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easy going

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Helpful and informative, puts too much weight on participation without encouraging it as much as needed.

Very easy-going. Will help with anything if you talk to her. Loves to lend books.

Very flexible course. She totally sees you as an adult and is very willing to hear what you have to say.

FAir marker... good explainer

very affable, seems to enjoy teaching. no easy marks though

Totally approachable and helpful if you have questions about anything and everything. Truly open to all ideas and opinions. Marks fairly. Very very very very cool.

Overall good teacher! Marking is very fair and very accessible for questions and concerns. Very flexible. However, I do wish that the readings we do actually "counts" in the end. I wish I could know more about her marks allocated to participatio

prof. birks is a really nice person, but the entire class, which was drama, was supposed to be analyzing plays and understanding them from a different point of view, and all she did was summarize it and make it completely worthless to read the plays!

Those who consider Birks to not have analyzed the plays enough need to realize that it was a second year introduction to drama course. ENGLISH: Drama, not upper level theatre. Birks is interesting, humourous, helpful and fair. One of UBC's finest!

amazing prof, the best i've ever had. engages discussion as a peer, not an authority. reads every word you write and has loads of comments. has an incredibly flexible teaching style. (hardly any course content though...)

Probably the best prof I've ever had.

very good prof. i'm just very glad that none of the required reading counted.

she is one of the best teachers i've ever had. she's clear with her instructions and is fair with all assignments.

she is the best prof i've had at UBC. she grades fairly and is such a nice sweet person.

i like that she cares about how well we do;in a research paper we had to do she got us to hand in the proposal,outline,draft & returned them filled with comments and suggestions,sometimes seeing us individually to help us out with our topics even more. discussions are interesting, lots of groupwork

Very helpful and nice teacher. Classes are intresting if you keep up with the readings. Not hard to get a good mark if you go to class and pay attention.

She is a good prof overall, but is a bit unorganized sometimes. She is very knowledgable and explains materials very well. She is a very fair marker and I recieved good grades on all my essays.

Birks was a fair marker and one of my favorite prof's all year. She was really nice to all the ppl in the class and made the class interesting. I agree she was a bit unorganized but it was to our classes advantage because we had more time to work on our projects etc. Came out with a really good mark which wasn't expected ;);)

Slightly disorganized but the course had great material. She was a fair marker and the assignments were varied and fun (i.e. we got to perform one of the plays we read). A fun, easy class.

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Dr. Birks is such a sweet lady. Her grading was fair and she made class enjoyable.

Very easy-going prof. The reading she selects are interesting and still somewhat topical. She is clear on what she expects for assignments and gives helpful feedback. Her classes can be very disorganised leaving one unsure of what is going to be discussed or what preparation needs to be done.

Classes were really boring, but she's a very nice prof. Gives feedback sometimes, and encourages class discussions (re current events). Quite an easy class. Recommended if you want to get the credits with a good grade.

she's a really nice prof but it wasn't interesting enough to keep me awake. some discussions were good though and you can get good grades quite easily

Awesome professor. I was never really interested in English before I took this class, but it ended up being my best mark. She's very helpful, and the directions for assignments are very clear. The readings she assigns are actually really interesting, and she's a fairly easy marker. I'd say its pretty easy to get a high grade in her class.

Marks harder than most English profs. I worked really hard on a research project and got 60%, which is the lowest I have ever got on anything.

Lecture is boring but marking is fair. Besides, she is always willing to help and responding to my email surprisingly careful.

This was probably the worst class I've ever taken. Professor Birks, however, does seem like she would be a good professor in another class. She's very helpful, and responds to emails thoroughly and in a timely manner. This class, although pointless, is a GPA booster if you're a mildly proficient writer.

Lectures were somewhat difficult to take notes in considering she just reads from her notes but group discussions were helpful.Journal entries felt like unnecessary work. Although if you take your time to meet with her or email her she is VERY HELPFUL. I would recommend this course if you're willing to put in the effort

really nice prof. really helpful, and always available. very reasonable on marking. marks on everyday work as well. generally, if you work hard, you will get a reasonable mark.

I took her class via Distance Ed so I'm not sure how her lectures would be, but I just wanted to mention that she's very kind and understanding. When I was going through some problems, she completely empathized and tried her best to make the course work for me.

Professor Birks is awesome. Sometimes her lectures are hard to keep up with, but if you read the required material (which isn't much), you'll do just fine. Also, her classes are a ton of fun because of the acting project, in which each group performed a 15 minute scene chosen from one of the books. I got an 88 final mark. I highly recommend her.

Prof. Birks showed me Canadian Lit could actually be very interesting! The grading was quite easy and as long as you're finishing assignments and participating (even just a little) you can get a fair grade. She's helpful and understanding, open to a variety of opinions. Highly recommended.

Oh the drama! J/k. Drama class was uber fun w/ Dr. Roberta J. Birks. Made the class REALLY understand the complexity of OEDIPUS REX, a key classic text by a Greek man. Everyone should study this work carefully during undergrad studies. It makes reading romance and melodrama much easier. She didn't like the Pasolini film though. But still see it.

Prof Birks is a wonderful teacher.She gives lots of reading,but it is interesting.Going to class and reading the material will result in good marks.She is understanding and fair.She likes to show movies of the novels.I would totally take her class again,it was a pretty easy mark considering the work.

Roberta was an amazing prof. Made my first semester in university much easier. Helpful if you take the time to email her as she promptly replies all emails. A lot of readings but she is genuinely passionate about what she teaches and makes sure that her class understands. Overall, great prof and I would highly recommend her

Pretty good prof. Talks a lot in class, lots of it isn't super interesting or important, but she really knows her stuff. If you have problems with anything, she is very helpful! Very fair, relatively easy marker - I got a grade in the 80s and I only finished two of the four assigned works.

Great professor, not too much work and sets the course up to run very smoothly. highly recommend taking this course if you want to learn without getting bogged down with tons of essays.

Very helpful teacher. :)

Dr. Birks is the most helpful English professor I've encountered at UBC. She takes the time to get to know her students and her passion for Canadian literature really comes through. Take a course with her- you won't regret it.

Cons: She didn't make it clear what was needed for the final exam. On the exam we had to know definitions of keywords and authors that she only mentioned a few times. However, her PROS make up for it: Very nice, makes lectures fun, great reader (important for a class with poetry), doesn't stutter, easy to listen to. Take her class.

Professor Birks is one of the most charming profs at UBC. I had her for 120 and 222. She is very friendly and has a good sense of humour. She definitely knows her stuff. Sometimes she jumps around in her lectures but she's a fair marker for both journals/essays unlike what some people have said. You'll enjoy her class!

Cool prof, really loves class discussion. Presents material well. Open to different perspectives. Canadian Lit books were not interesting but Birks made it worth while with good discussion. I'd take another class with her.

I really enjoyed the novels that she chose for the required readings. She's very knowledgable and open-minded so class discussions were interesting. She is also very kind, helpful and approachable. Would love to take another class of hers.

There are in class journals, an in class essay, a presentation, and a term paper. You study Richard III, poetry, short stories and the Book of Negros. I found lectures to be incredibly boring, but she is an easy marker. There were only a few people who got lower than a B on the in class paper. If you only care about the grade you get, she's perfect

She has such great insight into texts, but she'll read pretty quickly through them - so take fast notes. I really enjoyed her classes and the works that she picked for the course. She's very fair and straightforward. Gosh I miss her classes.

Really nice prof. Very clear what she was expecting, easy grader, super helpful during office hours, and gave lots of feedback on every assignment.

Birks has to be one of the easiest English teachers ever. She is an easy marker. She mostly bases her criteria on thought and content rather than grammar. Lovely lady, and helpful if needed. Her instructions may be unclear sometimes, but shes always willing to help.

She is a good teacher from what i've seen. She does mark easy on the small stuff and a fair bit harder on the larger essay's but it is still fair. Very nice with interesting readings. Always reachable by email.

Doesn't give a criteria sheet, so it's kinda hard to see what she's marking on. Gave us interesting readings, very approachable. But an overall easy marker. Nice prof, didn't hate class. Overall, just another english course.

Very kind person who is engaged with her subject and s clearly knowledgeable about what she has to say. I had her for ENGL 112 though and I didn't like the class mainly because I just don't like English, not because of her. Class was mainly discussion and very little out of class work except for a term paper which isn't so heavy.

Best English prof ever.

She's quite kind and her in-class exercises help a lot