Oxford-Style Tutorials

Individualized & highly relational education

For over 20 years, Matthew Dominguez, affectionately known as Mr. D, has been teaching literature and inspiring young people to find their place in their God-given epic adventures. During his semester abroad as an Oxford student, the tutorials he experienced shaped his understanding of learning.

Oxford-style tutorials offer individualized and highly relational education, a great extension of Greenhouse’s co-schooling model. Students, along with their parents and teacher, can design their own tutorial.  To wrap your heart and mind around this exciting educational opportunity, think: discipleship, apprenticeship, tutoring, coaching, and mentoring woven together and tailored for young people immersed in great literature. Each tutorial is limited to 5 students.

Step 1

Review tutorials that have been proposed and/or propose your own.

Step 2

See which proposals have been selected.

Step 3

Now, you can register if you wish.

Overview

We will be reading and studying Literature in an Oxford-style tutorial.  In each session, students will spend time reading prepared responses for the day, sharing annotations, and writing, and saturating the time with hearty and rich group discussion.  Discussions will center on topics near and dear to the authors chosen for the tutorial and will also include areas such as literary analysis, life application, interpretation, Christ-Centered Biblical worldview, abiding discipleship, apologetics, the power of story, life as epic adventure, metaphor, philosophy, poetry, and paradox.

Expectations

Each student is expected to be on time, ready to read, annotate, journal, and participate in small group discussion each week.  Participants are graded based on participation, writing, and achievement of personal goals collaboratively set with the tutor, their parents, and the student(s).  This style of learning is personal and self-directed, which creates a highly accountable and authentic educational setting. The more one puts into an an Oxford-style tutorial, the more one gets out of it.  Keep in mind that the tutor is more like a shepherd, coach, and guide than a typical high school teacher in a large-scale institution.

Requirements

Weekly attendance; reading and annotating of texts; reading and annotating of relevant Scripture passages; participation in small group discussions with love, honor, dignity, and candor; active journaling; formative and summative assessments; presentations; presentations; creative projects; and memorization. Assessments and expectations are highly personal and individualized for each group and created collaboratively between the participants, their parents, and Mr. Dominguez.

Preparation

Students must read Bandersnatch: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and the Creative Collaboration of the Inklings by Diana Pavlac Glyer and James A. Owen, (Black Squirrel Books, 2015). This must be read and annotated before the first tutorial session. Glyer’s research and depiction of the iconic Oxford Inklings group will create a foundation for the nature, structure, opportunity and boundaries of our tutorials.

Logistics

Tutorials will be held once a week for 75 minutes over a 12-week period. All sessions will be held at Greenhouse. In 2023-24, we expect to offer up to four tutorials in the fall and four in the winter. Each tutorial costs $545. (Core students receive $50 discount.) In addition, students will need to purchase the books for the tutorial.

Prerequisites

Prospective students will be interviewed briefly by Mr. Dominguez. Students must be in grades 8-12, and be wiling to learn and grow! It is helpful to love reading literature, have an appreciation for journaling, and be eager to engage in group discussion. Note: Students are expected to come to the first class with Bandersnatch read and annotated.

  • Sample C.S. Lewis Tutorial

    Based on the Space Trilogy, focus on writing persuasive essays. 12 weeks, 1/4 credit, graded.

  • Sample G.K. Chesterton Tutorial

    Focusing on literary analysis and argument in Orthodoxy. 12 weeks, 1/4 credit, pass/fail.

  • Sample Jane Austen Tutorial

    Based on Sense and Sensibility the focus will be on journaling and blogging. 12 weeks, 1/4 credit, graded.

  • Sample Poetry Tutorial

    Focusing on reader’s reflections on the sonnets of Shakespeare, Donne, Keats, Wordsworth and Milton. 12 weeks, not for credit.

  • Sample Tolkien Tutorial

    Based on The Fellowship of the Ring, the tutorial will focus on creative writing and literary devices. 12 weeks, 1/2 credit, graded.

  • Sample Shakespeare Tutorial

    Based on Twelfth Night and Henry V, focus on writing research papers. 12 weeks, 1/2 credit, graded.

What is an Oxford-style tutorial?

“At Cambridge University and Oxford University, undergraduates and some graduates are taught in the tutorial system. Students are taught by faculty fellows in groups of one to three on a weekly basis. One benefit of the tutorial system is that students receive direct feedback on their weekly essays or work in a small discussion setting. Student tutorials are generally more academically challenging and rigorous than standard lecture and test format courses, because during each session students are expected to orally communicate, defend, analyze, and critique the ideas of others as well as their own in conversations with the tutor and fellow-students. As a pedagogic model, the tutorial system has great value because it creates learning and assessment opportunities which are highly authentic.” 

— Palfreyman, D. (2008) from “The Oxford Tutorial”