The Student Room Group

My english teacher is lazy and does not teach.

My english teacher is lazy and does not teach su most of the time, like sometimes we watch movies or people just debate or talk about things like homosexuality and religion or she marks books and the class does nothing but talk sometimes people play card games during the english lesson,people move around and do anything they want during the lesson.Like this year all she did was teach only a little, give us exemplars and hardly ever makes us write an essay or she would spend like 1 week and a half making us do a 8 mark language questions, and most people weren't even doing work and just doing what they want, people are on their phones in class and watch teen wolf and stuff like that during the lesson.The teacher is qualified and can teach if she wanted to, sh is an oxford graduate and is smart but she is lazy.This year we havent still done great expectations, even though they made us do it for the mocks, so i had to memorise an exemplar because i dont know anything and i had to write out as she still hasn't taught us this, we only did it for a bit with a different teacher last year.For macbeth, she made us do the essays without rely teaching it again so i had to rely on what i learnt mostly in year 9 and she did not even teach us act 5, which we never learnt and the exemplar for ti is useless.We havent done anythign about the witches, and on the mocks lady macbeth came up and she hasnt even taught it to us this year, so I had to memorise the exemplar and rely on the stuff i learnt in year 9.Also for animal farm, which im really rubbish at, all she gave was exemplars and made us write an essay, not very helpful at all.I asked her when are we going to do great expectations and she said were going to do it ages ago, and still nothing!Im starting to worry my exams are in may and I feel like I know nothing!I looked at online resources and i dotn think any of them have good unique points and only have basics and the revision guides for english are rubbish and dont have the unique points to get you a good grade, Im aiming for an 8, but I dont think it will happen. So I tried attending after school sessions with this other english teacher but I cant really go most of the time because i have to practice for computer science controlled assessment which is eating up all my time!Im not very good ate english as im not very creative and i cant really make my own points for stuff, as I dont think in such ways, im more into things like science. I also read all the books you need for english lit.Can someone help, what do I do, anyone else had such issues?
Original post by Anonymous
My english teacher is lazy and does not teach su most of the time, like sometimes we watch movies or people just debate or talk about things like homosexuality and religion or she marks books and the class does nothing but talk sometimes people play card games during the english lesson,people move around and do anything they want during the lesson.Like this year all she did was teach only a little, give us exemplars and hardly ever makes us write an essay or she would spend like 1 week and a half making us do a 8 mark language questions, and most people weren't even doing work and just doing what they want, people are on their phones in class and watch teen wolf and stuff like that during the lesson.The teacher is qualified and can teach if she wanted to, sh is an oxford graduate and is smart but she is lazy.This year we havent still done great expectations, even though they made us do it for the mocks, so i had to memorise an exemplar because i dont know anything and i had to write out as she still hasn't taught us this, we only did it for a bit with a different teacher last year.For macbeth, she made us do the essays without rely teaching it again so i had to rely on what i learnt mostly in year 9 and she did not even teach us act 5, which we never learnt and the exemplar for ti is useless.We havent done anythign about the witches, and on the mocks lady macbeth came up and she hasnt even taught it to us this year, so I had to memorise the exemplar and rely on the stuff i learnt in year 9.Also for animal farm, which im really rubbish at, all she gave was exemplars and made us write an essay, not very helpful at all.I asked her when are we going to do great expectations and she said were going to do it ages ago, and still nothing!Im starting to worry my exams are in may and I feel like I know nothing!I looked at online resources and i dotn think any of them have good unique points and only have basics and the revision guides for english are rubbish and dont have the unique points to get you a good grade, Im aiming for an 8, but I dont think it will happen. So I tried attending after school sessions with this other english teacher but I cant really go most of the time because i have to practice for computer science controlled assessment which is eating up all my time!Im not very good ate english as im not very creative and i cant really make my own points for stuff, as I dont think in such ways, im more into things like science. I also read all the books you need for english lit.Can someone help, what do I do, anyone else had such issues?


Hi there, as someone who got an A* in Literature GCSE last year and who is constantly getting As in A-Level essays this year, I think I can help you on that front.

Would you be able to give me a TL;DR version of what exactly you need help understanding and what texts you are doing? I know you mentioned MacBeth and Animal Farm, both of which I have expertise in.

It is quite common for english teachers to go on tangents like that; virtually every english teacher I've had since year 7 is like that, however yours seems to take it to quite the extreme from what you've described.
Reply 2
Original post by Connor27
Hi there, as someone who got an A* in Literature GCSE last year and who is constantly getting As in A-Level essays this year, I think I can help you on that front.

Would you be able to give me a TL;DR version of what exactly you need help understanding and what texts you are doing? I know you mentioned MacBeth and Animal Farm, both of which I have expertise in.

It is quite common for english teachers to go on tangents like that; virtually every english teacher I've had since year 7 is like that, however yours seems to take it to quite the extreme from what you've described.


I do animal farm,macbeth and great expectations and the 16 poems in the aqa poetry anthology power and conflict. The thing I dont know is the points for the characters and the information in general, like if i was asked to write about Pip I wouldn't know what to write or if i was asked about the importance of the battle of cow shed or Napoleon or if i was asked about the witches or Macebth in act 5 then I just would not know what to write, i dont the points.For the poetry in some of the poems I dont really knwo how they show power and conflict and if I know for example it shows the power of .... then I dont know where this is shown in the poem, for some of the poems the teachers points are rubbish and dont have much to do with power and conflict an she goes on a tangent talking about irrelevant things.
Reply 3
Has anyone complained about her?? Go to pastoral care/senior leadership with any other people who want to complain and get your parents to phone & write letters
Reply 4
Original post by ions
Has anyone complained about her?? Go to pastoral care/senior leadership with any other people who want to complain and get your parents to phone & write letters


No one complained because my class does not really care and see this lessons as some kind of free lesson where they can do their homework, talk and mess around.I want to complain but I dont know, I feel scared to complain.
Go speak to the head of English. Don't go 'the teachers lazy and rubbish' because it will make you look childish and tbh if the teacher is rubbish then the head of English will already know that. Give them your specific problems e.g. we haven't been taught about X, Y and Z. We only get exemplars and aren't given enough time to learn. The class is always messing around so I can't focus.
Original post by Anonymous
I do animal farm,macbeth and great expectations and the 16 poems in the aqa poetry anthology power and conflict. The thing I dont know is the points for the characters and the information in general, like if i was asked to write about Pip I wouldn't know what to write or if i was asked about the importance of the battle of cow shed or Napoleon or if i was asked about the witches or Macebth in act 5 then I just would not know what to write, i dont the points.For the poetry in some of the poems I dont really knwo how they show power and conflict and if I know for example it shows the power of .... then I dont know where this is shown in the poem, for some of the poems the teachers points are rubbish and dont have much to do with power and conflict an she goes on a tangent talking about irrelevant things.


The key thing to mention about the witches is the ambiguity of whether or not they are literal or a manifestation of evil itself. A good contextual point to make is that King James I was quite associated with the arcane and the supernatural, he was also scottish, MacBeth is in all likelihood a reference to that.

Macbeth himself is a stereotypical Shakespearean tragic protagonist, his tragic flaw is his honour and leadership skills, combined with his extreme paranoia, which makes him ambitious initially and then murderous in the end. He's the classic example of absolute power corrupting absolutely, as the saying goes, you could make a contextual point relating that to Kim Jong-Un and other modern dictators, or Stalin for another example, the great purge is extremely reflective of Macbeth's murder of Banquo. Also, an interesting point on structure and form is that the play's meter reflects Macbeth's mental state, when he is calm and calculating it is regular iambic pentameter, which is like the rhythm of a heartbeat, but, for example when he finds out that Banquo's son survived the meter becomes quite irregular reflecting Macbeth's internal panic and rage.

As for Animal Farm, the key thing to remember is that it's all one big allegory for the Russian Revolution, Napoleon is Stalin and believe that aggression is necessary to keep people in line and that the people cannot be trusted to make the right decisions. A good contextual point is that George Orwell fought in the spanish civil war and saw first hand the effects of totalitarianism, this led to him becoming fiercely anti-Stalinist and arguably inspired him to write both 'Animal Farm' and 1984.
All teachers have different teaching methods and to be honest, with English a lot can be achieved with self study.

I'd urge you to get some study companions/good internet resources and read through those.
Original post by Connor27
The key thing to mention about the witches is the ambiguity of whether or not they are literal or a manifestation of evil itself. A good contextual point to make is that King James I was quite associated with the arcane and the supernatural, he was also scottish, MacBeth is in all likelihood a reference to that.

Macbeth himself is a stereotypical Shakespearean tragic protagonist, his tragic flaw is his honour and leadership skills, combined with his extreme paranoia, which makes him ambitious initially and then murderous in the end. He's the classic example of absolute power corrupting absolutely, as the saying goes, you could make a contextual point relating that to Kim Jong-Un and other modern dictators, or Stalin for another example, the great purge is extremely reflective of Macbeth's murder of Banquo. Also, an interesting point on structure and form is that the play's meter reflects Macbeth's mental state, when he is calm and calculating it is regular iambic pentameter, which is like the rhythm of a heartbeat, but, for example when he finds out that Banquo's son survived the meter becomes quite irregular reflecting Macbeth's internal panic and rage.

As for Animal Farm, the key thing to remember is that it's all one big allegory for the Russian Revolution, Napoleon is Stalin and believe that aggression is necessary to keep people in line and that the people cannot be trusted to make the right decisions. A good contextual point is that George Orwell fought in the spanish civil war and saw first hand the effects of totalitarianism, this led to him becoming fiercely anti-Stalinist and arguably inspired him to write both 'Animal Farm' and 1984.


This is brilliant :smile:

Quick Reply