Review:
I had read Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and Notes from Underground prior to enrolling in Prof. Sloane's course, and looked forward to a second reading guided by the teaching of an erudite and passionate professor. Or so I hoped. From day one of class he never had much of a plan for his lectures, and instead ended up feeding irrelevant facts about Russian culture along with "discussion" questions to his students, most of whom seemed bored to the point of falling asleep. This might be pardonable if Sloane were clearly passionate about the novels he taught, but he actually seemed just as bored as everyone else in the room. No one, not even him, wanted to be there. He was approachable outside of class to discuss papers, etc., and seemed like a nice enough person, but all the same he wasn't any more helpful. I didn't learn anything new, and actually left the class with less enthusiasm for Dostoevsky than I had before.

Workload:
Reading includes some of the greatest novels ever written: The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, and Notes from the Underground, along with the slightly inferior The Idiot. In my opinion it was too much reading - Brothers Karamazov is itself dense enough to be the subject of an entire course. Given Sloane's disorganized lectures, the course never even touched upon some of the major events in the novels. But maybe it's a good thing that there's so much reading, since it's the only thing you'll get out of the course. If you skip the actual classes and just do the readings you might really appreciate Dostoevsky's brilliance.

review a class you took with David Sloane - help your classmates make informed decisions!

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David Sloane | RUS001 - ELEMENTARY RUSSIAN | Russian

2006-01-03

Review:
I met with Professor Sloane a few times during office hours and he was always very willing to go over course material. He's a great teacher and you can tell he's in love with the material.

There is a mandatory conversation section, though the course explanation doesn't specify this. An old Latvian/Romanian woman named Tonya runs the sections and at times she can get confused. Overall she's nice, though she does funny things at times.

Workload:
Not a very difficult class. You learn a good amount for one semester of work.

professor rating: | course rating: | major: History of Art

review a class you took with David Sloane - help your classmates make informed decisions!

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David Sloane | RUS066 - Tolstoy and 19th Century Russian Literature | Russian

2005-03-15

Review:
Professor Sloane puts tons of energy into the course. He has so many other things going on outside the classroom, yet he always finds time to meet. After handing back papers, he types out a paper comment. Who would do that?! Most of the professors I know will just scribble a few lines in the paper and throw a grade at the end. Professor Sloane is amazing. If you're interested in the subject he teaches, then I highly recommend taking a class with him.

Workload:
Very reasonable compared to other courses at Tufts.

professor rating: | course rating: | major: Russian

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David Sloane | RUS070 - WOMEN IN RUS LIT&CULTURE | Russian

2004-11-11

Review:
Professor Sloane is probably the kindest professor I?ve encountered at tufts. He's very passionate about the topics which he teaches (Russian female writers in this case, although he says his first love is Tolstoy), although his lectures tend to be a little slow; he often pauses to organize his thoughts and may seem spacey, but he has very interesting and insightful things to say. He's very generous with giving people extensions, and will let it slide if you don't do the readings once or twice and are upfront with him about it. Tolerance of alternative views on the readings: outstanding. He takes an active interest in helping students with papers and paper topics. He has office hours practically every day of the week and is very accessible. I highly recommend his classes if you are interested at all in any Russian literature.

Workload:
Work load not bad at all. There are two papers (6-8 pages each) and the option of either a third paper, or a sit down essay final for which he gives you the topic in advance. The reading required is not unreasonable at all, especially since it is fiction and more reader friendly than textbooks or journal articles.

professor rating: | course rating: | major: N/A

review a class you took with David Sloane - help your classmates make informed decisions!