Professor Carruth is amazing! She really cares about the students and tries her best to make it a great learning experience. Really accommodating with everything going on this quarter as well.
I really liked this class and the material we went through, very eye opening. We went through 2 books, a couple of poems, some articles, and some movies/documentaries, but they were not boring at all! The assigned reading assignments are all very engaging and at a very reasonable amount.
There are a three group projects throughout the quarter and we stay in the same group (I enjoyed this but some might not like this). We also write two short papers and there was an optional final exam. She also offers extra credit! Very possible to do great in this class if you put in the effort.

English M30 with Professor Carruth is about how the natural world is portrayed in media and literature. We were assigned articles each week and read three books: Through the Arc of the Rainforest by Karen Tei Yamashita, Thunder & Lightning by Lauren Redniss, and Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith. The course consists of 2 short essays, 3 group projects, and some extra credit quizzes. The workload is fairly manageable, and Professor Carruth was very helpful this quarter in accommodating the class. This quarter, lectures and discussion were all done over zoom. The lectures are recorded. The discussion sections were great, because it gave us a chance to talk as if we were all in the same room together. The essays were open ended and allowed for a lot of creativity. Overall, I really enjoyed this class!

Professor Carruth is by far the most incredible professor I have had the pleasure to learn from during my four years at UCLA. Her clear passion for environmental literature and environmentalism in general is palpable and infectious. This is not an in-depth, upper division literary theory class but rather a survey of concepts in environmental literature. Yet professor Carruth manages to make literary principles and concepts core elements of the class while simultaneously maintaining an incredible level of accessibility to the numerous students from majors/disciplines other than English that may be taking this class. She makes the importance of intersecting scientific understandings and cultural or humanities understandings of the environment and climate change a central part of the class without alienating those who may not be highly engaged with those topics. It is impossible to get through this class without learning at least a little something about just how wide the environmentalism field is. Professor Carruth also does an incredible job of addressing issues that all too often are ignored when tackling environmental problems: environmental justice and racial disparities, native land claims, the separation of nature and culture, and what one of the authors we study in the class calls "environmentalism of the poor," or the alternative approaches to environmentalism that exist beyond the Western sphere of thinking.

Finally, Professor Carruth showed a level of care, understanding, and support to her students in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that truly melted my heart. She clearly understood how hard all of that was for her students, regularly acknowledged these difficulties and made herself available for discussion about it, and was more than fair in her flexible adjustment of class assignments (including making the final exam completely optional). In addition, during the last week of class, she made a point to address the protests about the wrongful murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police that had begun to sweep the nation. This all speaks to her character not just as an educator, but as a human being. And for that I will always deeply admire her.

So, if you are wondering whether or not to take this class, the answer is a resounding HELL YEAH!!!!!

Loved this class and the professor! The class is extremely easy but also very interesting as a GE. Assignments and readings are fun and short. Tests are simple and straightforward if you've attended lectures and actually done the reading assignments. The professor is very kind and compassionate and actually cares about student learning and the overall enjoyability of the class!

This class is one of my favorite classes I’ve taken. Professor Carruth was very engaging and a really pleasant lecturer. The topics and literature changed each week so it was not boring. All you have to do to do well in this class is go to lecture and section and have a decent understanding of the texts.

Honestly, it's a really good class. The only reason I didn't get an A is because I slacked off and didn't do a lot of readings or go to class. A lot of my grade fell on my TA who was kind of a hard grader too. Participation and attendance in lecture matters!! The class is basically 3 group projects, one reflection letter, two 700-800 word essays and then a midterm and final. The midterm is only 10%. She also gives you a lot of opportunity for extra credit. I would recommend this class, but just go to class. She posts the slides but she says most of the stuff in lecture. Professor Carruth is amazing though! I would do the readings, they'll help you out. Selling the 3 books necessary for this class for $25. **********!

Professor Carruth is a great professor. She really cares about what she teaches and she frequently opens the class up for discussion about various topics. In my personal opinion, however, I was a little confused as to what the whole class was about. She centers the class around how the environment is portrayed through various mediums using keywords with nuanced definitions. It was hard for me to wrap my head around what was discussed in lecture because it seemed to me that the class veered into a lot of sidenotes rather than focusing on the main material that we needed to know.
Aside from that, however, the class was super easy. As a third-year I haven't wrote an essay since high school and I'm thankful I took this class because you only have to write two-750 word "essays". In addition, this class is also graded on section participation, some simple group assignments, a midterm and a final. With the exception of the group assignments (which require less than an hour of effort) I received a B-B+ on all assignments including participation!
At the end of the class I calculated my grade to be a B+, however it was curved up to an A. I think this is because of the extra credit pop quiz questions given at the end of random lectures that literally add 1% each (like 4% total) to your overall grade. Considering my effort anyone can get an A in this class!
TL;DR- Do the extra credit pop quiz questions to get great grades!

Amazing class, passionate professor, and great TAs. The concepts covered are really interesting, the readings are actually quite good, and the assignments are fair.

25% - Projects (3 group projects + 1 letter). They were not difficult but they were really enjoyable

10% - Midterm. Professor Carruth tells you exactly what to expect, no surprises, and not that difficult if you go to lecture and do readings.

25% - Short papers. Graded by TAs. This was probably the hardest part of the course but still not too bad. Only one of the papers was academic in nature, the other was more creative (creating a mission statement).

15% - Participation

25% - Final. Same as midterm, just longer.

Some extra credit is available during class too, randomly placed through the quarter. Overall, highly recommend. The topics covered in the class, while somewhat complex, are really interesting.

I absolutely LOVED this class. Professor Carruth is a really engaging, dynamic lecturer who not only puts a lot of care into curating the class' reading list, but also takes input from students to help them learn.
The topics covered in class are sometimes abstract but Professor Carruth makes her requirements for the class very clear and also does a really good job listening to what the students want in order to help them learn best. She posts the exact format of her midterm, examples for how the homework should be done, her slides before lecture, and also sends out videos that students send her that relate to the class material.
I really really enjoyed her class and I think it actually changed the way I think about the environment and the way the environment is imagined--if you have the chance/space in your schedule to take this class I totally would!!!!
Also if you can take discussion with Robin Kello, I would ! He's a really attentive TA who is very dedicated to everybody's success and also is really good at facilitating conversation with the class.