CELTA Experience (Day 4)

To start the day, we learned An Introduction to Classroom Management in our input session with Erin. We brainstormed ideas to consider in manage a classroom such as grouping, timing, monitoring and so on. At the same time, building rapport with learners are as important and it can be done by doing some simple things like using learners' names when calling them and showing interest in what learners are saying. In terms of grouping students and interaction patterns, there are some to bear in mind, but here I'd share what I think the most basic ones. First, avoid using too many gestures because they are very distracting for learners, and second, demonstrating activities is sometimes better than explaining activities. About gestures, too many will confuse learners, but some of them can be used effectively as long as it's clear and consistent, for example for "Think about .....", "Look at me.", or "Past tense/ now/in the future." Interestingly, in giving instruction, the impact was totally different when it's unclear and complicated and when it's clear, simple and easy to understand. 

And, the next assignment was coming, Language Related Task (LRT). Unlike the previous assignment, trust me, it's a lot more challenging. We were instructed to read the assignment guideline and answer some questions based on the guideline to make sure that each of us understand the instructions thoroughly. We are given some sentences with highlighted grammar and lexis used. What we do is to find out why this specific grammar of lexis might be challenging for the particular language level of the learners. After analyzing the cause, of course we should come up with proposed solutions in the form of any worksheets or activities to help the learners. I'd say it's like a mini research. To get ourselves ready, Manuel had some activities for language analysis, in terms of grammar and lexis from a text. But, before that, we had a Grammar Quiz on Kahoot. I was in a group with George and Iori, and guess what? We won the quiz! We're the Grammar Master! Then, Manuel introduced us to using student and teacher resources to help with language analysis in doing LRT Assignment. What I did right away was to find any coursebooks with the grammar and/or lexical points that I have chosen. I took some photos of them and decided which ones are the most relevant when writing the analysis.

Here comes my TP 1. I taught Grammar Lesson: Present continuous for future plans. I struggled a bit in adapting to the Lesson Plan Template. I felt that too many things to put in there starting from the Grammar Analysis up to the Lesson Procedures in details. Honestly, I was overwhelmed. As a result, I didn't manage to finish completing the Lesson Plan before the lesson. But, I got all lesson materials ready. Well, hopefully I'll do better for my next TP in writing the lesson plan. Anyways, the class ran well for the first time of teaching in this class. I got to know better what went well and what didn't as well as the level of difficulty that I need to consider in future lessons.