ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English & EAL => Topic started by: M_BONG on December 23, 2014, 03:25:23 pm

Title: Learning new Section A texts + English texts discussion thread
Post by: M_BONG on December 23, 2014, 03:25:23 pm

Hi everyone! :)

I am looking to tutor English next year (my first year) and I am looking for advice from people with experience tutoring English. I am going to read and learn the Section A texts that my students are learning at school - provided they commit. But I was wondering how much detail do I need to know apart from the basics? Do I need to learn quotes, themes, characters etc. Basically do I need to be able to score a 10/10 myself on the VCAA exam using that text? For those who have tutored, do students tend to expect you to know the texts well yourself?

Also, for Context, which is very different from TR, how far should I research into the Context? Right now I have students from all Contexts except Imaginative Landscape. Should I spend the summer break researching over the individual Contexts? Again, how superficial or deep should my knowledge be, for me to be an efficient tutor (juggling uni stuff as well, of course!)

Also, I would also like to keep this thread to discuss some Section A texts.

1. Has anyone read the following:
Skin, Collected Poems, White Tiger?
Review (in terms of difficulty: things to look out for) would be much appreciated!

Is it worth rejecting prospective students based on the texts they are studying (like I really cannot manage learning more than 5 texts over the summer break..)
Thanks heaps in advance :)

Title: Re: Learning new Section A texts + English texts discussion thread
Post by: literally lauren on December 23, 2014, 04:13:23 pm

I would definitely advocate reading the text yourself and reading some study guides or online resources if they're available. You wouldn't have to know it as well as your students, but you should be able to maintain a lengthy discussion about the text and even bring up some original (ie. not from a study guide) points they might be able to use.

It depends on your tutoring style though; some people will just look at things from an essay point of view, and the work done in lessons is more about the structure of writing pieces to compliment all the close textual stuff done in regular school lessons. Others prefer to go through some key parts of the text with their student and possibly discuss some character or thematic interpretations.

Similarly, you might have a student who asks you highly specific questions about moments in the text, or you might have someone who cares more about your explanation of the marking criteria and exam tricks.

Text-wise:

• Skin is for Id&b, you won't have to know this inside-out, just watch it once since the themes are pretty surface-level; very very easy text. From there you can encourage your student to consider a few aspects of the text they find interesting (might be character development, might be authorial/historical context, might be interpretational, etc.) and then Context just becomes about refining their writing style and offering potential areas of interest for external evidence.
• Collected Poems: (I assume this is Gwen Harwood and not the War Poems?) If you've never studied poetry before then these can be a little tricky. Once you've identified key messages and themes though, it becomes a lot simpler. Probably a 7/10 on a difficulty scale. By now there are heaps of resources online though, so hopefully you'll be able to find some. Familiarise yourself with Harwood and her main thematic concerns before reading, otherwise you'll have no idea what you're looking for. It might also be worth looking at some of the VCAA prompts early on too, just to get a feel for the kinds of questions they ask, as well as key areas of discussion.
• White Tiger: first year this is on the list, and I reckon it's an awesome text. Definitely read this one since there's very little available online (and nothing VCE-specific so far.) The VCAA pattern I've noticed is that texts in thee first or second year are often given fairly obvious/easy prompts in the exam to compensate for a lack of resources, whereas the third and fourth year ones are given harder prompts since there's so much secondary material out there (there've been major exceptions to this pattern, but 9 times out of 10 this is the case with all books.) There will be stuff cropping up throughout the year, and your students will probably be given handouts in class too, but personally I found White Tiger really interesting, so I'd say it's worth a read.

Of course you could always just inform your students that you can only offer close advice for texts you know, or just flat out refuse anyone with totally different texts you've never read, but tbh most of the books don't take longer than a day or two to read and research.

Knowing the text well is definitely a bonus, but going through different approaches to a prompt or discussing different essay formats can also be very valuable.

Title: Re: Learning new Section A texts + English texts discussion thread
Post by: M_BONG on December 23, 2014, 08:48:34 pm

Awesome, awesome advice as always, Lauren! I will keep you posted (ie. bump this thread at random times for text reviews) but I am not getting any students who is studying Henry - such a waste because it's so interesting and still relevant today?- especially with the recent Richard III DNA scandal. Maybe Hal really does "imitate the sun (son)" Ha.Ha.Ha.

With regards to Context, how did you go about learning it? Unlike TR, where you can just study a text, you have to become aware of that particular Context and be able to link pop culture, current affairs, literature, the real world (how frightening!!!) etc.   For instance, although I may have a shallow understanding of Conflict (did Quiet American in Year 11), how else might I get more Context-specific information for Conflict or I&B? Through reading study guides? I find that reading the set texts for a Context doesn't actually help that much because most of the time texts are only a springboard for much wider, broader ideas.  Do you find making your own notes about each Contexts helpful or am I overcompensating?

Title: Re: Learning new Section A texts + English texts discussion thread
Post by: literally lauren on December 24, 2014, 07:43:36 pm

Yeah, I didn't have any students doing my exam text this year either  :'(
But think of it this way - if you were a student, would you want your tutor to have an inside out knowledge of the text and be able to correct every misquote and talk about close structural features, or would you prefer they be able to advice you in terms of what you should focus on in any given prompt, and to help you fix the common mistakes you might be making?


The Contexts are all pretty closely related, in fact there are a couple of prompts that could relate to multiple areas (eg. 'Conflict occurs because people see the world differently' or 'Our identity is a product of our environment.')

In terms of understanding the background of the context and how to explore it, reading some high scoring essays should give you some idea of areas of exploration. And whatever references you've been using this year will still be relevant to other Contexts. It might be just a simple matter of taking those examples you found worked well and rehashing them in a more identity-ish or conflict-y light.
eg. the concept of the 'American Dream' which I know is dealt with in detail because of certain WR texts. This concept is about conflicting realities and how they impact our identities, as well as how we belong to the world/landscape around us. Bam - all four contexts. Obviously you'd go into greater detail depending on which one your students were focusing on, but more often than not, good examples will be applicable to multiple contexts, and in multiple ways.

For something to happen and be worth talking about, there's almost always conflict. Provided there are people involved (and especially for groups,) identity and belonging will be there. Reality is friggen everything so that one's covered. And the imaginative landscape is just a fancy-pants way of looking at internal and projected realities.

(http://24.media.tumblr.com/7dec88b9befc9578bae9b99e9ac447eb/tumblr_n5lwhpq5sA1tq4of6o1_500.gif)

Also, seven years into a study design, just googling 'conflict/id&b etc. VCE resources' should return a good handful of results to get you started :P

Once you comprehend just how generalisable and interrelated it all is, Context is incredibly easy to wrap your head around :)

Title: Re: Learning new Section A texts + English texts discussion thread
Post by: tange on January 12, 2015, 12:10:36 am

Hi Zezima,

It depends on your student. The quality of your student's school and teacher can impact on their learning and knowledge of the text. Some teachers may have covered and analysed the text in depth or have offered students extra notes/ sample essays. Other teachers may decide to focus less on analysing the text and prefer to spend more time on going through essay questions. Therefore, every student will come to you with different expectations and needs. Some may want you to offer extra help with analysing the text, others may only need you to go through essay questions or provide feedback for their writing.

For example, on my teaching placement my mentor spent a lot of time going through prompts for Context but no time on the selected text. Several students had little understanding of the selected text because they believed that it was unnecessary to read/ really know it well for Context. As a result, their responses were quite superficial when they mentioned the selected text. I ended up spending a few lessons teaching the students to unpack the text properly and then make connections between ideas, external examples and the selected text.

I have tutored some students who struggled with inferential reading so they needed more help with close analysis. I also tutored students who required more assistance with essay structure and planning so I used graphic organisers such as a planning chart. Some students found it difficult to come up with meaningful ideas and examples so I preferred to use a brainstorming/ bubble map method. However, effective pedagogical practices should be combined with content knowledge. If you know how to teach but you don't know 'what' you are teaching then it is problematic. Likewise, if you know 'what' you are teaching but you don't know 'how' to communicate it to your students then it is also an issue.

You need to be well prepared and flexible so reading your students' texts, knowing the themes, characters, structures/features/ conventions are important. Although you don't have to produce 10/10 essays for the texts yourself, you need to be able to provide helpful feedback for students' essays so that they can achieve their best. Without knowing the text in depth, you might struggle to offer alternative insights and advices for their writing.

In addition to reading the texts, you may want to dedicate some time preparing lesson plans. I usually spend one week on each text (preparing lesson plans in advance for themes/ characters/ close textual analysis/essay questions/ prompts) so I'm prepared to teach anything my student needs help with. Unfortunately, you'll have to be ready to sacrifice a lot of free time. However, I only accept a certain number of students so that makes my preparation manageable and I also try to take in students who are studying texts I have taught in previous years.

Last week I overheard a girl complain about her tutor because the lessons lacked structure.  :-\  There is nothing worse than making your student think that you are disorganised and unprepared.

I hope I helped....

Good luck and enjoy your tutoring experience!  ;D