes zero sense, but hey. Good luck
Daniela Hernandez SPAN303 Expecting a B Anonymous 10/26/2023	-If you are gonna take SPAN 303, take it with her. I am a Spanish minor and this course is probably the hardest course in the entire class req list. But she makes it so simple and helpful. Lectures can get a little boring and lengthly but there's always discussions and she actually cares that you understand the material. -Very welcoming and understanding if you make a mistake, she's willing to help you. Midterm was very simple, and quickly responds to emails literally at anytime of the day. -Would recommend her to anyone. -Only issue I have is that in order for her to explain assignments you have to email her about them, she doesn't go over the assignments she assigned in class.
Ligia Gonzalez SPAN303 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 08/23/2023	I took this class in the spring 2023 semester. Profesora González is very kind and encourages discussion about the course content. She values participation and graded for it, so be prepared to speak up at least once every class. You'll need to put in some effort, there's weekly homework assignments (mostly analysis questions for some kind of text). There's a midterm which included an essay portion, but was fairly simple if you review the material. There's a final exam, one research paper and an oral presentation of key points from your research. It may sound like a lot, but I really enjoyed this class. She was very eager to teach the material and make it interesting, ranging from analyzing political speeches to poetic terminology to movie scenes. She gave feedback and graded assignments quickly, too (aka didn't wait until the end of the semester to grade everything). Just be prepared to speak almost 100% in and for basically all instruction to be in Spanish.
Chris Lewis SPAN303 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/18/2023	Good professor that clearly cares about his students. Class was pretty tight-knit since it was so small and the in-class discussions were pretty productive. Both the midterm and the final were quite long given the time we had and the vast majority of the class did not finish.
Jackson Monzon SPAN303 Expecting an A- Anonymous 02/13/2023	Took this professor over the summer and do not recommend. Worked like crazy and was one of 4 people in my class. Despite consistent participation and class sized repeatedly gave harsh grades for participation and other assignments.
Chris Lewis SPAN303 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/13/2022	Profesor Lewis is very caring and down to earth, he genuinely cares about his students and the content. I highly recommend taking a class with him!
Marcela Risso SPAN303 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2022	Honestly an amazing teacher. She's very smart, knows what she's talking about, funny, and quirky in a very endearing way. She's really authentic and doesn't have a filter, which I appreciated. You can tell that she really cares for her students and if you need to meet with her, she will do so happily. She wants to see you succeed which is really necessary for a class that moves super fast and doesn't provide too much time to delve into too much details. The only thing I noted that some may have problems with is that usually for the first 10 minutes of every class she'll talk to us in English about something completely unrelated to the material. It's usually really interesting though and should be known that I have no problems with it, it just reminds me a bit of this tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kanye_west_bible_study/video/7161620906929016110?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7150031634174199339 Overall, I definitely recommend her. She takes what is normally a very stressful and/or boring class and turns it into something so much better.
Eyda Merediz SPAN303 Expecting an A- Anonymous 08/15/2022	Overall, I enjoyed taking Prof Merediz's course. She is funny and knowledgeable. Expect to have quite a few assignments a week (film analysis, literature analysis, or a mix of both). While you could get away with putting minimal effort into them, I suggest taking them seriously, as the questions she asks explore concepts and themes that will be on the midterm and the final. They may feel like busy work (I'd argue that sometimes they are), but they can serve as a good study resource if done well. She teaches based off of slides that contains few words, so sometimes it is challenging to discern what to takes notes on- this is why I'd recommend using the homework assignments to guide your note-taking. During lectures, I just listened and jotted down recurring concepts and terminology. Some materials can be a bit dense if your Spanish skills aren't nearing those of a fluent/native speaker. If you fall into that category, don't worry, she reviews materials in class and gives out assignments that mirror potential exam questions so you know what to expect. The final analysis paper is divided into 3 steps (outline, draft, final) and takes a nontrivial amount of time, so be sure to start early and utilize office hours.
Mehl Penrose SPAN303 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/21/2022	He was great! SPAN303 class may seem like a lot to some but that'll be the case w any teacher. The first two weeks I thought it was going to be dull but he keeps it interesting and is funny and vocal. Very understanding professor and wants everyone to do well.
Ryan Long SPAN303 Anonymous 12/21/2021	Professor Long is an extremely caring person. He treats his students with a great amount of respect and patience. He is flexible with due dates (to a certain extent) and always provides constructive criticism when necessary. You can really tell he cares about teaching and providing an open space for discussion in class. If you do the homeworks and participate in class, it will be extremely difficult to fail.
Carmen Benito-Vessels SPAN303 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/13/2021	Carmen is a sweet elderly lady who treats her students with the utmost respect. The class was pretty poorly organized, but it's unclear if that was more her fault or if the whole course is just poorly organized. That said you can tell she is very knowledgeable and passionate about many of the course topics. Tends to call on students at random in class so it's important that you have done the readings for that day. Very lenient grader.
Sofia Maurette SPAN303 Expecting a P Anonymous 05/15/2020	Very hard grader for no reason. Not much leeway during COVID either...
Sofia Maurette SPAN303 Anonymous 05/03/2020	dude this teacher sucks do not take her... such a harsh grader for absolutely no reason at all, despite the fact that the material isn't difficult. She's nice enough and will basically tell you what is going to be on the tests, but will take off points even if you write the answers she tells you to put down in class... absolutely ridiculous.
Sofia Maurette SPAN303 Expecting a B Anonymous 10/10/2019	Pretty harsh grader and is rlly scary also she yeeted for 2 weeks
Carmen Benito-Vessels SPAN303 Anonymous 05/16/2011	I'd agree that Carmen is adorable and the grandmother-ey type, but the class was a bit disorganized and most of the time no one knew what we had to read, what we had to do for hw, etc. The tests themselves weren't bad and were graded leniently. Keep up with the readings, participate in class, and show her that you're putting in effort and you'll be fine.
Carmen Benito-Vessels SPAN303 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/05/2011	Carmen is absolutely adorable. She's an older woman from Spain and really cares about literature and culture. There's not a lot of grades in class, so participation is really important, but she is flexible and understanding about pretty much anything. Her two tests are extremely reasonable and she usually only gives out As and Bs as final grades.
Carmen Benito-Vessels SPAN303 Anonymous 11/17/2010	She has been one of the worst teachers I have had so far. A native speaker of spanish, she seems to have little grasp of the english language and the one time I went to her to ask a question Im pretty sure she didnt understand what I was saying and did not help answer my question whatsoever. She had us drop off our term paper in her mailbox on the last day of finals, and at the time she said it would be open it was closed. She also had a substitute teacher come to class on the day we had our MIDTERM so we couldnt ask questions, and did not let us know in advance that she was going to do that. She most certainly plays favorites, and if youre shy to talk in class she wont like you. She also cares more about quantity over quality. I found that while writing decent things but in shorter lengths she gave me bad grades. When I lengthened what I was writing, though not adding any better content, she gave much higher grades. This is NOT a teacher I would reccomend taking a class with if you are quiet in class, and bad at bullshitting to make your essays longer. I will never take another class with her.

Ligia Gonzalez
SPAN303

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/23/2024

TAKE HER FOR SPAN303 she literally made this class so doable. She is so incredibly sweet and helpful and consistently checks in on us and our mental health. She grades very fairly and does everything in her power to make this class as little of a headache as possible. 10/10 recomend her, she is the nicest Spanish teacher ever and you are so lucky if you have her.

Ligia Gonzalez
SPAN303

Anonymous
05/08/2024

Profesora González is an amazing professor and human being. The information taught in class is super interesting, and you can tell that she is passionate about it so it is easy to pay attention. The workload is completely manageable and not difficult at ALL if you go to class. She is super understanding and extended the deadline on our final paper a few times (GENEROUSLY) after the class told her that we needed more time. Obviously, the class is completely in Spanish but she is Venezuelan so she is very easy to understand. She brightens the room with her positive attitude every day, you will not regret taking her for SPAN303!

Ligia Gonzalez
SPAN303

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/03/2024

González is a great teacher. She makes jokes and always knows how to make everyone feel more comfortable. I thought I was going to hate this class but it actually turned out that it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. She teaches the subject 100% in Spanish which helps you feel immersed in the subject completely. Would recommend.

Ligia Gonzalez
SPAN303

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/02/2024

I hated this course haha :) Ligia is not a bad professor at all. She is actually very kind and sweet. You will talk 100% in this course because that's where the participation points lies. I am a spanish minor, so i have to take this class, but i do not agree with the fact that we have a final exam, a final paper, AND a presentation. It actually makes zero sense, but hey. Good luck

Daniela Hernandez
SPAN303

Expecting a B
Anonymous
10/26/2023

-If you are gonna take SPAN 303, take it with her. I am a Spanish minor and this course is probably the hardest course in the entire class req list. But she makes it so simple and helpful. Lectures can get a little boring and lengthly but there's always discussions and she actually cares that you understand the material. -Very welcoming and understanding if you make a mistake, she's willing to help you. Midterm was very simple, and quickly responds to emails literally at anytime of the day. -Would recommend her to anyone. -Only issue I have is that in order for her to explain assignments you have to email her about them, she doesn't go over the assignments she assigned in class.

Ligia Gonzalez
SPAN303

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
08/23/2023

I took this class in the spring 2023 semester. Profesora González is very kind and encourages discussion about the course content. She values participation and graded for it, so be prepared to speak up at least once every class. You'll need to put in some effort, there's weekly homework assignments (mostly analysis questions for some kind of text). There's a midterm which included an essay portion, but was fairly simple if you review the material. There's a final exam, one research paper and an oral presentation of key points from your research. It may sound like a lot, but I really enjoyed this class. She was very eager to teach the material and make it interesting, ranging from analyzing political speeches to poetic terminology to movie scenes. She gave feedback and graded assignments quickly, too (aka didn't wait until the end of the semester to grade everything). Just be prepared to speak almost 100% in and for basically all instruction to be in Spanish.

Chris Lewis
SPAN303

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/18/2023

Good professor that clearly cares about his students. Class was pretty tight-knit since it was so small and the in-class discussions were pretty productive. Both the midterm and the final were quite long given the time we had and the vast majority of the class did not finish.

Jackson Monzon
SPAN303

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
02/13/2023

Took this professor over the summer and do not recommend. Worked like crazy and was one of 4 people in my class. Despite consistent participation and class sized repeatedly gave harsh grades for participation and other assignments.

Chris Lewis
SPAN303

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/13/2022

Profesor Lewis is very caring and down to earth, he genuinely cares about his students and the content. I highly recommend taking a class with him!

Marcela Risso
SPAN303

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/11/2022

Honestly an amazing teacher. She's very smart, knows what she's talking about, funny, and quirky in a very endearing way. She's really authentic and doesn't have a filter, which I appreciated. You can tell that she really cares for her students and if you need to meet with her, she will do so happily. She wants to see you succeed which is really necessary for a class that moves super fast and doesn't provide too much time to delve into too much details. The only thing I noted that some may have problems with is that usually for the first 10 minutes of every class she'll talk to us in English about something completely unrelated to the material. It's usually really interesting though and should be known that I have no problems with it, it just reminds me a bit of this tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kanye_west_bible_study/video/7161620906929016110?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7150031634174199339 Overall, I definitely recommend her. She takes what is normally a very stressful and/or boring class and turns it into something so much better.

Eyda Merediz
SPAN303

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
08/15/2022

Overall, I enjoyed taking Prof Merediz's course. She is funny and knowledgeable. Expect to have quite a few assignments a week (film analysis, literature analysis, or a mix of both). While you could get away with putting minimal effort into them, I suggest taking them seriously, as the questions she asks explore concepts and themes that will be on the midterm and the final. They may feel like busy work (I'd argue that sometimes they are), but they can serve as a good study resource if done well. She teaches based off of slides that contains few words, so sometimes it is challenging to discern what to takes notes on- this is why I'd recommend using the homework assignments to guide your note-taking. During lectures, I just listened and jotted down recurring concepts and terminology. Some materials can be a bit dense if your Spanish skills aren't nearing those of a fluent/native speaker. If you fall into that category, don't worry, she reviews materials in class and gives out assignments that mirror potential exam questions so you know what to expect. The final analysis paper is divided into 3 steps (outline, draft, final) and takes a nontrivial amount of time, so be sure to start early and utilize office hours.

Mehl Penrose
SPAN303

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/21/2022

He was great! SPAN303 class may seem like a lot to some but that'll be the case w any teacher. The first two weeks I thought it was going to be dull but he keeps it interesting and is funny and vocal. Very understanding professor and wants everyone to do well.

Ryan Long
SPAN303

Anonymous
12/21/2021

Professor Long is an extremely caring person. He treats his students with a great amount of respect and patience. He is flexible with due dates (to a certain extent) and always provides constructive criticism when necessary. You can really tell he cares about teaching and providing an open space for discussion in class. If you do the homeworks and participate in class, it will be extremely difficult to fail.

Carmen Benito-Vessels
SPAN303

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/13/2021

Carmen is a sweet elderly lady who treats her students with the utmost respect. The class was pretty poorly organized, but it's unclear if that was more her fault or if the whole course is just poorly organized. That said you can tell she is very knowledgeable and passionate about many of the course topics. Tends to call on students at random in class so it's important that you have done the readings for that day. Very lenient grader.

Sofia Maurette
SPAN303

Expecting a P
Anonymous
05/15/2020

Very hard grader for no reason. Not much leeway during COVID either...

Sofia Maurette
SPAN303

Anonymous
05/03/2020

dude this teacher sucks do not take her... such a harsh grader for absolutely no reason at all, despite the fact that the material isn't difficult. She's nice enough and will basically tell you what is going to be on the tests, but will take off points even if you write the answers she tells you to put down in class... absolutely ridiculous.

Sofia Maurette
SPAN303

Expecting a B
Anonymous
10/10/2019

Pretty harsh grader and is rlly scary also she yeeted for 2 weeks

Carmen Benito-Vessels
SPAN303

Anonymous
05/16/2011

I'd agree that Carmen is adorable and the grandmother-ey type, but the class was a bit disorganized and most of the time no one knew what we had to read, what we had to do for hw, etc. The tests themselves weren't bad and were graded leniently. Keep up with the readings, participate in class, and show her that you're putting in effort and you'll be fine.

Carmen Benito-Vessels
SPAN303

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/05/2011

Carmen is absolutely adorable. She's an older woman from Spain and really cares about literature and culture. There's not a lot of grades in class, so participation is really important, but she is flexible and understanding about pretty much anything. Her two tests are extremely reasonable and she usually only gives out As and Bs as final grades.

Carmen Benito-Vessels
SPAN303

Anonymous
11/17/2010

She has been one of the worst teachers I have had so far. A native speaker of spanish, she seems to have little grasp of the english language and the one time I went to her to ask a question Im pretty sure she didnt understand what I was saying and did not help answer my question whatsoever. She had us drop off our term paper in her mailbox on the last day of finals, and at the time she said it would be open it was closed. She also had a substitute teacher come to class on the day we had our MIDTERM so we couldnt ask questions, and did not let us know in advance that she was going to do that. She most certainly plays favorites, and if youre shy to talk in class she wont like you. She also cares more about quantity over quality. I found that while writing decent things but in shorter lengths she gave me bad grades. When I lengthened what I was writing, though not adding any better content, she gave much higher grades. This is NOT a teacher I would reccomend taking a class with if you are quiet in class, and bad at bullshitting to make your essays longer. I will never take another class with her.

Reviews for SPAN303