The Canterbury Tales and Medieval Culture Evaluations for Seminar held in 2007
2010 NEH Summer Seminar
Application Information and Instructions
NEH Seminar Evaluation 2005
NEH Seminar Evaluation 2007
Evaluation # 6015
Summarize your overall assessment of the experience and the effect you anticipate it will have on your teaching and scholarship.
The Canterbury Tales and Medieval Culture Seminar was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Dr. Patterson's expertise was phenomenal. I'm still processing the information he provided. The seminar has already changed my reading style. I read more reflectively with greater awareness of the author's intention and word choice as well as the structure and historical context of the work. If I had been able to participate in a similar course as an undergraduate, I might not have developed an aversion to English literature courses that would take decades to overcome. In my teaching, as a result of this seminar, I am more aware of the gap between the resources I bring to a text and those that my students have available. I try to look at a text through my students' eyes and consider carefully the background information they need in order to fully understand and appreciate the work in its cultural and historical context.
Evaluate specific aspects of the program, such as the director, visiting faculty (if any), colleagues, topics, organization, discussions, and activities.
My colleagues in this seminar were knowledgeable, enthusiastic and supportive. We frequently shared resources with one another. Our presentations covered a variety of topics related to Chaucer and medieval culture—from plague to architecture to lesson plans to analogues of the tales.
Evaluate the host institution particularly with respect to hospitality, housing arrangements, the suitability of library facilities, and computer facilities.
The Yale campus was a delight with its whimsical neo-Gothic architecture and abundant green spaces. The dorm was quiet, spacious and air-conditioned, an appreciated luxury on warm afternoons. The dorm was within walking distance of restaurants, shopping, groceries, and libraries. The housing staff was very helpful and attended to problems quickly. The library was marvelous, especially the reference room. I particularly enjoyed being able to order books from various campus libraries through my computer and pick them up at the main desk. Once I got my password, tech support helped me set up my laptop and access Yale's wireless network. Printing required several steps including a trip to the print station, two passwords, and a flash drive.
Do you have any suggestions for improvements?
It was just about perfect.
Evaluation # 6009
Summarize your overall assessment of the experience and the effect you anticipate it will have on your teaching and scholarship.
Absolutely amazing! Lee's approach to reading and teaching was invigorating. I came away from the summer program with new ideas to teach Chaucer, Dante, Medieval history, and really any type of literature.
Evaluate specific aspects of the program, such as the director, visiting faculty (if any), colleagues, topics, organization, discussions, and activities.
Lee was very cordial and open to helping us in any way possible. I feel that I learned a lot from the way he tied texts together, like the Divine Comedy and the Canterbury Tales, and the way that he explored texts via historical documents from that period. Very fascinating! I'm using it already in my teaching at the high school level.
Evaluation # 5918
Summarize your overall assessment of the experience and the effect you anticipate it will have on your teaching and scholarship.
It was absolutely fantastic; the materials and information presented were extremely helpful.
Evaluate specific aspects of the program, such as the director, visiting faculty (if any), colleagues, topics, organization, discussions, and activities.
Director: warm, kind, knowledgeable, accessible, passionate, funny, etc. colleagues: fantastic, smart, friendly, dedicated topics/organization: interesting and diverse; organization was clear and thorough. Great, lively discussions. Fun activities
Evaluate the host institution particularly with respect to hospitality, housing arrangements, the suitability of library facilities, and computer facilities.
Hospitality: good housing: n/a- lived off campus library: awesome computer: adequate
Do you have any suggestions for improvements?
Add a teacher to teacher lesson component- sessions where teachers brainstorm and share teaching ideas.
Summarize your overall assessment of the experience and the effect you anticipate it will have on your teaching and scholarship.
This was quite possibly one of the most enriching educational experiences I have had since becoming an English teacher. Not only were the class discussions incredibly valuable, but the opportunity to spend six weeks studying with other professionals in my field helped me gain immeasurable experience. It was an incredible opportunity, and one that I am deeply thankful for having.
Evaluate specific aspects of the program, such as the director, visiting faculty (if any), colleagues, topics, organization, discussions, and activities.
My colleagues were exceptionally gifted and very generous with their talents. I found Professor Patterson to be an impressive scholar, but not at all an intimidating man; he quickly made it very clear that he was accessible to us at any time. His professionalism was exceptional. Our class discussions were just that--discussion, not lecture disguised as discussion. I felt that everyone in the group had a unique perspective and was given the opportunity to present that perspective. The group itself was a heterogeneous mix of different teaching styles and different backgrounds, which only contributed more to the value of the discussion.
Do you have any suggestions for improvements?
I would have liked to know ahead of time how closely knit everything in New Haven is. For example, our dorm was near the campus bookstore, where many things, such as bedding, were very affordably priced. Had I known how convenient it would be to obtain such items, I would not have packed as much as I did. Also, perhaps the campus could offer more reliable transportation to and from the airports on the arrival and departure days. I had trouble scheduling a shuttle because of the odd times of my flights.
Evaluation # 5942
Summarize your overall assessment of the experience and the effect you anticipate it will have on your teaching and scholarship.
I cannot say enough about this experience, which was one of the highlights of my academic career. I feel like this opportunity has given rise to a turning point in my career in which I feel much more motivated to pursue and share a more scholarly approach with my students. I am inspired both by the content of what I learned and the reminder that there is not much that can substitute for the pleasure of sophisticated, scholarly challenge. I have continued my reading in this subject, and my students enjoy the feeling that we're studying "the real thing" more than the overview. I only hope to participate in more seminars in the future.
Evaluate specific aspects of the program, such as the director, visiting faculty (if any), colleagues, topics, organization, discussions, and activities.
I will echo the comments I saw from previous participants when I applied to this seminar--Lee is a fantastically knowledgeable and personable scholar whose enthusiasm for his subject seems only to increase with our curiosity and interest. My colleagues were an impressive group of dedicated educators, and it was clear from the first day that all felt honored to be involved in the seminar. We often chose to use more time or add an extra class without hesitation. I felt that the level of focus and interest of my colleagues was a key factor in the success of such an intense study.
Evaluate the host institution particularly with respect to hospitality, housing arrangements, the suitability of library facilities, and computer facilities.
Though I understand that some participants were not entirely pleased with the dormitory arrangements, I was able to rent a house with my family. It did take quite a bit of effort and research on my part to make arrangements. The library facilities were beyond any that I have ever had the opportunity to explore--I consider the library visits (both to the main library and to view manuscripts) to be one of the highlights of the program.
Do you have any suggestions for improvements?
Perhaps it would be helpful to provide more detailed information about New Haven and places to live. I know this may be difficult, as it may involve suggesting that some areas are less desirable, but some were unpleasantly surprised--not a good start to a summer. Otherwise, information about where to eat, study, and so on were great!
Evaluation # 5927
Summarize your overall assessment of the experience and the effect you anticipate it will have on your teaching and scholarship.
This NEH seminar was a wonderful experience in just about every respect. All my expectations were fulfilled. I learned much about Chaucer and the medieval period, found much that I will take back to my own classroom, including suggestions for teaching certain tales to high school students and not teaching others. It was most stimulating to be surrounded daily by scholars who are as interested in studying this period as I was.
Evaluate specific aspects of the program, such as the director, visiting faculty (if any), colleagues, topics, organization, discussions, and activities.
Dr. Patterson's lectures were excellent. His rapport with the group and his ability to encourage everyone to participate mark him as a master teacher. Everyone appreciated his insightfulness, his gentle corrections, his suggestions, his mix of lecture and discussion, his pacing of our consideration of the tales, and his generosity and his friendliness. I especially appreciated Dr. Patterson's clear and, it seemed to me, accurate understanding of the history and doctrine of the medieval Church. The last week, devoted to participants' presentations, was surprising and delightful. Our varied little group, from many types of teaching experiences and backgrounds, worked very well together, both in the classroom and out.
Evaluate the host institution particularly with respect to hospitality, housing arrangements, the suitability of library facilities, and computer facilities.
Housing arrangements were excellent: wireless internet, private bedroom, close to everything. The Sterling library provided everything I needed and the Beinecke was most friendly in allowing me access to a 650 year old document that I wanted to inspect. The two art museums Yale supports were wonderful and enriching.
Do you have any suggestions for improvements?
Cafeteria food and service could be improved.
Evaluation # 5981
Summarize your overall assessment of the experience and the effect you anticipate it will have on your teaching and scholarship.
My overall experience in this seminar was overwhelmingly positive. When I first read the seminar's description online last October, it read like a description of the very problem I was having teaching (or rather, not teaching) Chaucer. Even though I had studied medieval literature as part of my master's degree, Chaucer and the medieval time period were, in my classroom, terra incognita. As I detailed in my application essay, I have loved and studied Chaucer's poetry for quite some time, but I had been afraid to teach his work because of issues of language, religion, and culture. After this NEH seminar, however, I am quite confident I will be able to design and execute a major unit on Chaucer this year. After spending some time this fall reviewing the readings, materials, and presentations from the seminar, I plan to design a 25-30 day unit on Chaucer, his time period, and especially upon Middle English, to be taught in the early part of the spring semester. This unit will cover a major hole in my British Literature curriculum between Beowulf and Hamlet. Equally important, it will fit in perfectly with a series of mini-units I am developing on the history of the English language, a series which culminates in my students researching and writing an extended etymology or "biography" of any single word in the language. On a more personal note, this seminar fell between my tenth and eleventh years of teaching. As a result, I see it as an initiation into my second decade in the classroom. While I have a significant number of years behind me, I have even more ahead of me—perhaps another three decades. The thought of staying with high school teaching for that long, frankly, scares me. I have, to be sure, thought of leaving teaching more than once. To stay with it, I have decided, I need projects and units built into my curriculum that offer interest and delight not just for my students, but for me as well. I love Chaucer's work enough, especially now, that a major unit on it will help keep me coming back to education. Basically, then, the effect I anticipate this seminar on Chaucer will have on my teaching is simple. It will help keep me teaching. And that is high praise for a six-week seminar.
Evaluate specific aspects of the program, such as the director, visiting faculty (if any), colleagues, topics, organization, discussions, and activities.
The seminar's director, Lee Patterson, has a great thing going in this seminar. At all times, from my very first e-mail to him not long after the seminar description was posted on-line last fall to our final conversation in the hallway after the last session, I could tell I was working with an experienced professional dedicated to his teaching. His classroom manner in particular was appealing: organized yet spontaneous, focused yet informal, informed but not pedantic. The combination of lecture and discussion he fostered is exactly the kind of classroom teaching I prefer to do as well. The organization of the class, too, could not be better. Obviously, I liked that we read all the tales written in poetry, even the ones on uncomfortable topics—e.g. the Prioress' Tale. With each tale, Dr. Patterson's insights enriched the reading in the way good teaching and scholarship should. Beginning with something obvious yet potentially overlooked in the story, he built upon details and facts to arrive at a very solid interpretation. I delighted in the fact that he then united these interpretations into a reading of the whole of the Tales. What is more, he did not have to rely on contemporary literary theory to get him there. Although I came into the seminar an experienced reader of Chaucer, Dr. Patterson made the writer new and fresh for me, sparking again my original delight and making me want to read all over again. On his part, that is fine teaching.
Evaluate the host institution particularly with respect to hospitality, housing arrangements, the suitability of library facilities, and computer facilities.
Yale University offered an ideal setting for the study of Chaucer and the Middle Ages, perhaps second only to studying in Canterbury itself. In particular, the campus's Neo-Gothic architecture offered a fine backdrop to our daily discussions. On the whole, I found the people at Yale friendly, without the Ivy-League snobbishness I feared. I left with a very positive view of Yale. I see now why it is among the world's leading universities. I did have a few minor issues, however. First, I was not sure why I was charged the nominal $18 fee for internet access. I did not know at the outset that I would be charged for the service, or else I never would have signed up for it. As it turned out, I used the service exactly once, simply to test it. Second, it seemed that the Sterling Library staff was unwilling or unable to take our group on a private tour of the facility. Sterling was by far my favorite building on campus, and I would have enjoyed an extended tour from someone who could have made connections between its cathedralesque structure and our readings. Third, the Yale Transit service's reliability was inconsistent at best. I rode the Green Line in the morning, and the man who drove was friendly and prompt. But in the afternoons, the driver was rude and rarely on time. Finally, I was not sure why the university did not give us our second checks until Monday, July 16, when the seminar was half done on July 12. This apparently arbitrary decision resulted in four days over which my family and I were without a major portion of our budget for our trip. Other than these small things, however, my time at Yale went very smoothly. I would gladly do it all over again despite the things I just mentioned.
Do you have any suggestions for improvements?
Several times, Dr. Patterson mentioned his friend and colleague Marie Borroff, who, in his words, "doesn't miss a syllable" when she reads Middle English. I would have loved to hear her read aloud from Chaucer, Langland, or Sir Gawain. She would have made a great visiting professor. And I would gladly have attended an additional session of the seminar to hear this or anything else she wanted to say. Other than that, I have no other suggestions for improvement, except that I think Dr. Patterson should continue to teach this seminar even in his retirement. I need to stress one more time that I thought this seminar was outstanding in every way, mainly because of his teaching. I was honored to be involved.
Evaluation # 5931
Summarize your overall assessment of the experience and the effect you anticipate it will have on your teaching and scholarship.
Participating in this seminar had a profound effect on me as an educator. I experienced literature as my students do - I was a first time reader of a text struggling to attain comprehension and then higher level analysis. In addition to experiencing the struggle of reading a challenging work for the first time and practicing literary criticism, I also benefited from the collaborative nature of the seminar. Having the opportunity to discuss ideas and interpretation with Lee - a true scholar with a deep passion for literature and the art of teaching - and fifteen other highly motivated educators amplified the benefits. I particularly enjoyed finding out what really caught people's attention in the tales and how that motivated their individual interests in teaching and research. I have a new appreciation for the Tales and great ideas about how to approach them in class.
Evaluate specific aspects of the program, such as the director, visiting faculty (if any), colleagues, topics, organization, discussions, and activities.
Lee organized the seminar beautifully. He laid out a schedule for classes, proposed movie nights to view related films, had supplementary materials prepared and organized, and walked us through the layout of the seminar in advance. Not only that, but he really tried to facilitate our experience on the campus - trying to procure reimbursements for materials, providing restaurant recs, and anything else we needed. The classes themselves were really interesting. This type of seminar poses an interesting instructional problem - how to balance the transmission of information from the learned leader with the discussion of ideas from all participants. Lee worked hard to encourage us to share opinions, practice reading Middle English aloud and not just dump information a la Thomas Gradgrind into our head. But, it's difficult and from time to time I did feel like an audience member as opposed to a collaborator. Being an audience member for Lee's ideas is not bad, though. He's extremely thoughtful and thorough in his analysis and explains things beautifully in a down-to-earth way. And he was really open to creative final projects and supported our varied interests.
Evaluate the host institution particularly with respect to hospitality, housing arrangements, the suitability of library facilities, and computer facilities.
Yale was a good host facility. A few complaints: 1) I had three ID cards - one for the dorm, one for the library, and one (it was actually a piece of paper) that was supposed to entitle me to access to other facilities. I don't know why there can't be one summer id card, but it seemed silly. 2) The dorms were okay, but extremely overpriced. The layout was odd, the beds were uncomfortable and they cost more than the price of my spacious 1 bedroom apartment in Manhattan. That seems ridiculous to me. That said, I appreciated having a built-in workout room and wireless internet, although I sort of resented the extra fee for wireless since I was shelling out so much for room and board. 3) I'd appreciate a little bit more simple guidance on things to do and facilities. Computers seemed available through the lab and library, although I brought my laptop. The library was great and I was really glad I got to use it.
Do you have any suggestions for improvements?
Rethink housing arrangements, or at least prices. A dorm suite room should not cost more than a New York apartment - that's crazy!
Evaluation # 6053
Summarize your overall assessment of the experience and the effect you anticipate it will have on your teaching and scholarship.
The seminar was excellent. As a direct result of the deeper understanding I gained from Lee Patterson, my students understand Chaucer’s work better and enjoy it more. My goal was to come away from the seminar feeling like a qualified intermediary between my students and Chaucer and I accomplished that. What I had not anticipated was the extent to which the seminar would whet my appetite for further exploration into Chaucer’s work, the medieval period, and Middle English. Nice to find a little serendipity!
Evaluate specific aspects of the program, such as the director, visiting faculty (if any), colleagues, topics, organization, discussions, and activities.
Lee Patterson was personable, enthusiastic, patient, and marvelously well qualified to lead the seminar. His organization of our study was clear and efficient, and the pace was for me challenging but reasonable. Professor Patterson proved an able discussion facilitator, and the group of participants he and his committee had assembled was uniformly talented and, in terms of age, experience, and philosophical orientation, richly varied. I also thoroughly enjoyed our weekly movie nights. If anything about the experience was disappointing for me, it was that we didn’t devote more time to the study of Middle English. True, there are only twenty-four hours in a day, and Lee certainly packed our days with plenty to read and think about. But I would have been happy to meet longer or more often to spend time simply reading (and being coached in our reading of) Middle English aloud and, thereby, further assimilating the language. As it was, however, the seminar gave me a considerably deeper appreciation for the precision and craft in Chaucer’s use of language—not to mention more confidence in my own facility with the language—and for this I am grateful.
Evaluate the host institution particularly with respect to hospitality, housing arrangements, the suitability of library facilities, and computer facilities.
The library at Yale was a joy. And, except for some minor annoyances caused by the incompatibility of my MacIntosh laptop with Yale’s Windows system, the computer facilities were good. (Seven cents per page printed seemed a bit steep, however!) Housing also was good, but the available meal plans struck me as nothing less than absurdly expensive. And, though paying a nominal fee for gym privileges seemed reasonable, charging an additional fee for gym towels was a little galling.
Do you have any suggestions for improvements?
I have no suggestions beyond those mentioned above.
2010 NEH Summer Seminar
Application Information and Instructions
NEH Seminar Evaluation 2005
NEH Seminar Evaluation 2007
