Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Monday, 16 January 2017
Saturday, 14 January 2017
CELTA Written Assignment: Lessons from the classroom
Teaching Strengths
1.
Setting up activities
Before the CELTA course, I used to struggle a lot with
setting up activities. I had to repeat some instructions many times and quite
often I saw that my students looked puzzled. During the input session with
Barbara, I learnt how to successfully set up an activity. During TP sessions, I
noticed how fellow trainees Katie and Cristina used ICQs and demoed the
activities and I tried to do it during my lessons. At the beginning I always
forgot about something but eventually I’ve managed to do it all. My students
have been able to follow my instructions and by using ICQs I was sure that they
really knew what to do. During Tutorial 2, I was told that setting up
activities is one of my main strengths.
2.
Lesson planning
I never prepared detailed lesson plans, I honestly
considered them a waste of time. However, I changed my mind while observing
fellow trainees teaching. I realised that a good plan means a very well
organised lesson. The more detailed the plan the smaller the possibility of
being asked a question we are not prepared for. After observing one of the DVD
lessons (If I found a little money…), we were given a lesson plan and I
realised that it’s a very good idea to include CCQs, ICQs and form checking
questions. I noticed during TP sessions that when Katie included her ICQs in
the lesson plan she always used them. So I decided to do the same. My tutor
commented on how I used my CCQs included in the lesson plan during the TP
feedback. Having a well thought plan has helped me overcome my initial stress
and move smoothly from one activity to another.
3.
Language analysis
Even though I studied linguistics I never used the knowledge
to analyse the language I teach. After observing fellow trainees, Cristina and
Ewa, I realised it is important to adjust the language in the classroom to the learner group and the context (CELTA 5
– 2a). I started paying more attention
to the language I use and analyse more carefully the language in terms of form
and meaning. Also, my tutor has highlighted during Tutorial 2 that I’ve worked
well on providing clear context and a communicative context for language which
led to “meaningful communicative practice of TL”. Thanks to analysing the
language I am about to teach I feel more confident during TP sessions and know
what kind of problems I can encounter during the lesson which I find very
useful.
Development needs
1.
Using too much TTT
Before CELTA course I didn’t know what TTT was and that I
definitely overused it. I’ve been working on reducing TTT, especially echoing,
but so far I haven’t stopped doing it. I should apply some of the techniques
that I observed while watching experienced teachers. During the demo class for
the trainees, Declan and Peter used praising students instead of repeating the
answer for them. Also, I should elicit more and ask for more justifications
from students as I could see in the DVD with Nick (lesson about listening and
phonology). Finally, I could use more gestures, for example to show pair work
which I saw during TP sessions, for example Cristina uses it very naturally.
2.
Monitoring and error correction
I am a very passive teacher while monitoring. During TP
feedback my tutor has suggested that I should interact more at times and I
should be more helpful. During TP sessions, I noticed that Nigel and Katie
observe students closely and they use of a lot of on-the-spot correction.
Something I should definitely include while monitoring. Also, while observing
experienced teachers, I noticed how Declan approached students and how Peter
used white colour to write students’ mistakes on the board without interrupting
the activity. I would like to copy these techniques during my future lessons.
3.
Teaching pronunciation
I am extremely self-conscious about my pronunciation and it
visibly affects the way I teach it. In almost every tutor observation notes I
can read that I need to focus more on drilling, don’t skip it and use a varied
range of drills. During DVD observations, I could see how to use fingers to
teach students contractions and connected speech. Later on I had an opportunity
to see Ewa, one of the trainees, use this technique during drilling and it
worked very well. I would also like to practice drilling in a more friendly
atmosphere. During Tutorial 2 it’s been suggested that I sometimes sound
like barking dog. I would definitely
like to work on that.
Action plan
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Areas to work on:
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Action plan:
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1. Reducing TTT
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a.
I’ll watch Jo Gakonga’s video on Teacher echo and IRF to analyse the
reasons why I echo my students’ answers in order to reduce it.
b.
I’ll read an article on Teacher talking time on https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teacher-talking-time.
c.
Once a month, I’ll record myself in order to
check how much TTT I use.
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2. Improving monitoring and error correction
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a.
I will read Chapter 8 on Mistakes and feedback in The practice of English language teaching
by Jeremy Harmer.
b.
I’ll plan more time to the PACS stage and I’ll
include possible that students might make in the lesson plan so as to have
more errors to analyse.
c.
I’ll observe two different colleagues to see how
they monitor their students and try to introduce their techniques during my lessons.
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3.
Teaching
pronunciation
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a.
I’ll do an online Teaching pronunciation course
available on the Cambridge English Teacher
website to improve my teaching skills in this idea.
b.
I will read Chapter 15 on Teaching pronunciation in The practice of English language teaching
by Jeremy Harmer.
c.
I will test drilling first on my colleagues to
check if they respond well to my instructions and the techniques I use.
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Thursday, 12 January 2017
Teaching Practice #8 - Complete lesson plan and materials
TEACHER: Paulina
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WEEK: 4
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DAY: Wednesday
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LENGTH: 45 min
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| LEVEL OF SS: Upper-Intermediate | DATE: 24/08/2016 |
TP# 8
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TOPIC/THEME:
Reacting to stories and
anecdotes
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LESSON
FOCUS
Functional language
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||
MAIN AIM:
By the end of the lesson students will have practised
using new expressions to ask for more information, show surprise, approval or
sympathy while listening actively to a story or an anecdote.
Subsidiary Aims:
Students will have also practised reading a
dialogue for gist .
Students will also have also practiced narrative
tenses by telling stories and anecdotes.
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PERSONAL AIMS
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CLASS PROFILE:
The class consists of 13 students, 2 men and 11 women, 12 Polish and 1
Ukrainian.
The strongest students are Jerzy and Grażyna (the first one on the
left) and they like to contribute a lot during OCFB. Grażyna J. ( on the
right) seems to be the weakest student but she enjoys working with other students. Grażyna, Maria
and Grażyna work well together. Jerzy
checks his dictionary a lot. Anna’s rather intolerant of ambiguity, asking
lots of questions not always relevant to the topic.
The group as a whole is strong, interested in lessons and very
co-operative.
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ASSUMPTIONS:
In this lesson, I assume students will have already encountered a
range of expressions to show surprise, approval or sympathy and ask for more
information. The lesson will be a revision for the majority of the students
however some of the expressions may be new.
I also assume students can use a variety of narrative tenses to tell
stories and anecdotes.
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ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS
& SOLUTIONS FOR LESSON OVERALL:
e.g. issues with
Classroom management
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ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS
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SOLUTIONS |
Problem 1
Students may arrive late
and miss the lead-in
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Solution 1
Put them in pairs/threes
with students, let them join the activity and prepare them for the restricted
and freer practice.
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Problem 2
Student may use Polish
during restricted and freer practise
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Solution 2
Tell students that using
Polish is forbidden, for both restricted and freer practice allow students to
ask you no more than 3 words that they might need while telling their stories.
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Problem 3
Students may struggle
with restricted practice as it involves different activities (watching a
video, telling the story, reacting to it)
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Solution 3
Prepare detailed ICQs,
demo the activity for the students and monitor closely to ensure students are
doing the “right” thing.
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Problem 4
Students may not know
what to say during the freer practice
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Solution 4
Allow students to talk
about somebody they know and/or to make up the story. Present a range of
ideas for students to choose from.
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Problem 5
Students may feel tempted
to write down their stories during preparation for the freer practice.
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Solution 5
Use ICQs, tell student
they can make some notes but they should not write down the whole story. *KEEP in mind that the activity is about listening actively –
listeners are more important than speakers.
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Problem 5
Students may be tired as it is the last lesson
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Solution 5
Include a range of
different activities for example a kinaesthetic matching activity for guided
discovery, ask students to stand up while drilling and include some activities
that are new to students (for example: videos).
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MATERIALS:
handouts for students, pictures, ppt, videos on YouTube
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Stage
Name
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‚‚”
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Procedure
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Stage Aim
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Engage
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T-s-s-s
s-s
T-s-s-s
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3 min
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Set-up:
Display the wordcloud on the IWB. Tell students that
today we’re going to talk about different expressions. Students’ task is to
find as many expressions as they can. Tell them that some of the words can be
used more than once. Give students 1 minute.
Students:
look at the wordcloud and try to make as many expressions
as possible
OCFB:
Ask some of the students about their ideas. Tell
students that they will have a chance to check their guesses in a few
minutes.
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To generate interest in the specific topic of the
lesson: asking for more information, showing surprise, approval and sympathy
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Contextualization
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T-s-s-s
s
s-s
T-s-s-s
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4 min
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Set-up:
Tell students you’re going to read a short dialogue.
Students need to find out: “Why did Monica get off the plane?”. Give students
one minute to read the text.
Students:
Students read the dialogue
Pair
check
OCFB:
Elicit the answer from the students.
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To show usage in context and convey the general
meaning of the items
To practise reading for gist
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Meaning clarification
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T-s-s-s
s-s
T-s-s-s
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5 min
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Set-up:
Tell students that in the dialogue they could see some
expressions and now you’d like them to divide the these expression + some
more into 4 different categories. Give students the expressions and set time
limit – 1 minutes.
Students
in pairs: divide the expressions into 4 categories.
After a minute give
students 4 names for each category and ask students to match the functions
with the expressions. Set time limit – 1 minute.
OCFB:
Display the answers on the board.
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To illustrate the target language
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Meaning check
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T-s-s-s
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3 min
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Set
up: Tell students you want to make sure they know how to
use the expressions.
Ask
CCQs
Students
answer CCQs
No feedback.
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To check that learners understand the concept of new
target language
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Form clarification
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T-s-s-s
s
s-s
T-s-s-s
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5 min
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Set-up:
Tell students you want them to have a look at some
sentences. Tell them that each sentence has a mistake. Students have to find the
mistakes and correct them. DEMO
the first example. Set time limit – 1 minute. MONITOR
Students:
Look for mistakes and correct them
Pair
check
OCFB:
Check answers on the IWB, elicit why.
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To clarify the tricky areas where students are
likely to make errors
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Pronunciation clarification
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T-s-s-s
s
s-s
T-s-s-s
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2 min
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Set-up: Ask
student to stand up and repeat the expressions after you. Use back chaining.
Students:
Repeat the expressions after the teacher.
No feedback
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To highlight the pronunciation of new target
language – specifically word stress and sentence stress
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Restricted practice
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T-s-s-s
s
s-s
T-s-s-s
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10 min
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Set-up: Tell
students they’re going to watch two very short videos. They are going to do
the task in pairs. One of the students is going to watch a video for a minute
and then is going to tell it to the partner using some cues. The other
student has to listen actively and react according to the cues given. At the
end the student can guess what movie it is. After that students swap roles.
The first student listens actively and the second one watches the movie and
tells the story to the partner
Students:
do the task as described above
MONITOR
No feedback
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To provide initial accuracy-focused practice
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Freer practice
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T-s-s-s
s-s
T-s-s-s
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10 min
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Set-up:
Tell students that this time they’re going to do a similar task but they’re
going to tell their own stories and/or anecdotes. Allow students to talk
about somebody else to make up the story. Tell students that if they don’t
tell the story they need to listen actively, using the expressions from the
lesson. Once they finish, they swap. Tell students they should swap after
+/-3 minutes. DEMO the activity. Give students 1 minute to think about what
they want to say, to ask you some questions and to make some notes.
Students:
Do the activity as described above
OCFB:
Ask students about some interesting stories you’ve
heard about during monitoring.
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To provide communicative personalised practice of the
target language
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PACS
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T-s-s-s
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3 min
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Set
up: Write some errors you collected on board, ask pairs to correct them – set
time limit - 1 min.
Pairs discuss possible
ways to correct the errors seen on the board.
Feedback in open class:
ask students where the errors are and elicit correct versions form the
students, change what is on the board.
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To encourage learners to help students learn from
their errors
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LANGUAGE ANALYSIS :
GRAMMAR
/ FUNCTIONAL LG
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Meaning
Form
Pron
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Fixed expressions and phrases.
We use intonation to express different emotions.
Connected speech and stress.
/intrusive
sounds/
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WRITTEN
RECORD:
What written record will students get of key
features of M,F,P of the language you are teaching?
Handouts with GD and activities.
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ANTICIPATED
PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS
FUNCTIONAL LG
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Meaning:
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Problem 1
Level of formality – students may not see the
difference in the formality of the given expressions.
Problem 2
Level of appropriacy for
given context situation – students may react in inappropriate ways to some situations, e.g.
A:
My dog died yesterday. B: How wonderful!
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Solutions: Ask CCQs
Do the speakers know each other?
Do they know each other very well?
Is this expression rather formal or
informal? (show expressions on the IWB)
Can we use these expressions when
somebody dies? (no, no, yes)
Can we use these expressions when the
situation is serious? (no, no, yes)
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Form
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Problem 1
Students may follow How or That’s with adverbs instead of
adjectives (L1 interference), e.g.
That’s fantastically! and How awfully! instead of That’s
fantastic! and How awfully!
Problem 2
Students may present simple instead of present continuous in sentences
with joke or kid, e.g. Do you joke? instead
of Are you joking?, You kid, right? instead
of You’re kidding, right?
Problem 3
Students may use present continuous instead of present simple in
construction with believe, e.g. I’m not believing you. instead of I don’t believe you.
Problem 4
Students may confuse subject / object
questions while asking for more information, e.g. What did happen next? instead of What happened next?
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Solution 1 – Ask form checking questions
Can I say: how awfully?
That’s greatly?
Can I say: You joke, right?
Why not?
Elicit from students: Because it’s happening right now, at the moment.
Can I say I am believing you?
Why not?
Elicit from students: Because believe
is a state verb (doesn’t take –ing nding).
Can I say: What did happen next?
Why not?
Elicit from students: Because it’s a subject question.
If time, check at PACS
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Pronunciation
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Problem 1
Students may use flat intonation and consequently sound rude or
inappropriate for a certain context.
Problem 2
Students may not connect words, e.g. What _ happened _ next?
Problem 3
Students may stress the wrong word in a sentence, e.g. What A
pity! Instead of What a pity!
Problem 4
Students may pronounce to strongly the indefinite article a and pronounce it as /æ/ instead of /
ə/.
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Solution 1
Point this out during
pronunciation clarification stage and drill.
Solution 2
Drill the last word > drill the chunk > drill full expression.
Solution 3&4
Highlight word stress during the drilling activity.
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