Eager to share and educate young learners everywhere, AnAn, a junior from Winsor School, shares her knowledge of the British Classics(beginning with the renowned William Shakespeare works) in a series of classes. Having tutored for around two years previously, she’s garnered plenty of experience in this field and has expressed interest in continuously fostering these essential English skills.
A pivotal aspect to understanding English– and hence being able to write, stems from the ability to dissect and apply its various rules. During her time spent with her students, AnAn observed “writing is really hard to understand when [students] don’t know grammar structures for instance or the reason behind such and why people write the way they do.” Thus, birthed the focus of her lessons: British literature, where the history and background of numerous authors come into play and provide insight into those key points.
Although initially, the students may struggle to unravel the enigma that Shakespeare’s writing is rather infamous to be, AnAn mentioned“his work is seen everywhere– many times you don’t even notice it.” The universal application of Shakespeare’s work is what makes his writing so prominent, and why so many high schools highlight them as a part of their agenda. Through reading such texts and digesting them, AnAn explained “helps them become better writers.”
Writing itself is globally utilized, a vital tool seen through a diverse array of occupational arsenals. In regards to the importance of writing, she emphasized “everyone needs to know how to write, even if you goto a seemingly completely unrelated career. For instance business, you may not associate math with writing but say you need to create a business proposal… youneed to write it.” AnAn further commented that a lot of younger learners aren’t aware of its direct impact, and she seeks to demonstrate and help them grow to become curious and questioning individuals in tandem with developing their writing.
Over the years, AnAn reflected upon her personal relationship-evolution in regards to writing. She recalled that before writing was one of the most difficult classes, most of which is attributed to the subjectiveness of the topic. “You don’t know what’sgood writing vs. bad writing, whereas something like math is morestraightforward… What I’ve come to learn is that writing doesn’t just apply to school, which was the biggest change in me. I hadonce thought that writing was purely a school-thing, but it’s truly a lifelesson.” The little tasks in life, be it an email, or the larger, be it an application, writing resides throughout all facets of life and AnAn treats her classes as a place to cultivate these monumental skills.
Reported by Theresa Fu, 10 grader from Lake Forest Academy, IL
