Christine

I am a well qualified and experienced English teacher and have taught across the age range, from primary to 'A' Level, in English Language and Literature, for many years. I really enjoy tutoring students of all levels, working to boost their confidence and enjoyment of the subject, as well as improving their grades through enhancing their overall reading and writing skills. This, I know, helps their application and achievement in all their school and college subjects. In recent years I have also worked on a one-to-one basis with students with learning difficulties, particularly students with dyslexia. Helping them to develop strategies to study course materials effectively, and present their work and ideas successfully, has been a real pleasure. As an English GCSE examiner I also feel very familiar with the question format and expectations; this knowledge and insight really helps my students to focus on exactly what the examiner is looking for.

Tutoring Experience

I have taught predominantly in the Sixth-Form and Further Education sector, not just at 'A' Level but also GCSE re-sits and Functional Skills so I am used to working with a range of abilities. Of course, on Further Educational Vocational Courses, students can be, for example, a brilliant engineer yet not be good at presenting their assignment work so I have helped to enhance these skills to boost grades.

'A' Level and GCSE students, too, can be very good at understanding and analysing texts yet miss out on better grades because of poor writing skills in their exams and essays. I have helped students to improve these attributes, also when there is the opposite problem of good and effective writing skills yet inadequate textual analysis, understanding and interpretation.

I have also enjoyed working with students in preparation for their 11+ and 13+ entrance examinations and achieved succesful results with the majority of pupils.

Tutoring Approach

My tutoring approach is based on seeking to find out the strengths and weaknesses of each student, and getting to know them and what they like and don't like about English lessons. Building confidence and enjoyment of language and communication skills is so vital; good communication is at the hub of so much that we do in life.

On first meeting with a student I am keen to make an initial assessment of their reading and writing skills, particularly focusing on speaking, listening and understanding, including vocabulary and grammar. I use a range of materials to assess and therefore build my initial impression and profile of a student, and then choose materials, adapting and developing these according to their needs as the weeks progress. I like to use past exam papers and materials, discussing what the examiner is looking for in question responses, so that a student can gain knowledge and confidence in how to best approach each task.

My aim always is to get the student to become as independent as possible in their English work; to take an proactive approach to the questions in front of them and to enjoy answering fully and with appropriate detail. That's also where I like to make sure the student is aware of the exam paper requirements and the mark allocations. Some students will spend too long writing a full and developed answer, which can never gain more than the small allocated mark, and may be woefully short on a question requiring much more detail and potentially giving a greater mark.

All the time I am trying to understand each student better and develop a rapport with them. When I can I use worksheets and assessment materials which reflect their interests, but I am always ready to adapt materials and exam papers depending on their progress and needs. When appropriate I work on English writing and reading areas that a student has reported having difficulty with in their school or college, therefore always tailoring the work to their requirements and helping to restore confidence in these types of tasks.