Information About Rita - Coventry teacher

Personal Description:

I’m a tutor with 11 years of experience in Higher Education. I have a PhD in English and Comparative Literary Studies from the University of Warwick, from which I graduated in 2019. My thesis was on the relationships between women and property in Jane Austen.

I also have an MA in English Literature (Merit) from the University of Warwick, where I undertook classes in English literature, creative writing and literary theory. Before, I studied Modern Languages (English and Spanish) (First) at the University of Coimbra.

I am a native Portuguese speaker with an undergraduate degree in both English and Spanish, and also offer both language and conversation classes in Portuguese and Spanish for students wishing to increase their confidence in these areas.

Teaching Experience:

Throughout my PhD and beyond, I spent 6 years at the University of Warwick studying, as well as teaching as supporting students through my roles as tutor and exam invigilator at the English and the History departments and as a resident tutor at the Residential Life Team. Modules I taught at Warwick include: Crime Fiction, Nation and Empire: Britain 1850-1947, English Literature and Feminisms, 1790-1899, The European Novel, Shakespeare and His Sister (Early Modern Literature) and The Enlightenment.

I have taught A-level students both through private tutoring and through the English Department's Transformations programme, as part of which I planned and delivered classes on English Literature at Finham Park School in Coventry.

I have additional experience in adult teaching: in 2018-2019 I created my own module, "Women at Home: Gender and Place in the Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Novel" for a Workers' Educational Association (WEA) class in Kenilworth.

Teaching Approach:

My teaching experience has taught me that every student learns differently, and so in my sessions I help my students gain confidence by allowing them to explore different ways of studying, in order for them to discover which ones work for them.

I am committed to continuously improving my teaching through reading the newest pedagogy in the fields in which I teach. At all levels, I use active learning pedagogy, encouraging the students to be active in their own learning, and teaching my tutees study skills so that they can continue their independent study outside of our sessions.

For more advanced learners, at A-level and HE, I combine this pedagogy with "students as researchers" pedagogy. Research skills at both of these levels are central to the students' assessment. With that in mind, in my sessions I utilise a series of activities so that my students can learn through research and inquiry, in order to feel confident when asked to produce written pieces, whether this is answers to exam questions or essays.