CELTA Assignmemnt 4: Lessons From The Classroom

 

CELTA Assignment 4: Lessons From the Classroom Dominic Brecken Submission Due Date:11/06/2019 Word Count:975

1) Teaching Strengths. One aspect of my teaching which has been noted in feedback as a strong point is good lesson planning. I am able to construct a detailed lesson plan that follows the logical staging required of both PPP and TTT frameworks; although it has been essential to my development to be able to observe the practical application of the above by both my tutors and peers, as prior to observation these frameworks seemed somewhat theoretical and confusing. One of my peers in particular has consistently demonstrated demonstrated the eective delivery of a well planned lesson and I feel that I have learned a lot from her, especially regar regarding ding the clear sequencing of discrete lesson stages.  I also feel I have made good use of the creative latitude allowed within lesson planning and have produced p roduced some well designed, student centred tasks which were relevant to the target language and allowed the students to engage in useful uency practice. An example of this is a paired question task from lesson 8 which was noted in feedback as being well thought out and carefully constructed. I spent a good deal of time grading and modelling the questions to ensure that they were appropriate for the level, were interesting enough to generate discussion and concerned the relevant language points.  Finally,  Fin ally, the one area of my teaching practice that I am particularly pleased with is that I was able to establish a good rapport with the students and that I managed to achieve this quite quickly quickly.. This aspect was mentioned fairly regularly by both my tutors and this was was very encouraging, particularly as I saw how having a good relationship with the students worked well for them. Prior thethat startI of the course this was an the area that worried me quite considerably, so thetofact was able to engage with students in a natural, friendly manner and with humour, when appropriate, was very important to me personally and also in supporting other aspects of my teaching such as monitoring and feedback. Being able to communicate naturally with the students provided me with a certain degree of condence and made what for me is often a quite stressful experience a lot more manageable.

2) Areas for development.

 

One of my main areas of concern is inconsistent use of CCQs and the fact that these have been, with varying degrees, an issue from the rst lesson to the last. Indeed, the NS grade for my last lesson was, I believe, mainly due to the complete omission of CCQs, despite that fact that they had been included in the lesson plan. Although this problem isn't something concrete, I feel I have to attribute omissions such as this to feeling nervous which, on occasion, is still be a problem for me and which in turn tends to make me hurry the delivery of my lessons. I believe however, that this isn't an insurmountable issue as I fully understand the need for coherent and consistent concept checks and have included them successfully on other occasions. I also need to make sure that my contextualisation of target language is clear and consistent in particular when considering appropriate use of visuals for elicitation. It has been mentioned mentioned during tutor and peer feedback that som some e of my images did not successfully demonstrate the word or concept I was trying to get across. I relied too heavily on my own ideas about the image and did not think closely enough about how the image might have been interpreted by the students. If this point is coupled with not very particularly eective CCQs, it is obvious that more care needs to be taken in order to ensure students comprehend the desired language. Another area that needs strengthening is task demonstration. I have seen plenty of  good examples of clear task set up demonstrated by my peers and understand how this is done eectively and its importance not only for student comprehens comprehension ion but also for reducing TTT. On several occasions I have relied on verbal instructions to demonstrate tasks and also failed to follow the correct sequence when handing out materials which should always be given out after the demonstration and not before or during. In summary, I have shown that I can plan a coherent, logically staged lesson which is student centred and eective in delivering the target language, and I understand very well the reasoning behind following the prescribed procedures. procedures. My main issue is in making sure that the lesson plan is adhered to and that important elements such as CCQs, drilling, task set up and contextualisatio contextualisation n of language are consistent and clear.

3) Action plan.

 

 Area for development development CCQs

Development str strategy  ategy 

 

Contextualisation

 

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Watch video segments dealing with CCQs.

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Continue to observe recor recorded ded lessons.

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Read published material concerning CCQs.

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Practice constructing CCQs.

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 Task  Task set up

 

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Overall teaching

 

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Practice using appropriate visuals for elicitation with family and friends. Continue to observe recor recorded ded lessons, making notes and referring back to published material. Watch online material concerning setting up and running activities. Study material dealing with task set up. In particular; Scrivener (2011, pp. 37-53). Aim to secure some classroom observ observation ation time. Continue to read recom recommended mended course books and other material. Make use of the advice found in online EFL communities and forums.

In the longer term: 

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I intend to develop my teaching practice by absorbing as much published material as possible, in particular concentrating on the dierent approaches to language teaching that are in use worldwide. I am also going to make it a priority to continue to learn another language, in my case, Spanish, as I feel very strong strongly ly that in order to become an eective language teacher I have to know what methods are eective for me as a leaner. Finally I hope to continue my teaching education by completing further courses when I feel I have gained appropriate experien experience. ce.