Today I observed Sophie’s lesson with her Year 12 English Standard student Irene. Their lesson initially focused on going through her feedback and marks from her recent exam. I like how Sophie clearly highlighted which points in Irene’s answers that she liked and which ones she thinks need to be slightly changed in the future to maximise her marks. Sophia also provided other feedback such as how many quotes to include in an English response depending on the number of marks and ways to make a response less general in order to try and achieve full mark answers.

Then, they moved on to poetry analysis focusing on a poem Irene had been given from school. I liked how Sophie sourced an overview of the poem which provided information on the themes and plot of the poem. Sophie also highlighted key parts of the overview which mentioned some techniques used in the poem and the importance of the poet’s use of these techniques. After reading the overview, they went through the poem together. I liked how Sophie allowed Irene to come to her own conclusions about what certain techniques she found before Sophie confirmed whether that was how she would classify it or if she would also say something additional to describe it. They also talked about how the poem related to the syllabus which helps to determine how you can make it suit to potential essay questions.

It was great to observe this lesson!! Great job Sophie!!

Sophia McLean