Good teachers of english at LC level

curious girl

Just wonderin' - good English teachers, hard to find, we're lucky each day we go into LC higher English, she has notes ready photocopied for us , gives reg. Homework and corrects it using the PCLM method, we might get 5 written pieces a week, she takes no crap and pushes us to achieve our best. I think it's good to have someone who pushes and motivates you to do well, she never tries to be popular , she just tells us it as it is.Encouraging when you do well and kicks ass when we don't. respect her hugely cause she doesn't try to be our friend, she tells us we have enough friends, she wants us to achieve our best. Thoughts on other english teachers? Good/ bad, caring/ hardworking? appreciate your thoughts

Naikon

As long as you dont get a Nun, its all good:)

*speaking from experience here, what with the crazy Nun Religion teacher I used to have*

Older English teachers tend to be better than the "young uns" though in my humble opinion.

Haven't a Clue

I've been blessed with two excellent english teachers for both the JC and the LC. Unfortunately, it's about the only subject which my school is spoiled for good teachers...

cocoa

I reckon I have an excellent teacher for LC english, but I don't really have anything to compare to. Really, I think it's one subject which depends a lot on the student (although of course, not entirely). Personally, I gain much more enjoyment from reading and engaging with the texts and poetry on my own and with my own style than I do out of the actual english classes. My responses tend to be slightly different and well thought out as a result. My teacher's main role is motivational. I got a C at JC level and I barely had a clue what the english exam was about. For LC I'm a lot more focused and aware and I got a shiny A2 in my mock. The teacher makes a big difference, but the student needs to engage too. Either one can higher the mark achieved.

Delphi91

curious girl wrote:

...the PCLM method...

Wha tha?

md99

like all subjects... could be great, could be s**t.... unfortunately a sizeable proportion of teachers never actually wanted to be teachers, and we're paying the price! take honours maths/physics for example... it's nearly impossible to find a great teacher for these subjects at LC level. Demand is so high that any monkey can get the job... Reason is, anyone really good in these areas will not settle for just teaching....

madgal

I know all the poets that are on next years course better than the ones that are on this years course.

I also have fantastic notes - directly copied from the revision book.

md99

hehe, example of bad teaching (not english tho), in maths yesterday our teacher screwed up the factor theorem....

Selphie

Delphi91 wrote:

Wha tha?

Purpose
Clarity
Language
Mechanics

It's how English answers are corrected.

curious girl

Delphi91 wrote:

Wha tha?

PCLM is the method examiners use to correct LC English
P = Clarity of Purpose - did you understand what the question asked you to do, (30 marks)
C= Coherence of argument (or something like that) - how well you argued your answer, how well you put it together (30M)

L= Efficiency of language - How well you express yourself in your answer (30m)

M= Mechanics- Spelling etc (10 m)
You should familiarise yourself with this if you plan on doing LC English:D

Delphi91

curious girl wrote:

PCLM is the method examiners use to correct LC English
...You should familiarise yourself with this if you plan on doing LC English:D

Tis a bit late now - I did it 24 years ago!

JSK 252

curious girl wrote:

Just wonderin' - good English teachers, hard to find, we're lucky each day we go into LC higher English, she has notes ready photocopied for us , gives reg. Homework and corrects it using the PCLM method, we might get 5 written pieces a week, she takes no crap and pushes us to achieve our best. I think it's good to have someone who pushes and motivates you to do well, she never tries to be popular , she just tells us it as it is.Encouraging when you do well and kicks ass when we don't. respect her hugely cause she doesn't try to be our friend, she tells us we have enough friends, she wants us to achieve our best. Thoughts on other english teachers? Good/ bad, caring/ hardworking? appreciate your thoughts

You need a teacher who can spoonfeed you the information when your finding a certain topic difficult or whatever. Obviously I dont mean giving notes on every single detail of a topic but most of the subject in question. Thats what gives you the results.

I hate teachers who tell you to write an essay for example on a character from To Kill a Mockingbird when you dont know how to approach the question.

Teachers are needed to guide their students not just to motivate them.

Mushy

Well, my English is, to put it mildly, a load of balls! He's been out the last two weeks, then finally back in today, and within 5 minutes, one person asleep. everyone was doing great work on their own. Teacher I had for Macbeth last year, she was great, know the whole thing amazingly well. We still ha this other geezer last year aswell, just not as much. Its a joke of a situation. Hardly ever gives homework, only done about 5 essays in total, and at the moment, I dont have time to be doing them now. Even then, I cant trust his marking on anything.

I-like-eggs,mmm

Oh jebus, my english teacher was woeful. She would linger on ONE word for the entire class. I found myself snoozing or drawing silly pictures all over my english book because she was boring and obviously wasn't able to deliver very well. She barely ever turned up. A lovely lady but, a useless english muinteoir.

So I HATED english.... not for long though. I went and got grinds in the Insitute of Education from the most amazing english teacher, Martin Kelly. If any of you got grinds from him or had him as a teacher you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I loved how he was sooo dramatic, prancing around the class like lunatic literally performing Macbeth- he kept everyones attention, fantastic teacher. His notes were super!

So if any of you are having problems in English and are lucky enough to live somewhat near town or are able to get there I would definitely recommend him.

Taffy89

I'm in such a bad mood with mine..keep getting c2s to b3s constantly in my poetry question and she never tells me why!! :mad: Got a b3 in a Plath question which i thought was at least a high b2 and when i asked her she just said i was pleased with that! ....:mad: :mad:

Enemy Of Fate

My ideal English teacher would be someone who comes in on the very first day, hands you an A grade personal response to 5 poets, as well as A grade essays on the Theme and Issue, cultural context and whatever the other thing is called of your texts, as well as an A grade short story and a general Macbet essay and then says ''go learn them off by heart, and write them down in your exam, and you're garuanteed at least a pass''.Yeah.That english teacher would rock.

Oh and whenever she corrects work she writes more than ''needs development''.I mean what the **** does that mean?!?!Development on what dammit!??!

PurpleFistMixer

Ew, learning off essays.

My english teacher is great, we spent the class today deciding "What Makes Cracking Good Imagery Anyway?"

JSK 252

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

Ew, learning off essays.

My english teacher is great, we spent the class today deciding "What Makes Cracking Good Imagery Anyway?"

To be honest with you unless your "Im on fire" in the exam your going to have a hard time making up an essay in an hour and a half!

If you before hand have an essay well learned off you can adapt it to practically anything within reason and I mean within REASON.

You could have a bad day in the exam and you might have not any splinter of inspiration.

cocoa

JSK 252 wrote:

To be honest with you unless your "Im on fire" in the exam your going to have a hard time making up an essay in an hour and a half!

to be honest with you, anyone silly enough to go into the exam without having practiced in exam conditions (i.e., an hour and a half) is very silly indeed...

PurpleFistMixer

There's a giant difference between learning off an essay and having a rough idea of plotlines/possible stories etc. Anyway, if you're in serious danger of being completely incapable of coming up with a story on the day then maybe you shouldn't do it!