What Do You Think It Means?
Sixty-four tips for an English tutor (an opinionated little pamphlet)
One
How can I know what I think till I see what I say? — Graham Wallas, The Art of Thought
A Question is the best beacon towards a little Speculation. — Keats, to Benjamin Bailey, 1 November 1817
Model for your student how to use discussion and writing to develop ideas.
In maths, you’re meant to ‘show your workings’. In an essay that a student has the opportunity to edit – coursework, for example – they don’t need to show all of their workings. Writing the essay is a way for them to figure out what they think, and they can then go back to put that thesis in the introduction and to trim any fat.
Two
Help your student to
Speak about complex ideas,
Read high-quality material, and
Write essays on which they will receive detailed feedback.
These are three ways of thinking.
For obvious reasons, weight lessons towards speaking, and homework to reading and writing.
Three
In his preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde says that ‘Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.’ This is an invitation as well as a warning.
Four
When reading a play with one student, you can’t dish out multiple parts. So, for every scene, know who the main speaker is, get your student to read that part, and fill in the others yourself. That way, your student can concentrate on the most important things being said.
For example, in the first scene of Othello, your student can read Iago, focussing on the way he describes Othello behind his back; and in the second scene, your student can read Othello, focussing on how he presents himself and comes across.
Five
If you’re teaching texts which you don’t know the whole of well, make a virtue of necessity and specify by comparing analogous passages. For example, the censure of Eve by Adam in Paradise Lost (X. 867–908) and the censure of the Duchess by her brothers in The Duchess of Malfi (II. v. 22–82).
Six
We value our annotations. Sometimes we value them as one would a life raft in a sea tempest. But a huge number of old annotations can actually make it harder to engage with and teach a text; to see the wood through the trees. Try re-reading a clean copy. What’s important today, for this student?
Seven
Do the texts in Michaelmas mode first time round, i.e. properly, in detail, on their own literary terms, because when you come back to them in the summer term you’ll be doing them from the exam’s point of view.
Eight
Most students’ essays take most of their details from the first half of the text. Your student’s can stand out by exploring the end – the second generation in Wuthering Heights, for example, or Othello’s final speech.
Nine
When comparing texts, pair analogous characters, almost in a Joseph Campbell-like way. For example, in A Streetcar Named Desire and The Handmaid’s Tale, Blanche and Offred both experience guilt, have illicit sex, try to stay sane, and end by being forcibly removed from where they have been living. The Doctor and Matron can be compared to the Eyes, Allan to Luke, Stanley to the Commander, Stella to Moira, etc.
Ten
There may be even in flattery an honest kind of teaching, if princes, by being told that they are already endued with all virtues necessary for their functions, be thereby taught what those virtues are, and by a facile exhortation excited to endeavour to gain them. — Donne, Ignatius His Conclave
The best thing I learnt at the Institute of Education is to treat your student’s written work with the utmost seriousness. Read and comment on it as if it is a book that you’re editing. Even do this if they’ve dashed it off – it might shame them into greater effort next time.
