A-level Literature Tuition matters

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A-level Literature is not for the faint-hearted. This paper is ten times more difficult than the IB Lit paper or for that matter the IB English HL paper. In the same vein, tutoring this subject is not for the weak-hearted either. This is not an easy or fast way to earn money. Is that why I do not have much competition in this area? Too much work for the tutor? Definitely! All it takes is for the tutor to teach 4 students and the poor dear will be inundated with at least 15 different texts all at the same time! Scary thought, right? Yes definitely. Unlike History at H2 in which the same set of  materials can be used for all H2 History students from all the JCs on the island, for Literature this is definitely not the case! Unless there some students from the same JC, it is a set of different texts for each student.

Most tutors who do H1 and H2 Literature are obviously tutoring other levels and so parents need to know that the tutors do not multiple time slots for JC students. In other words, the students do not have different time slots to choose from. Not for these few months anyway because I am busy, 

Are parents cognizant of the amount of effort that a tutor has to put into helping their college children? Have they seen the number of text options for each paper? Do they know that even when two schools are doing the same paper, they can be using different texts? And usually they do use different texts! I have placed a link to SEAB here to show them the number of texts available for schools to choose for each paper.

And this is why I do not like taking students in on the eve of CAs or SAs. There is a lot of back end work to do and  besides a student needs to give the tutor time before he or she can see results.

Having said that, I want my students to enjoy the subject and in teaching this demanding syllabus, I prefer to teach my student to engage in interpretation rather than analysis. I  find it more applicable to learning Literature and mastering the subject. Interpretation according to Nietzsch is everything, and I secretly believe that those who can interpret are much smarter. When you interpret, you enter a higher plane. Interpretation happens when you take into account the context, the cultural and political history of that period and the text to form insights and construct meanings. 

I have written many times before that applying literary theories is essential to doing well for this paper. And of course, close reading of the text is a must too. Close reading is a skill. Some do close reading and see nothing while others do it and are able to decipher and extract meanings and make interpretations. 

Call me if you like to find out more but I only have a few time slots for JC students and I do not travel to the student’s place and I am unable to teach all the texts. My students know it and they accept it. This is because they know it is next to impossible to find a tutor who can teach all 7 texts. I have told a few parents who want that that I can never be able to help their college children. So far most students engage my services even when I am unable to teach two to three texts. Be ready to tell me the texts you are doing when you contact me so that I can let you know whether I can help you. Chances are that there are one to two texts that I am unable to handle because I do not have the time to reread them.

I am honest about whether I can help a student based on the demands of the parents and if the answer is no today, it will be no even in six months’ time or the following year. For these parents, I encourage them to contact the tuition agencies for help.

In the meantime if you are willing to accept that there may be some texts that I cannot teach because I do not have the time to read them, you can call me. 🙂

Saying goodbye to the obvious, the superficial and the banal

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A text can be approached in many ways. Take for example, the ever-popular, “Romeo and Juliet”.. On a superficial level, the play is about a young couple from feuding families who are not allowed to be together and their attempts to be together results in their tragic deaths. Romeo has a good friend, Mercutio who is killed by Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt and Romeo avenges Mercutio’s death by killing Tybalt.

Now such an interpretation is not wrong, nor inaccurate but there are a lot more to Romeo and Juliet than meet the untrained eye. Many of us tend to take a reductionist view of Romeo and Juliet. Reduce it to the simplest level.

As for my sessions, I try to steer my students away from the obvious, avoiding superficial reading of the play and coming up with banal answers to the more insightful, original interpretations of the play, and in the process have fun and most importantly do well! For my sessions, these are the feedback I have received from my students:

  • Mrs Moen is able to flesh out the characters in such a way that I now have a lot more to write about them. In the past I could only manage two paragraphs (Sec 4 student last year who scored an A2 for Pure Literature).
  • My son enjoys your lessons very much. He said he is learning a lot from you ( Mother of Sec 4 student tutored in Lit, History and Social Studies).
  • She loves your Literature sessions. She enjoys your lesson a lot (Mother of Sec 3 student doing Lit and English).

As for ‘Things Fall Apart”, I do  not even know how to start about how sadly mistaken are some of the ideas that students have been taught about the narrative and the protagonist.

Give me a call today and find out more about my sessions.