Guinia Gatta

I'm posting this semester's workload, since Gatta took her evaluations seriously and substantially changed the work/grading for this semester. 2 essays (2000 words, 3500 words, worth 35% total) --> a drop from last semester's 3 essay progressions of increasing length as well as a autobiographical essay 1 midterm (worth 20%) 1 final (that has 1 less essay than last semester's final, worth 20%) 1 creative assignment (worth 5%) class engagement (**see below, worth 20%) **This semester she scrapped the weekly discussion posts as well as the 15-minute peer-led discussions; instead, we sign up for a text we're interested in and just come up with questions for that class day that we e-mail her about.

After reading the other two reviews posted by members of my CC class fall semester, I feel compelled to write another one to do justice to Professor Gatta and her class, which I believe the other two reviews failed to do. Yes, the class is a lot of work and a lot of reading...welcome to Columbia, if you haven't realized already for the past year. Gatta laments the fact that she already cut the readings substantially, and frankly, I don't understand how people can claim that they're not understanding the main gist of a work if 1) the "required" reading gets cut even more and 2) you don't actually read. That being said, I don't think class dynamics (a pretty small sample size of 20 or so people and varies) should wholly determine how you judge Gatta ad hominem. Yes, our class last semester had a pretty disruptive student, and for the first couple of weeks that student monopolized discussion to the point where our discussions weren't productive and Gatta didn't seem to really do anything about it. I think later on in the semester, "Ragemonster" sobered up, and discussions became slightly more profitable. I think Professor Gatta, unlike other professors, really takes her students' comments to heart. At the behest of one student, she changed the weight of the final and midterm exams, while another student's suggestion prompted her to allow us to respond to each other's posts and ha…

Way too many small assignments. A personal introductory paper like you wrote in middle school. 3 CC papers of increasing length. Final and midterm that she graded in comparison "to how much other students wrote." Weekly coursework posts. Creative project, also like the type you would do in middle school.

Professor Gatta makes for a disappointing semester. While I respect her off-putting positive energy in the class, she is completely out of touch from her students. She runs class in an artificial manner, favoring lengthy digressions over natural discussion. Over-reliant on weekly courseworks posts for class discussion that are often bullshitted, this friendly Italian lady chooses to lecture on and on without end. Questions are followed with painful silence, followed by an answer from one of four students who speak. The cherry on top is your 3 minute break in the middle of a 2 hour class, often shaved down to "a few seconds." She was also condescending towards certain students and didn't have the balls to quiet down an especially disruptive student. In general, it was excruciatingly frustrating to be in a class with a teacher who likes to talk about how open and fun CC is while at the same time sticking rigidly to a grading curve and not allowing for fruitful intellectual exploration. Considering that there are many shittier options for CC, she's not terrible but should be avoided - like Halal food.

Postings on courseworks for class, 4 papers of increasing length, creative project, midterm and final

Professor Gatta is boring, rude and not a great teacher. Class is never too terrible but she bases the entire class off of posts that she requires students to complete the night before class. Since most people kind of BS these posts, class discussion is really dry. She doesn't do much to push the class beyond these posts, and she is completely uninspiring. She also makes rude comments quite often. She calls certain students smart while acknowledging that some students are "less talented". Grades are based off of her perception of you in the first three weeks of classes, so if she considers you to be smart she will keep you in the A range, otherwise you'll be struggling to be pleased with your grade. Although she admits to not liking the idea of giving grades she follows the grading curve with unwavering conformity. She grades all sorts of tiny things that she considers to be part of your grade, for instance she gives individual grades to each online posting even though she makes it seem like a casual way to get ideas flowing. Unfortunately, she lets certain students monopolize class discussion therefore discouraging most other students to participate. She had no clue this was happening and blames it on the majority of students rather than recognizing the she would have more success in class if she gave everyone an equal opportunity to speak. Overall, not a great CC experience.…

Usual readings, maybe slightly shorter. 3 papers (1000wrds, 2000, 3000). 1 oral presentation. not too bad.

Professor Gatta is good. She is not amazing, but she is above average. She has read a lot of political theory, and usually approaches text more as a political scientist than as a philosopher, which may or may not be to your liking. She is a very fair grader, and gives good (though again, not amazing) advice on your writing. She's very approachable, and is willing to help you as much as she can on your writing, etc. She could lead discussion a little better, however. There were a few gems in the texts we were reading that passed unnoticed (we didn't discuss the allegory of the cave in plato...!), which was a shame. As I said, not amazing, but good.

4% - 4 quizzes 4% - 4 Index Cards 12% - for each thought piece, 4%, 3 of them, each 3-4 pages 15% - final paper 10% - in class presentation 20% - midterm 10% - class presentation 25% - final

I actually had a different experience than the previous reviewer. I thought that she was a knowledgeable woman who did stimulate discussion in the class. There were definitely some classes that were more boring and awkwardly silent with the same people talking all of the time, but a lot of the classes had really interesting discussions. However, I will say that this grading is quite sporadic sometimes, with papers I wrote in an hour getting A's and papers I spent a long time on getting much lower grades. I actually thought she spent a lot of time grading our papers, which was nice since she did make a lot of comments in the margins. As a person, she is also really nice and very easy to talk to.