Experiencing and studying New York City architecture out of the classroom really helped in many different ways. Starting from the very beginning when I found out that the classroom was going to be held outside rather than inside really got me excited to come to class. Looking back to my old architecture history classes, I was never really as interested in the subjects we were going through and learning about the way I was in this class. In the majority of the history classes I’ve taken a lot of the students in the class would usually end up falling asleep halfway through and not really taking interest in the lectures given in class, especially because it was 2 1/2 hours of almost nonstop lecturing. Being able to actually be active during the class time and learning at the same time helped me memorize a lot more than sitting in a classroom for so long.
In regards to the writing assignments that we had to complete each week, it was much easier to complete them because I was able to recall more of the facts and discussions made while on these trips to these architectural sites. Like Professor Montgomery had said in the first class, Classes like New York City architecture history should be about learning and gaining interest into these subjects to help us in the further future whereas taking tests doesn’t really help learn it just tests your memorization skills rather than the knowledge retained during these class trips.
Overall, I do believe studying New York City architecture outside of the classroom is much more helpful than staying inside of the classroom. By visiting the sites, it creates images in your head that will stay stuck with you, which means you won’t have to memorize these events, it’ll just become a natural thought or memory that isn’t forced to be recalled like in tests. This also helped a lot with the final research paper and learning to describe buildings with your own voice.
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