Written Assignment 4 – LESSON FROM THE CLASSROOM

Part A: Teaching strengths

CELTA is said to be a course primarily meant for those teachers who are going
to embark upon their teaching career. Generally young teachers tend to be
more flexible than the older ones. They are open to change themselves. On
the other hand, experienced teachers often prefer to sticking to their old
methods. Since I also had more than 20 twenty years of teaching experience
at my credit, it was quite difficult for me to unlearn some of the past methods
and relearn modern techniques and procedures to come up to the standards
that CELTA has set for competent English language teachers. It was this point
that Mr. Taufique, Head Trainer, impressed upon me during pre-CELTA
interview. He said to me, “You are an experienced teacher and it will be
difficult for you to adapt yourself to the new methods and procedures.” As I
was determined to go for CELTA, I assured him that I would try my level best to
show the flexibility that was needed to be successful in the rigorous training.
Now I feel fairly relieved that I demonstrated the amount of flexibility that was
needed to sail through CELTA course. So I count this one of my strengths.

Another point on which I feel I became gradually strong is the lesson planning.
From my TP feedback, it is quite evident that most of the lesson were well
planned and their execution in classroom, though not ideal, mostly achieved
the main and stage aims. Particularly, at elementary level, I showed a lot of
progress. Generally, interaction pattern has also been satisfactory. In almost
every TP lesson, there was pair work and group work.

While teaching at a university, most of my lectures were based on

presentations and as such my TTT was very high. Before I embarked upon
CELTA I had never realized this fact though I always got a good reputation as a
teacher. During the training, it was observed that this was the problem with
every trainee. The trainers and the observers launched a campaign to reduce
TTT. Now I feel that not only I checked my TTT but also became a good
involver. Never ever before I had used games to stimulate the students. Never
ever before I had done so much elicitation. ICQs and CCQs are some other
areas where we improved a lot. My first tutorial records in CELTA 5 show that
mostly I met the standard. My peers also made constructive criticism on every
TP lesson. In one of the TPs, one of my peers pointed out that 29 time I

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repeated, “You know”. This observation helped me a lot to reduce this
meaningless repetition.

Part B: Areas to work on

In TP 6, we were directed by the Head Trainer to strictly follow the TP point,

i.e. to plan a single lesson by two teachers in which one teacher will give
presentation and the other would carry out practice. We missed that point, I
had to bear the brunt because I was the second to complete the TP. It was this
TP in which I did not meet the standard. It was quite shocking and I am still
struggling to come out of it. Proper coordination with other peers is the area
on which I have to work on.

The recent feedback from the Head trainer, Mr. James and the peers shows
that I need to inject variety and enthusiasm into my TPs. I have also realized
myself that I work more on the plan than on the actual TP. As a result, some
tasks are not carried out effectively. Sometimes, I give the task first and give
the instructions later. I observed my counterpart, Mr. Sadiq, who in TP 8 set
the task before writing a business letter very clearly. So I sincerely intend to
follow that model in future.

Another area I have to work on relates to CCQs. Although I am good at making

CCQs, sometimes I neither mention them in the lesson plan nor I use them in
my TP. So, Mr. Taufique categorically asked me to mention some of the CCQs
in the lesson plan. I also accepted this lapse on my part in myself observation.

Pacing and timing are also the areas in which I am still faltering. In 40 minutes
TPs, pace remained a little bit high. However, in the 60 minutes TPs, it
dropped down to a level where the observers had to gesture to quicken it.

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Part C: Action Plan

Areas to work on Action Plan

 Injecting variety and  Focussing more on stage aims
enthusiasm  Making the activities interesting
 Following good models
 Taking help from colleagues
 More focus on MPF and CCQs

 Better task setting  Give clear and precise instructions.

 Model before the task, if necessary.
 Use ICQs.

 Make the plan more  Avoid unnecessary stages.

effective.  Reject the activity from the book if it
seems redundant in relation to stage
aims.
 Read the TP points clearly while
planning.

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