Spring 2027

Intermediate Intensive (honors) German: Language, Culture, Texts

Intermediate intensive honors course introducing German culture and texts from 1750 to present, emphasizing reading, writing, and discussion.

offering recorded6 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Melissa Sheedy4.4/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Melissa Sheedy

The course was organized well and involved a variety of activities, including reading a World War II comic book. One student noted the class was manageable despite the title.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Gain knowledge of major periods in German culture, literature, and history from 1750 to the present

  • Become aware of how German texts responded to contemporary events or issues and, conversely, how those texts have shaped and influenced both past and present-day German culture

  • Develop intercultural competence by reflecting on the connections and differences between their native culture and German culture and its objects

  • Learn to appreciate the relevance of grammatical accuracy, lexical precision, proper discourse organization, and voice/expressiveness in terms of conveyance of exact intended meaning (including tone, implications, and connotations), aesthetic value, and generally, as a means of sharing experiences across language and cultural boundaries

  • Be able to approach a wide variety of textual genres in different ways appropriate to each

  • Become attentive to rhetorical and formal strategies in different types of texts and gain the ability and vocabulary to describe and analyze them

  • Learn how to write and talk about texts both analytically and creatively

  • Improve critical thinking abilities through group discussion and individual assignments asking them to argue for and support positions

  • Gain enhanced awareness of reading styles and strategies and how to apply them while reading to develop critical reading skills for different text types

  • Improve German language abilities in the areas of writing, reading, listening, and speaking through individual assignments, collaborative work, and class discussions

  • Enhance teamwork skills through extensive collaborative work both in and out of class

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

GERMAN 204. Not open to students with credit forGERMAN 258 or 262.

GERMAN 285 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

Professors

Spring 2027

Melissa Sheedy

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.96/5 from 24 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 5.0/5 raw quality · 1.5/5 difficulty · 4 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Melissa Sheedy

Melissa Sheedy taught German 285 using a variety of learning materials, including reading a comic book set during World War II. She mostly graded on completion while providing helpful feedback to improve students' German. Students described the class as organized, supportive, and enjoyable, noting that the instructor cares deeply about student success.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.85 GPA, 88.2% A/AB (n=17 letter grades); Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=7 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.82 GPA, 90.9% A/AB (n=11 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

MELISSA SHEEDY is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 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 001Classroom Instruction0 / 180

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

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Melissa Sheedy

The class was entertaining and used a variety of learning materials. Melissa Sheedy provided significant support, and students reported that consistent practice improved their German skills.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.85 GPA, 88.2% A/AB (n=17 letter grades); Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=7 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.82 GPA, 90.9% A/AB (n=11 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Melissa Sheedy

The course was organized well and involved a variety of activities, including reading a World War II comic book. One student noted the class was manageable despite the title.

Past student reviews · Melissa Sheedy

Melissa Sheedy graded mostly on completion while providing helpful feedback to improve language skills. The reviewer found her kind and genuinely caring about student success.

Topics

  • German culture, literature, and history from 1750 to present
  • Texts of varying length and genre
  • Approaching diverse textual genres
  • Intercultural competence and cultural comparison

Skills

  • Reading, writing, and discussion in German
  • Analytical and creative text commentary
  • Rhetorical and formal text analysis
  • German language proficiency improvement

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.

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.

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Selected offering source records
GERMAN 285 · Spring 2027

Intermediate Intensive (Honors) German: Language, Culture, Texts

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:424:025051",
    "course_id": "GERMAN 285",
    "course_uid": "course_cccdf36f0269c66c1bcaa860",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "025051",
    "source_subject_id": "424",
    "title": "Intermediate Intensive (Honors) German: Language, Culture, Texts",
    "credits_min": 6,
    "credits_max": 6,
    "typically_offered": "Fall"
  }
]
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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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 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "3fff6cbf909e2f7abe2138064aa26a52a7cd31985f29e4dfc328092a6006e511",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}