Students seem to enjoy that.

“I can’t recommend him highly enough,” said Brandi Paschal, an English senior who took Yoch’s Shakespearean comedy class in the fall and his background to Renaissance literature class this spring. “I think he’s a wonderful teacher — by far I’ve had the most enjoyable experience with him.”

Paschal said she was able to interact with her classmates, which was good because she is a shy person. She said Yoch is respectful and encouraging.

“He just loves plays,” she said. “He loves to see things performed. He says he learns things every time he sees them.”

That fresh perspective is infectious, said Sandra Sabin, a psychology junior who took Yoch’s Renaissance class this semester as an elective.

“He’s a really fun person,” she said of Yoch. “He makes you get really excited about whatever you’re talking about.” His sense of humor infects even mundane conversations about the weather, she said.

“So the whole time you’re talking about the weather, you’re smiling from ear to ear,” Sabin said.

Sabin said she was initially intimidated by Yoch’s class when she learned they were to read 11 books in 16 weeks.

“You get a little scared,” she said, “especially when you find out that they’re all really old books.”

But Sabin learned to enjoy the old literature as she and her classmates read out loud and acted out the texts.

As a final project, Yoch gives students the option either to write a critical paper about a play, act out a play in a group or use the plays to create a modern television script.

Sabin wrote a script for E.R. based on Ovid’s “Metamorphosis.” That process helped her understand the stories much better.

“It made me see it’s not as outdated as a lot of people think,” Sabin said.

Yoch’s final project is another example of his unconventional approach to teaching. He wants to keep students from being passive, so they will be active participants in democracy.

“I’m glad to see people be creative and discover their own voice,” he said.