Assignment 5

BKC - International House Moscow

CELTA Course

Assignment 4: Lessons from the classroom

Length: 750 - 1000 words
Part A: Reflections on Classroom Practice
The purpose of this assignment is to help you bring together and articulate what you have learned on
the course about teaching techniques and principles from
● your own classroom teaching
● observing your peers’ classroom teaching
● observing experienced teachers in their normal teaching situation via video
● observing your tutors teach the same TP group as you
You will receive tasks from your tutor to help you focus your thoughts while you watch each other
teach, and while you watch your tutors and other experienced teachers teach. You will also receive
guidance to help you reflect on your own experience of teaching after each lesson you give. KEEP
ALL OF THE NOTES you make as a result of this, as you will be drawing on them for this
assignment.
At the end of Stage 3, choose 3 - 5 of the areas listed below and write up what you have learned
about them from your observations and self-reflections. Refer to your own teaching strengths
and areas to work on. Make brief references to specific instances to justify your comments and
mention level as appropriate.
Topics
● teacher talking time and/ or grading your language
● instructions/ setting up activities
● student centred presentations
● questioning techniques, including eliciting and concept checking
● work on pronunciation in class/ drilling
● use of the whiteboard/ projector/ other props or materials
● interaction patterns
● error correction techniques
● choice of practice tasks
● receptive skills/ sub skills
● productive skills
● responding to students’ needs/ learning preferences/ interests or goals
● other (be specific)
Part B: A post-CELTA action plan
What aspects of teaching are you now planning to work on and how you are going to do that? Design
an action plan for yourself that you can implement once you have finished the course. E.g. if your
instructions still tend to be lengthy and unclear, your action plan might look like this:
Area to work on: Action plan:

Giving clear, concise instructions 1. Review instructions on elttraining.com 'CELTA toolkit'
to revise what good instructions look like and how to achieve
them
2. Record myself teaching and transcribe my instructions
to see if there are areas for improvement
3. Ask a colleague to observe me to identify problems with
instructions and suggest solutions
For each area to work on, have at least 3 things that you can constructively do to work on that area.
Try to include help that is not just something you do by yourself while planning. For example, enlisting
your colleagues' help (how?) or doing some further reading/ training (what?). Write this part of the
assignment in table format, using bullet points.
Assessment criteria
Successful candidates can
1. show (convincing) evidence of an ability to identify their own teaching
strengths and weaknesses in the light of feedback from learners, teachers and tutors
(i) identify which ELT areas of knowledge and skills they need further development in
(ii) describe in a specific way how they might develop their ELT knowledge and skills
beyond the course
(iii) use written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task.
CELTA Written Assignment 4: Lessons from the Classroom
Demo
Part A: Reflections on Classroom Practice

As a novice teacher with little experience, I have found the course extremely useful and
interesting. I especially appreciated the opportunities to observe peers and experienced teachers and
to apply acquired knowledge in practice almost immediately. The most important thing I have learnt
on the course is that teaching should focus on the learner. In this regard I found two video
observations (Jane Willis and IH London) particularly inspiring and thought-provoking. During the
input sessions both tutors demonstrated how to make presentations more student-centered. Anna
Kashcheeva has always encouraged us to use GD, TTT and TBL in the classroom and demonstrated
how it can be done (Elementary demo lesson 2). I also saw how engaged and eager to learn the
students were when my peers used GD and succeeded (Anastasia Drozdova’s TP 5 and Lilia
Yambaeva’s TP 6). By the end of the course, I also started to make more student-centered
presentations and successfully used TTT & GD (TP 7).
Another area of great interest to me was error correction techniques. I really enjoyed Anna
Kashcheeva’s input session on 2 March; video observations 1, 2 and 4 gave me some great ideas on
how and when to correct students in the classroom. I also noticed how our tutors used some of the
techniques throughout the course. In the beginning, I hardly ever included error correction in my
lessons, which was mentioned by Margot Windisch (stage 2 tutorial). I did get better with the
Elementary group: during TP 6 I provided delayed correction. However, I agree with Anna
Kashcheeva’s feedback that it could have been done in a more student-centered manner. I need to
work on incorporating error correction into my teaching practice and ‘consider a better pace at the
end of the lesson’ (TP 7 feedback) allocating enough time for feedback. I should also grasp on-the-
spot correction and use it more often, which I wrote in self-evaluation forms (TP 4 and 5).
…
Both of my tutors mentioned lesson planning, as an area to work on (stage 2 tutorial, feedback
on TP 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7). Although there has been improvement, I need more ‘precision in stating
lesson aims’ (TP 7 feedback) and to ensure all stages contribute to the main aim.
Overall, I really enjoyed the course and learnt a lot from my peers and tutors. I am glad I
decided to do it at the very beginning of my career: it helped me realize how much I actually enjoy
teaching. In this regard I could not agree more with Alison Perkins, who said, ‘If we are doing
something we enjoy, then Continuous Professional Development is a natural component of our daily
work life. It is an attitude.’ (Foord, 2009, p. 8).
Part B: A post-CELTA action plan
Area to work on Action plan
1. Error correction techniques
2. Questioning techniques,
including eliciting and
concept checking
3. Lesson planning 1. Revise ‘CELTA Lesson Planning Made Easy!’ course on
https://www.elt-training.com/
2. Enroll in the IH CAM course (after getting more experience)
3. Continue to plan lessons thoroughly in order to practice
Bibliography
Foord, D (2009) The Developing Teacher, DELTA Publishing, UK

Assignment 5

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Assignment 5

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Assignment 5

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

BKC - International House Moscow

Assignment 4: Lessons from the classroom

Part A: Reflections on Classroom Practice

Part B: A post-CELTA action plan

Area to work on: Action plan:

Part A: Reflections on Classroom Practice

Area to work on Action plan

1. Error correction techniques

You might also like