TeachingEnglish
CELTA, Sat. 27 Sept.
Submitted by aminn on 27 September, 2008 - 21:25
It finally arrived!
Saturday morning, nine o'clock....I was there a quarter earlier to see the other trainees to forget my own awful feeling of stress! It was actually helpful, for the simple reason that I found some others even worse than me!!!
This is a diary and also a short note on what I learn every day. I am just keeping this record for my own sake actually and want to make it public for those who are getting prepared, mentally, to take part in one later! So I will just try to keep everything neat, tidy, straight-forward, short, easy-to-understand and n layman's terms!Here we go....We were 22, later split into 4 groups of 5 and 6 members. With 2 very nice men on the first session as our trainers.I am in the third group, with two other men and three women. There seems to be no gender bias here and we are treated normally and equally.PROBLEMS:@ I didn't follow Jeff Mohamed's advice and I registered where they were having their first CELTA course and there were some very tiny mis-management problems which were soon solved!It is the only problem which I can think of!LESSONS TAUGHT:
Introduction:
This was not a part of the course though! We got to know each other well enough for the rest of the course. We learnt what a portfolio is and what our own file would be! We also learnt the rules and regulations to fill in all those long, long forms in our CELTA5 document. And we were put into our own groups to work with for the following four weeks!
Class Management:1. Using the Board;@Size of writing:Considering the distance issue, the visibility issue, the board size and number of things expected to be put on the board till the end of the lesson.@Style of writing:No cursive handwriting for lower level students but good for advanced ones where we want to expose them to some natural styles of writing.No capital letters. Never ever! Not even for emphasizing or something! That is because we don’t want them to accidentally mislearn the language writing! Capital letters will spoil recognition of word shapes.@Board plan needed! As well as a lesson plan.@Don’t start by using the middle of the board. The rest of the things might look less important.@Delay writing on the board as far as you can. Avoid questions like: “Could you write that on the board, please?”@Pre-mature exposure to writing spoils the spoken form. We have to avoid “reading pronunciation”.@Spoken system first, written system later!@Don’t clean the board at the end of the lesson!! Being helpful to the learners is far more important than pleasing the next teacher! Some Ss are waiting for the class to finish to take down notes.@It would be good idea to read what you write.2. Classroom Language;@ Avoid the following items:1. Social distancing2. Phrasal verbs3. Short words4. Idiomatic language5. Inappropriate challenge
@ It’s not a good idea to say something like “If you wouldn’t mind just jotting this down…” You’d better keep it as simple as “Please write this!”
3. Giving Instructions;@ Give instructions when the class is focused on you.@ ICQ’s: Instructions Checking Questions@ Eye contact@ Simple and totally explicit instructions.Presenting New Language:1. Warmer: Just to make the class enthusiastic.2. Introduction: To put them on the right track.3. Engagement of Interest4. Contextualization5. Checking of comprehension of the context6. Focus on meaning7. Concept questions8. Focus on form9. Identification of the T.L.10. Establishment of marker sentence
Lesson Planning:We were given a four-sheet teaching practice lesson plan which has to be fully completed for all our TP’s to follow from the next day!
I do really need some rest right now!!!!I know it is not going to be easy, having this blog updated daily, but I will do my best. Give me some hope! I desperately need it! ;-)
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