My CELTA Experience; Episode-4

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross said, "There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from." So no worries about first TP. Anyhow I learnt that I was not playing in my home ground in front of my home crowd. Third day started with a lesson given by Dorothy. MFP was discussed where special focus was on pronunciation. I realised that back in my country we are missing or at least not giving proper attention to this very important aspect of language. The input session was a perfect example of situational presentation. Some pictures were used for lead-in. The sequence of the lesson was:

• Warmer
• Set context
• illustrate meaning
• Elicit
• check meaning
• drill
• focus on form
• written consolidation

For pronunciation and specially for the stress patterns, Dorothy taught us that teacher should model it. It may be done through clap while drilling a sentence or even whistling could be used. We also learned that while using a situational presentation, that situation should be chosen which may generate other examples.

He's been to Turkey.

Now it can be varied as

He's been to Ireland. OR He's been to South Korea. 

LA sheet or Language Analysis Sheet ( an extension of lesson plan) was also introduced that day. On LA sheet we were required to write certain details of language to be taught.

 

While focussing on 'Meaning' in language we should remember three things:

i) Analyse: The language to be taught.

ii) Convey: Context and how to transfer meaning

iii) Check: CCQ's (Concept Checking Questions), which should be short and easy

On LA sheet we need to mention anticipated problems and their solutions too. In fact it is very important to remember that even the best plans can face failure because of not anticipating potential problems. In order to do that perfectly, the main thing is to know the learners. If we know them, hopefully we would overcome all the problems.

Lessons from the third day:

• Keep a plan B before entering the class.
• The more detailed a lesson plan is, the more successful the lesson would be.
• Language can't be taught in chunks. It should be taught with some context.
• With a 100 % ready lesson plan a teacher should be 200 % ready.   
• In classroom management, one of the most important aspect to remember is variety. Change groups, pairs, seating plans, teaching style, assessment and your jokes too.

In the afternoon session we had two lessons, one by Seyfullah and the other by Muhamad. SOme lessons learned from those two TPs were:

• Maintain your pace (Neither too slow nor too stormy)
• TTT should be minimized. ( I kept learning the lesson but couldn't control myself) 
• Correction work should be there, may that be at once or delayed one. 

With dreams of my next day lesson (though there was almost no sleep that night) I finished the day. See you next time with my next endeavours. Till then bye bye... ( Oh! thanks for your comments on my email. By the way you may send them on this page too)