In my high-school literature class (not English), I never had to write an essay. No composition exercises, novel summarizing, or character descriptions. In fact, we never had to produce any - even semi-original - writing. Instead, for the entire duration of the class, the teacher dictated his notes for every piece of literature, in bullet or numbered form. He dictated from memory, reading only the quotes, and their precise reference, from little index cards he carried in his pocket. He seemed to calibrate the speed so as to prevent us from even adjusting our seat, or we'd miss out a whole paragraph. Even then, we had to compare notes to fill in gaps, because we had to be so fast, our writing was often illegible. We never had time to think or reflect in class.
Thanks for sharing your memories of what sounds like a great teacher. Hope to read more of this sort of thing in the future :)