Recommended Reading
This diary records one tutoring job over six months: a tutor is invited into a home, liases with parents/carers, and works closely with a student. Families often feel that much depends on the outcome of the tutoring - and on results at school - and they are right! It is important that students discover their interests and develop their abilities.
This student's creative interests emerged during the tutoring. The week-by-week record reveals a significant number of creative writing exercises. The use of formal English in analysing, and criticising, texts is a separate skill within the curriculum but one to which I gave equal time. A tutor needs to pay attention to a student's aptitudes, as well as to where difficulties arise, if the subject as a whole is considered.
The tutoring offered the student the opportunity to review work done at school; both for assessment and not. There were opportunities to rework, and rewrite, essay coursework plans and written versions of the essays. Direction for the tutoring is decided by neither the tutor, nor the student, alone but through the understanding of both. No two tutoring experiences are identical and it is unlikely I will manage the teaching tasks in exactly this way again. The tutoring took place six years ago.
25.11...
Worked with student on homework set by school, answering questions on a poem. I focused on sentence construction, grammar and spelling in context of assigned task from English teacher. She had plenty of ideas about the questions asked on the poem, though difficulties arose in putting these into written language in formal English.
2.12....
Worked on Common Entrance 13+ Exam past paper, reading and comprehension of newspaper article. Left homework essay - diary entry.
9.12....
Worked on sentences: identifying a sentence, fixing grammatical errors, spoken and written sentences, dialects and formal English. Two short written exercises. Planned homework essay.
16.12....
Exercise on Prefixes. Review of homework essay - spelling, sentences, paragraphs. Holiday essay - on someone who has been influential in her life.
6.1....
Development of two paragraphs from holiday essay. Grammar exercises - words and sentences. Written exercises with verbal explanation from tutor. Comprehension using Daily Telegraph articles X 2. Reading and answering questions using mix of speech and writing skills.
13.1....
Spelling. Reading and comprehension X 2 articles. Grammar - written exercise on punctuation. Advised planning for school essays.
20.1....
Worked from Common Entrance 13+ past paper; Poem - questions and answers. Essay planning practice.
27.1....
Common Entrance 13+ Exam past paper. 2 X Comprehension exercises and writing exercise (Write Playscript). Writing much improved - contained several interesting details and humour. Well-constructed narrative. Homework to plan an essay structure based on last week's spider diagram.
3.2....
Comprehension exercise from Common Entrance 13+ past paper. Analysis of Persuasive Writing (Leaflet for Woodland Trust), including visual features and effect on reader.
10.2....
Common Entrance 13+ Writing Skills exercise.
29.2.... + 2.3....
Coursework Essay on An Inspector Calls. Reading and analysing text and essay question. Supporting language/argument in essay writing.
9.3....
Feedback from tutor on completed essay. Sentence work arising from essay. Punctuation exercise. Homework - Book Review on own reading.
16.3....
Wrote short essay: a debate speech for, or against, smacking and use of cane in schools. Looked at teacher's comments on coursework essay and developed ideas on points made in his feedback.
23.3....
Act 1 of An Inspector Calls. Plot details. Author - life and background. Homework essay on character of Inspector in play.
30.3....
Supported student's work on coursework essay on The Fifth Element: conventions of Science Fiction; Science Fiction conventions found in TFE. Essay Plan - began to rewrite.
6.4....
Coursework Essay - Film: The Fifth Element. Tutor outlined essay structures. Worked on main body of essay - beginning to connect ideas to question being asked. Homework to continue work on essay plan.
20.4....
Coursework Essay. Wrote list of points to add into main body of essay.
27.4....
Reading and writing exercises. Read from TES Imaginative Writing Pullout. Wrote short exercise on "telling the future" - can anyone tell the future? Corrected sentence structures.
4.5....
Non-fiction texts. Read two extracts from writing set in Africa: 1. Mandela 2. A Journey Through Zaire. Answered questions orally and in writing on these. Wrote excellent poem putting much imagination into it.
11.5....
Imaginative Writing. Schoolsnet "Writing A Story" - Audience/Language/Character Files - wrote a story of her own. Paragraph with character in bathroom in morning. Discussed somebody seen that day (new girl at school) and what she imagined about her.
18.5....
Imaginative Writing. Read passage from Susan Hill. "Create-a-Story": chose one each from lists of Objects/Characters/Places/Situations and wrote outline.
25.5....
Read over last outline of planned story. Created one further outline. Wrote paragraphs from outlines. Wrote paragraph describing character "Danielle" from two weeks ago - not as part of story but describing what she is like as a person. Discussed contrast with paragraph on her in bathroom in the morning.
1.6....
Imaginative Writing. Two exercises: 1. Wrongly Accused - "It Wasn't Me" (choose a scenario); 2. Lost in Forest.
8.6....
Descriptive Writing - 1. Describe a person you know; 2. A celebrity I would like to meet and what we would talk about. Punctuation exercise.
15.6....
Followed homework exercise on genre (mystery,romance, horror) with writing exercises on plot summary and character study. Discussed opinion of book (own reading) and how to express like/dislike - e.g. I liked it because it was funny - and how to describe episodes. Read non-fiction extract on Niagra Falls. Wrote recipe instruction. Spelling list.
Two Weeks Work Experience
6.7....
Coursework - How is violence portrayed in Romeo and Juliet? Worked through scene with pupil, identifying verbal insults, threats and violence. Found instances from Lady Capulet, Capulet, and Nurse speaking to Juliet about Romeo and marriage.
13.7....
School powerpoint presentation on Romeo and Juliet completed. Discussed some social/historical context about theatre. Read aloud Pepys's diary entry on seeing Romeo and Juliet, prompting question about language used in this time from pupil. Asked student to write character descriptions for two characters - Juliet and Capulet.
20.7....
Gave student photocopied plot outline. Asked her to read aloud sonnet at start of play. (Her interest in poetry being apparent by this time.) Discussed the poem line by line for introduction to storyline of play: language; idea of the play itself. Writing exercise on letter from Juliet to magazine problem page describing her situation, and including as many elements from the play as possible. Task was approached seriously and a number of aspects of plot were included in letter.
