If your child has just started A Level English Literature and the first set texts have come home, you may be wondering how to help them get to know those books. An A Level English tutor can read the texts with your child, a scene or a chapter at a time, and help them build notes they can write from when the first essay questions arrive. This page is about English Literature. If your child takes English Language, or a combined Language and Literature course, a tutor works from what that course sets instead.
What the lessons cover
- A tutor reads the set texts alongside your child, a scene or a chapter at a time, on a shared whiteboard.
- Together they build notes that fit the way your child’s course examines the text, because some courses allow the book in the exam room and others do not.
- Between lessons your child reads ahead and brings back the places they found hard or interesting.
- When the first essay questions arrive, the notes are there to write from.
Which texts is your child studying this year?
The place to start is your child’s own text list. The school gives it out at the start of the course, and it names the plays, novels and poems on your child’s course. A tutor can read that list with your child and ask which text the class has begun with.
The list depends on the course. On the A Level English Literature courses regulated in England, students study at least eight texts, including at least three published before 1900, one of them a play by Shakespeare, and at least one first published or performed after 2000. Pearson’s International A Level and Cambridge International’s A Level each publish their own text lists.
In Bahrain, St Christopher’s School and the British School of Bahrain both list A Level English Literature among their sixth form subjects, and Capital School Bahrain offers the Pearson International A Level in English Literature.
If you are still choosing subjects or schools, our article A Level Tutoring in Bahrain: A Parent’s Guide covers the options for families in Bahrain.
How an A Level English tutor in Bahrain reads a set text with your child
Lessons are online on a shared whiteboard, so the tutor and your child can have the same page of the text open. They read a scene or a chapter together, and the tutor asks your child to say what happened and what they noticed before either of them writes anything down. Lines worth coming back to are marked as they go.
The tutor does not read the whole book to your child. They choose the parts that are worth reading slowly, such as an opening scene, a turning point or a poem the class has been set, and leave the rest for your child to read between lessons.
Try this with your child in 10 minutes
You do not need to teach English to help your child get started. Try this short exercise using a scene, poem or page from one of their set texts.
- Read together (3 minutes). Ask your child to choose a short passage and read it. Then ask, “What is happening here?”
- Choose one line (2 minutes). Ask them to pick a line they think is important. It might reveal something about a character, introduce an idea or change the mood.
- Explain the choice (3 minutes). Ask, “What makes you think that?” Encourage them to point to a specific word or phrase.
- Write one note (2 minutes). Ask them to write down the line, what they noticed and why it might matter.
What should you look for?
Can your child explain their choice and support it with words from the text? If they find this difficult, note which part caused trouble. One short exercise cannot establish their overall English ability or predict an exam grade.
A tutor can use the passage and your child’s explanation as a starting point for discussing the text and developing useful notes.
This clip shows a maths lesson recorded in Pencil Spaces, the online classroom used by Greenhill Academics.
Would you like a tutor to read the first text with your child?
Tell us which course your child is on and which text the class has started with. A tutor can begin from that text.
Ask about a tutorNotes that fit the way the course examines the text
Whether the book goes into the exam room depends on the course. On Pearson’s International A Level in English Literature the exams are open book. On Cambridge International’s A Level Literature in English, set texts are not allowed in the exam room. Pearson Edexcel’s A Level English Literature is open book with clean copies of the texts, and OCR’s A Level English Literature is closed text.
So the two kinds of notes are not the same. For an open-book course, the tutor helps your child build notes and mark up a study copy of the text, so they learn their way around it: which scene, which page, what it shows. Some courses only allow a clean copy in the exam room, with nothing written in it, so the marking up is for learning the text, not for taking into the room, and a tutor can check that rule for your child’s course. For a closed-text course the notes are for remembering, so they are shorter, and the tutor and your child pick a small number of lines from each part of the text and go back over them in later lessons. The school can say which course your child is on.
Reading ahead between lessons
A lot of the reading happens between lessons, at your child’s own pace. The tutor and your child agree how far to read before the next lesson, and your child notes the places they found hard, or found interesting, as they go. Those notes set the next lesson’s starting point.
You do not need to check the reading or mark anything. If your child says a text is slow going, that is worth passing on to the tutor, because it changes which part they read together next.
If your child is further into the course and the essays are what you are thinking about, our article How an A Level English Tutor in Doha helps your child work towards an A looks at the work the child is doing and what the teacher has said about it.
Is the first set text going slowly at home?
Tell us which text it is. A tutor can read the next part with your child and help them build notes as they go.
Send an enquiryLaurie and George teach English at A Level
Laurie is a double first-class English graduate from the University of Oxford, where he studied with a focus on Shakespeare, and he has over a decade of tutoring experience in English, History and Humanities. He has worked with students from early years through to university level, including GCSE, IGCSE, A Level and International Baccalaureate, and he is a professional journalist and communications specialist.
George specialises in English Literature and Philosophy. He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a high distinction in his Linguistics master’s and won the Johnston Prize for academic excellence, after a philosophy conversion at the University of St Andrews and a first-class BA in English Literature. He tutors English Literature, History and Religious Studies at A Level and also prepares students for 11+ and 13+ exams.
Would you like your child to read the texts with Laurie or George?
Their profiles are linked above. You can name either of them when you send the form.
Ask about a tutorParents’ questions about the set texts
What should my child bring to a lesson on a set text?
Your child should bring their own copy of the text and any notes they have already made on it. A lesson works from what they have read and marked so far, so those notes are the starting point.
My child has read the book already. Is there anything left to do?
Yes. A first read is about the story. The lessons go back through the text more slowly, so your child can notice how it is written and keep a record of the lines they may want to use later.
Can the lessons cover poetry as well as novels and plays?
Yes. Poems are read the same way as the longer texts, one poem at a time, with the tutor asking your child what they noticed before any notes are made.
My child is on the Pearson International A Level. Do the lessons work the same way?
Yes. The reading is the same. The difference is in the notes: that course’s exams are open book, so the notes are built to help your child find lines quickly in their own copy.
How does reading together work online?
Lessons are on a shared whiteboard, so the tutor and your child look at the same page at the same time. Either of them can mark a line or write a note beside it as they read.
Would you like help with the first A Level English texts?
Tell us which course your child is on and which text they are reading now. A tutor can read the next part with them online and start the notes.
Send an enquiryWorth reading next
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