Tips on improving English marks please

[InterstellarDrifter]

Ds is in yr10 and has been getting around 40% in his literature assessments.
He’s more of science and maths kid but he does read books. Not huge amounts but has probably read 5-6 books this year.
He does study for his assessments, uses study notes and watches YouTube clips about the books but something is not clicking.
Any ideas please?

Read more books. Go to the theatre if you can.
You read some of the same books too, and talk to him about them.

Comments DS has received on his work -
talk about the use of language more, insufficient literary techniques identified
follow the structure of the piece in your own work ie at the start this sets the scene, in the middle we see this and this and can infer that from this (DS was taking quotations which illustrated a point but not from the bit he was trying to expand on!)
always a brief comment on place the piece in the context of the time it was written eg of mice & men - travelling workers due to great depression

Not a teacher ! DS is getting 6s. He is a slow reader so watching the plays on DVDs helps with overall understanding.

After thought but assuming homework, is he using Word spelling & grammar check ? Google spell check is not great.

Not an English teacher but a teacher and I will have a go at this, if this is English Literature the go to without actually knowing the child is learn the quotes for the texts and what the quotes mean. He should know about 20 quotes each from the poetry anthology, Shakespeare play, 19th century novel and 20th century novel, he doesn't need to know them word for word exactly but close. Knowing those will get him a long way especially if he understands the meaning behind them.

Thank you for responses.
He’s been to theatre at least once a year since he’s been quite young.
I’m always trying to persuade him to read more but sometimes I’m relieved he still reads! His spelling, grammar and creative writing are fine. He scores quite well in those.
It’s just literature he seems to have issues with.
I feel like he does all the right things but as I said before, something isn’t quite clicking for him.

Thanks Purpledragon40. So there’s an element of rote learning he could do. That would help.

English teacher here. He needs to look at each text thematically. e.g. violence in Macbeth, nature vs nuture in Frankenstein etc etc. One of the key ways to think about plays/novels is how characters change and what purpose that serves to get the author's message across. Think of short quotes that apply to themes and think about how you would write about them in an exam. Detailed analysis is the key. Analyse single words in quotes as well as the whole quote. The students who do best write a lot about very little.

Is he happy with literary techniques? Can he spot them in texts easily and then say what purpose they serve? Higher grade students will go on to relate these to the author/playwright/poet's message. And remember context - very important especially for the plays/novels.

Some of my best students read absolutely nothing outside of the set texts, so I wouldn't worry about that too much.

Maturity. He has 18 months to go
. He will have matured significantly

Look at the mark schemes and the terminology examiners are expecting to see in analysis. Don't just recount the narrative, highlight the relevant stylistic, thematic and descriptive features as relevant. Read the full text and others from same author or genre.

Tutoring - this really helped my DS - he was so lacking in confidence. He's very bright, but really struggled with literature. Encourage him to read the text or listen to them on Audibly or similar. There are lots of resources out there to help - Youtube clips by teachers/students, buy the study notes from the correct exam boards, attend any revision groups nearer the time. My DS attended 12 hours of English revision workshops in the Easter break before GCSE's. The teacher running them is an Examiner/Marker for this boards so was able to give loads of useful tips. We also bought little pocket sized books of quotations for the books DS had to study.

He does need to be learning quotations for key moments within the texts. He needs to track the characters and themes across the narrative and write 'a lot about a little', from the extract and then the rest of the text (using the structure his teacher has taught him) Eg. Answering the question directly, in his own words; referring to the key part of the text; examining the deeper meanings of the author's choices; zooming in on specific literary techniques or vocabulary; offering alternative interpretations; linking to the social and historical context in which the text was written.

Thank you for all the tips.
We took on board all your suggestions and I spent time with him just talking through stuff and helping him direct his revision using notes and YouTube. He got a 6 for his last assessment just before the holidays
He was so happy. Thanks again.