Sam Bloom

2 or 3 vocab quizzes 2 or 3 in class essays 2 or 3 take home essays journal response once a week 1 or 2 in class presentations reading for almost every class and discussion in class, 2 students will prepare more work than just a discussion question posted onto courseworks; a presenter & someone to make a vocab list

Not much if you're in Bloom's class...He rarely checked homework. Unfortunately, you have to teach yourself and you won't be prepared for intermediate I.

4 quizzes 3 papers (ours were all based off of the writing prompts on the quizzes so they were basically re-writes) midterm & final A couple of exercises out of the book for normal class days (based on completion)

Professor Bloom is a great teacher. I had him for Intermediate I and then Compo&Convo. I'll review Compo&Convo since other people have covered Intermediate I. It's a very nice class. You have three 'units'. The first was reading a novel (Bonjour Tristesse) and then discussing it in class. It's sort of like a warm up unit. You talk all the time during class, and have discussions. It's very nice and comforting, and he is a very 'chill' professor, very sweet, very nice and doesn't intimidate you. It is a relaxing atmosphere to just talk. He assigns people to prepare stuff for each class, so like one person will sign up as the "presenter" and will talk about what they noticed and start the discussion. He uses the courseworks discussion board so that the people can post their observations & question about that day's reading. He prints out the discussion board the day of class, and he has the presenter talk and then read through the discussions. People will talk about what they wrote, or comment on other people's work. Then you have someone that does the vocab, and finds about 7 words that they didn't know/feel is important to know for the reading, and you send that list to him. He also prints the list out. The second unit is on current events, like France's problem with xenophobia, issues in "la banlieue", French schooling, the French version of "satire" and what is satire or what…

I honestly hated this class. The professor was disorganized and unhelpful. We spent basically 80% of the time talking about our day and never got to really learning any grammar. Honestly, I wouldn't have cared because he is a very relaxed and nice professor, but the quizzes/examinations were really hard! I don't think that I would have found them challenging, had I been taught the content in class. I basically had to teach myself - a big disappointment because I've had great experiences with the other french professors at Barnard!

Sam Bloom was an amazing Intermediate I professor. He's quirky and has an all-around comforting presence. I never felt overwhelmed or stressed in his class but I always felt like I was learning. We always opened each class just by talking to each other about our weekends or something in french instead of just diving in. He's a pretty generous grader ( I think he once kinda apologized for giving me a B+ on a paper which I was totally deserving of). He prepares you well for his quizzes and midterms; there were never any surprises. It's all grammar based so no memorization of vocab. You go over all the homework together but none of it's ever picked up or graded. That's not to say you shouldn't do it though–if he calls on you to answer one of the hw questions he'll notice if you have it done or not which helps/hurts your participation. This review is kinda all over the place but I just want people to know how great Sam Bloom is. Fairly easy and super fun class.

3 compositions with corrections, quizzes every other week (corrections were allowed), homework (not a lot at all, maybe 45 minutes worth) between each class, and a midterm and final.

3 compositions, easy weekly assignments, 4 quizzes, in class midterm and final.

I seriously don't understand why this man doesn't have a gold nugget! He is one of the most understanding and comforting teachers at Barnard and he really helps to make sure that every student in his class understands the material. He never assigns too much work that is overwhelming and will go out of his way to help students understand whatever is confusing them. He's a very generous grader and prepares you incredibly well for the tests. The homework is never collected, but you should do it anyways since you'll go over it in class and look a little silly if you don't know the answer. His classroom is very very relaxed and he immediately puts the class at ease.

Professor Bloom is the best French professor I've had at Barnard. So caring, funny, and understanding. Quizzes, Midterm, and Final are extremely fair. Professor Bloom also emphasizes having a French class with a relaxed atmosphere - i.e. he will never call on you randomly to immediately conjugate a verb. This makes the class beyond enjoyable and students can learn at pace where they can understand the material without being stressed about immediate regurgitation! I feel that my French grammar skills have improved immensely because I was able to take the time to learn the material in environment without the anxiety-inducing strategies employed by most French professors I have encountered at Columbia. Take this class!