Questions to Ask Your English Teacher
Good questions to ask your English teacher are mostly about the things nobody explains: how work is marked, how to build an argument rather than summarise a plot, what to do with a poem. The 61 here are for students and follow the order a year goes in: how the class works, the reading, the writing and feedback on your own work. After those come the hard questions to ask your English teacher, about why the subject is taught this way and who decides what correct English is, and a few about the teacher.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The class
What are we actually being marked on in this class?
Why ask it
It is easy to spend a whole term guessing at this. There is often a rubric or mark scheme with weightings behind every grade, and hearing which category carries the most marks changes where you spend your effort more than any study tip will.
What do students most often misunderstand about how you mark?
Why ask it
There is usually a rumour going round a class: that longer is better, that a strong opinion is risky, that secondary reading is required. This hands the teacher the chance to correct it before you spend a term acting on it.
What does the exam or final assessment look like, and when do we start practising for it?
Why ask it
The format depends on your exam board, state or school, so ask how it works where you are: open or closed book, seen or unseen texts, how long for each essay. A closed-book exam changes how you read from the first week, because quotations have to be learned.
What is your rule on AI tools, study guides and online summaries?
Why ask it
The line sits in a different place in every school and sometimes in every classroom, so get it from the person who will mark the work. Name specific uses, such as checking spelling, generating ideas or reading a summary before the chapter, because a general yes or no hides the cases that cause trouble.
Which of this year's texts should I start early, and which edition are we using?
Why ask it
The list itself is probably on a handout, but which book repays a head start is the teacher's judgement. The edition matters more than it sounds, because page and line references only match when everyone holds the same one.
How much of the reading is done in class, and how much at home?
Why ask it
Some teachers read every chapter aloud and some expect a large chunk each night. Once you know the split you can plan the week, and you know whether missing a lesson means missing part of the book itself.
Do you mark spelling and grammar separately, and how much can they move a grade?
Why ask it
Depending on the course, accuracy can be a small share of the marks or a ceiling on the whole grade. That decides whether proofreading is a finishing touch or the difference between two grades.
What are you looking for in class discussion, and does staying quiet cost me?
Why ask it
Where participation counts towards a grade, how it is counted is not always explained. Some teachers want a number of contributions and others want one comment that picks up what somebody else said, so find out which before you decide how to prepare.
Is it all right to listen to the audiobook or read the text on a screen?
Why ask it
Teachers often mind less than students expect, but some need you to have the printed text for annotation and page references. If reading is slow or tiring for you, this is also an easy way to say so without making it a big conversation.
If I can see a deadline is going to be a problem, when and how should I tell you?
Why ask it
The usual answer is early, and in writing if the school asks for that. The useful part is the detail, such as how many days ahead counts as early and whether a late essay loses marks or only loses feedback.
Reading
How should I annotate, and what is worth marking on the page?
Why ask it
A page where everything is highlighted is as hard to use as a clean one. If the teacher will show you a page from their own copy, you see what a practised reader stops for: a repeated word, a shift in tone, a line that contradicts an earlier one.
What should I do when I have read the whole thing and still have nothing to say?
Why ask it
Plenty of students hit this and take it to mean they are not clever enough. Teachers have concrete methods for it, such as annotating a single page closely or looking for what is missing, and one method you can repeat is worth more than a reading list.
What am I meant to do with a poem after the first read?
Why ask it
Expect a process more than an answer: read it aloud, mark what repeats, notice where the rhythm breaks. A poem is short enough that the method is most of the work, so see whether the teacher will walk through one in front of you.
I can read the words in Shakespeare and still not follow the scene. Where do I start?
Why ask it
Typical advice is to watch or listen to the scene first, then read it, and to work out who wants what before worrying about single words. Check whether a side-by-side modern version is allowed as a crib or frowned on in this class.
I am behind on the book. What is the sensible way to catch up?
Why ask it
Owning up early usually goes better than bluffing through a discussion. A teacher can tell you which chapters carry the essay and which can be read quickly, and that is a judgement a summary site cannot make for your particular course.
How do I choose which quotations are worth learning?
Why ask it
For a closed-book exam the usual advice is short lines that can serve several themes, not long speeches. If the teacher picks three from the current text and explains the choice, you have the principle for picking the rest.
Should I read what critics have said, or is my own reading enough?
Why ask it
It depends on the level and the course: some mark schemes reward other interpretations and some do not ask for them at all. If critics are wanted, find out where to get ones pitched at students and how to disagree with one, since quoting a critic only to agree adds little.
How can I read faster without missing the detail you want us to notice?
Why ask it
Speed and close reading are different jobs, and a teacher can tell you which passages deserve which. A workable split is to read a chapter at normal pace for the story, then go back slowly over the one page the lesson will focus on.
If I want to read more on my own, where would you send me next?
Why ask it
A recommendation pitched at you beats any general list, and teachers tend to remember the student who asked. Push for a single book to start with and not just an author's name, since the wrong first book can put a reader off the rest.
Writing
What do the strongest essays you get have in common?
Why ask it
Marking criteria describe standards in the abstract; this asks the person holding the pen. Expect something specific about a clear line of argument or precise use of quotation, and treat whatever they name first as the priority.
What is the most common reason an essay loses marks with you?
Why ask it
The failures repeat from year to year, so a teacher can usually name them without thinking. If the answer is retelling the plot or claims with no evidence, you have the two things to check for before you hand anything in.
Could you show me a strong paragraph next to a weak one?
Why ask it
Abstract advice about analysis rarely transfers. Two paragraphs side by side make the difference visible in a way no comment in a margin can, and many teachers keep examples with the names taken off.
How do I build an argument instead of retelling what happens?
Why ask it
Plot summary is the habit this question goes after. Listen for whether they describe an argument as a claim someone could disagree with, because that is a test you can run on your own opening line.
How do I find a thesis when the essay question is wide open?
Why ask it
Open questions are harder than narrow ones because the first job is choosing. Many teachers suggest starting from something in the text that puzzled or irritated you, since a real question gives you a claim to defend. Bring one vague idea and see whether they will turn it into a thesis in front of you.
What should an introduction do, and what can I leave out of it?
Why ask it
It is easy to spend the opening of a timed essay on background nobody asked for. Find out whether this teacher wants the argument stated in the first two sentences, and whether the author's dates and a dictionary definition of the theme count as padding in their eyes.
How much quoting is too much, and how short can a quotation be?
Why ask it
Long block quotations are a way of proving you read the book, and they eat the word count. The useful answer is usually about brevity: a few words, then a sentence on why those words. That is a habit you can change in the very next essay.
Do you want me to name techniques like metaphor and enjambment, or is spotting them not the point?
Why ask it
Naming a device earns little by itself; what tends to earn marks is saying what it does to the reader at that moment. From the reply you will know whether to learn a glossary or to practise the sentence that comes after the term.
How do I bring in the author's life or the period without it taking over the essay?
Why ask it
Context is where essays drift into history lessons. One common test is that a fact belongs only if it changes how a specific line reads, so see whether your teacher applies it. Whether context is rewarded separately differs between courses, which is worth checking against your mark scheme.
How do I end an essay without repeating the introduction?
Why ask it
A conclusion that restates the opening wastes the last thing the marker reads. Teachers often suggest ending on what the argument adds up to, or on the one complication you could not resolve. An example of a final sentence they remember will teach you more than the rule.
Can I write 'I' in an essay for you?
Why ask it
This is a convention, not a law, and teachers disagree about it. Some ban the first person outright and some prefer 'I would argue' to an awkward passive. One direct answer saves you from guessing on every essay for the rest of the year.
How do I write about a book I did not like without it turning into a complaint?
Why ask it
One approach teachers give is to analyse what the text is trying to do before judging whether it succeeds. How they answer also shows how much disagreement with a set text they are comfortable reading.
How do I write a good essay against the clock when I normally need three drafts?
Why ask it
Writing to time is its own skill and does not always get a lesson of its own. Find out how they would divide the minutes between planning, writing and checking, and whether a shorter finished essay beats a longer unfinished one. A past question to practise on under the clock is the natural thing to leave with.
How is a story or a piece of creative writing marked, when there is no argument to follow?
Why ask it
Creative tasks can feel like a matter of taste, yet they are usually marked against criteria just as essays are. Hearing what those are on your course, whether structure, voice, control of sentences or something else, turns 'make it more interesting' into things you can practise.
Feedback
Out of all your comments on my last piece, which one should I fix first?
Why ask it
Feedback often arrives as a dozen notes of unequal importance. Forcing a ranking gets you the structural problem rather than the comma splices, and it stops you spending revision time on the easiest corrections.
This comment says 'develop this'. What would developing it look like here?
Why ask it
Margin shorthand makes sense to the person who wrote it and not always to the reader. Pointing at one comment and asking for the next sentence you should have written turns a vague instruction into a model. Bring the essay, not a memory of it.
What did I do well in this piece that I should keep doing?
Why ask it
It is common to read the criticism, skip the ticks, and then drop a strength by accident in the next essay. Asking also shows the teacher you are not only there to argue about the mark, which makes the rest of the conversation easier.
What is a habit in my writing that I probably do not notice?
Why ask it
Teachers see patterns across a term that you cannot see in one piece: hedging, long sentences that lose their subject, a favourite construction repeated. A named habit is fixable, whereas 'write more clearly' is not.
What would it take to move this essay up a grade?
Why ask it
Unlike asking what mark you deserved, this looks forward and can be answered. Keep it to one or two changes, not a list, and write them at the top of your next plan so they get used.
Can I redraft an essay for a better mark, or does the first mark stand?
Why ask it
Policies differ between schools and courses and are not always written down. Even where a redraft earns nothing, asking sometimes gets you an offer to read a revision informally, and a second look at the same essay shows whether you understood the first set of comments.
If I think a mark is wrong, what is the right way to raise it?
Why ask it
There is usually a route for this, and it is seldom an argument at the desk while the essays are being handed back. How it works depends on the school and on whether the piece counts towards a qualification, so ask what the steps are where you are. Knowing them in advance lets you raise a real error calmly.
Would you look at a plan or an opening paragraph before the deadline?
Why ask it
Teachers are often limited in how much help they may give on assessed work, and the limits depend on the course, so ask what is allowed. Where it is permitted, five minutes on a plan catches a wrong direction before you have written two thousand words in it.
What level am I working at now, and what is realistic by the end of the year?
Why ask it
This is one for a private moment, and be ready for a straight answer. A teacher will rarely promise a grade, but many will say what they have seen students in your position reach and what those students did differently. That second part is the bit to write down.
What could I do for twenty minutes a week that would improve my writing most?
Why ask it
A small, regular task is more likely to happen than a vow to read more. Answers vary with the student: rewriting one marked paragraph, a timed plan, reading a page of good journalism. Asking for the single best one makes the teacher choose for you in particular.
Hard questions
How do you know the author meant any of that?
Why ask it
This is a fair challenge when it comes from curiosity and not as a trap. Listen for the distinction between what a writer intended and what the words on the page do, because essays are usually marked on the second. It can start the best argument of the term.
Is there such a thing as a wrong answer in English, or only a badly supported one?
Why ask it
Students hear that any interpretation is valid and then lose marks for theirs, which feels like a trick. The reply should explain the gap: a reading has to survive contact with the text. An example of an interpretation they would mark down, and why, makes that concrete.
Am I allowed to argue against the standard reading of a text, and how do I do it well?
Why ask it
Some teachers welcome this and some mark it warily, and you want to know which before you stake an essay on it. Either way you learn what evidence they expect before an unconventional claim is taken seriously.
Why are we reading this book and not something written in the last ten years?
Why ask it
Sometimes the honest answer is that an exam board or a district chose it, and it is useful to know which decisions are the teacher's. When the choice was theirs, you get the case for the book from someone who believes it, which is more persuasive than a blurb.
Why do we take books apart instead of just reading them?
Why ask it
Plenty of people who love reading feel that analysis spoils it, so the teacher has heard this before. Asked politely, it gets you their account of what close reading is for. If the answer is only that the exam requires it, that tells you something too.
Would another teacher give this essay the same mark, and how do you check?
Why ask it
This can sound like an accusation, so ask it about the system and not about your own grade. Schools handle it in different ways, such as shared mark schemes, second marking or moderation meetings, and the teacher can tell you which apply to your course. Knowing the process makes a disappointing mark easier to trust.
Who decides what counts as correct English?
Why ask it
English has no official body that rules on it, so the reply is likely to involve dictionaries, style guides, exam mark schemes and plain habit. The practical follow-up is which of those your teacher is held to when marking you.
Is it really wrong to start a sentence with 'And' or 'But'?
Why ask it
Published writers do it and plenty of teachers still circle it, and both can be true at once. A good reply separates a rule of grammar from a preference of style, and settles what to do in essays for this class.
If software can produce an essay in seconds, why does it still matter that I can write one?
Why ask it
Your teacher may still be working out their own position on this, which is what makes it hard. The stronger replies are about thinking: writing is how you find out what you believe about a text, and a borrowed essay skips that part. Keep it apart from asking what the rules are, which is a different conversation.
What would you say to a student who plans to do science or maths and thinks English is a waste of time?
Why ask it
You can ask this on your own behalf without being rude if the tone is right. A teacher who takes it seriously will talk about reading carefully, explaining clearly and noticing when you are being persuaded. One who is offended has told you not to push further.
Which skill from this class do you think matters most after the exam?
Why ask it
This asks them to be honest about the difference between the syllabus and the point. Answers usually concern reading closely or making a case in writing, and whichever they pick is what they are really teaching underneath the set texts.
About them
Which book on the syllabus are you most looking forward to teaching?
Why ask it
Enthusiasm is a fair guide to where the best lessons will be. The answer also shows which texts they teach because they chose them and which arrived with the curriculum.
What made you want to teach English?
Why ask it
It is personal without being intrusive, and teachers tend to have a story ready. Whether they came in through literature, language or their own writing often explains the emphasis in their lessons and what they are best placed to help you with.
What are you reading at the moment, just for yourself?
Why ask it
English teachers are asked about set texts all day and about their own reading almost never. The reply may be a thriller or a cookbook, and that is worth hearing, since it shows that reading for pleasure and reading for analysis can live side by side.
Which book did you dislike at school and come round to later?
Why ask it
Many readers have one, and hearing it from the person setting your essays is reassuring when you are stuck in a novel you cannot stand. The interesting part is what changed: their age, a second reading, or a teacher who explained it differently.
Is there a text on the syllabus you think is overrated?
Why ask it
Choose your moment, because this depends on the teacher and the mood of the room. One who answers is modelling exactly what essays ask of you: a judgement with reasons. One who declines will often say which text they find hardest to teach, which is nearly as good.
Have you ever changed your mind about a book because of something a student said?
Why ask it
It tests whether the classroom is a place where your reading can count. Teachers who have taught a text for years can often name a comment that shifted how they see it, and the story shows you what kind of contribution they remember.
What is a piece of student writing you still remember?
Why ask it
The teacher will describe it without naming anyone, and the description is the useful part. Notice whether it is the idea, the voice or the risk it took that stayed with them, which says more about what they value than a mark scheme does.
Making these conversations count
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Which group for which moment
The first weeks: The class
At the start of the year the teacher does not know your writing yet, so ask about the course. Three are enough: what is marked, what the final assessment looks like, and the rule on AI tools and study guides. Some of those answers come from the department or the exam course, so ask which parts are the teacher's own.
Mid-book: Reading
Use the Reading group while the class is still inside the text, not the night before the essay is due. One question about annotation or a scene you cannot follow, asked in chapter five, saves more time than five asked after the last page.
Essay set, essay returned: Writing and Feedback
The Writing group belongs to the planning stage and the Feedback group to the week a marked piece comes back. Give a low mark a day before you ask about it. The comment you wanted to dispute on Monday is often the one you want explained by Tuesday.
Once they know you: Hard questions and About them
The Hard questions group works best when there is time to answer, such as a discussion lesson or the end of a unit. Asked with curiosity, they are the kind of thinking the subject is meant to produce. Asked to score a point in front of friends, the same words get a short reply. The About them group is lighter and fits the minutes before a lesson starts.
Where and when to ask
Not in the last thirty seconds of a lesson
Questions about your own work need ten minutes and a marked piece of paper on the table. Ask for a lunchtime, a free period or the time after class, and say roughly what you want to discuss so they can have your work to hand.
Bring the work with you
A conversation about a specific paragraph goes somewhere. A conversation about how to be better at essays does not. Mark two places you were unsure about before you go.
Write down what they say
You will remember the tone and forget the instruction. Note the exact phrasing of any criterion they name, since that phrasing tends to reappear on the marking sheet.
What to do with the answers
- Turn the single most important comment into a checklist item you apply to your next piece before submitting it.
- If they name a habit in your writing, search your last essay for it and count the instances. The number is usually higher than you expect.
- If they offer to read a draft, agree a date there and then rather than leaving it open.
- Keep a running list of the texts they recommend and which one they said to read first.
- Re-read one marked essay a month after the mark. The comments make more sense once the disappointment has faded.
- Note the rules you were given on AI tools, late essays and redrafting the same day, and check them against the course handbook if there is one.
Things to avoid asking
Anything answered on the first page of the handout
Word counts, deadlines and the reading list are usually written down somewhere. Check the handout or the course page first, and keep your question for what it leaves out, such as which book to start early.
What mark will I get
Teachers will rarely predict a mark, and pressing for one puts them on the defensive. Ask what would move the work up a grade instead, which is the same question in a form they can answer.
Can you just tell me what to say about the book
Whatever wording you receive, it will read as borrowed. Ask instead how they decide what is worth arguing about in a text.