Spring 2027

The African Storyteller

The African Storyteller explores oral tradition, the written word, story composition, performer-audience dynamics, and tradition transmission in African societies.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Matthew Brown

One student reported a lot of busy work, while another noted that the midterm was fairly difficult and grading became stricter as the semester progressed.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Recognize the diversity of the African continent and its storytelling traditions.

  • Examine the ways African storytellers represent human experiences.

  • Interpret global processes (social, cultural, political, economic, historical, etc.) through the lens of African storytelling.

  • Identify, examine, and illustrate knowledge of various storytelling techniques, in both the oral and written storytelling traditions of Africa.

  • Consider various cultural, social, and historical questions relevant to African storytelling.

  • Practice identifying, examining and interpreting the relationship between literary and cultural, social, and historical discourses.

  • Craft, support, and articulate arguments about cultural, social, and historical processes.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
AFRICAN/FOLKLORE 210 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

HAROLD SCHEUB is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MATTHEW BROWN is recorded teaching in Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Online Only0 / 300
LEC 002Online Only0 / 400
LEC 003Online Only0 / 400
LEC 004Online Only0 / 400
LEC 005Online Only0 / 400
LEC 001Online Only0 / 2000
LEC 002Online Only0 / 450
LEC 003Online Only0 / 450
LEC 004Online Only0 / 450
LEC 005Online Only0 / 400

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Harold Scheub

Past students described lectures as engaging and never dull, with one noting the instructor made the class interesting and funny.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.73 GPA, 86.1% A/AB (n=238 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.61 GPA, 80.7% A/AB (n=233 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.68 GPA, 85.6% A/AB (n=236 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Matthew Brown

One student reported a lot of busy work, while another noted that the midterm was fairly difficult and grading became stricter as the semester progressed.

Past student reviews · Harold Scheub

Some students found the instructor difficult to understand and strict about attendance, while others reported harsh grading or rigid viewpoints.

Topics

  • Oral tradition and the written word in African societies
  • Diversity of the African continent and its storytelling traditions
  • How African storytellers represent human experiences

Skills

  • Identifying and examining storytelling techniques in oral and written traditions
  • Interpreting relationships between literary and cultural, social, and historical discourses
  • Crafting and supporting arguments about cultural, social, and historical processes

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.15 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
AFRICAN/FOLKLORE 210 · Spring 2027

The African Storyteller

Recorded 2026-10-14
AFRICAN/FOLKLORE 210 · Spring 2027

The African Storyteller

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:104:000028",
    "course_id": "AFRICAN/FOLKLORE 210",
    "course_uid": "course_4a25922d393788ddad31c263",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "000028",
    "source_subject_id": "104",
    "title": "The African Storyteller",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  },
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:380:000028",
    "course_id": "AFRICAN/FOLKLORE 210",
    "course_uid": "course_4a25922d393788ddad31c263",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "000028",
    "source_subject_id": "380",
    "title": "The African Storyteller",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "9987b6dc183d0a90da8db553d44359280c5e5d4d81d770b94179ce316166cfdd",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}