Insight into CELTA 5 – Course requirements

This blog focuses on the criteria that needs to be met in order to pass the CELTA course.

-The TP practice that is observed by the teacher requires you to do a total of 6 hours of classroom teaching, you must pass them all.

-Observe experienced teachers teaching EFL classes for a total of 6 hours. This is usually done out of the CELTA course time slots, so time needs to be taken out of your personal life to book this in with a teacher.

-Maintain and submit a portfolio of all assessed written assignments, assessed lesson plans, feedback forms, self-evaluation forms, resources and your CELTA 5 booklet. The CELTA 5 is a candidate record booklet that monitors student’s progress and needs to be signed by both the teacher and the student after each TP and teaching observation sessions.

-Out of 4 assignments, 3 assignments need to be passed. Each centre sets assignment questions.

Note that this criteria is specified by the University of Cambridge.

Calling all ‘book-worms’!!

What is the most recent book you have read? (And I’m not talking about University textbooks, which you HAVE to read in order to pass). I’m talking about the ones which you picked up and after reading the first few pages did not want to put back down until you found out how the story ended?  

 

Let me ask you another question; if the grammar and punctuation were not there, would the story have had that same impact? Probably not I hear you say. In fact, the books would probably not have sold as much as they did if when reading them you were not able to figure out the tone of voice the characters were using or even how the story developed.

 

If you consider yourself a ‘bookworm’, then grammar and punctuation may come naturally to you. If not, then like most of us, you will have had to put that extra effort when trying to do tasks such as writing a letter, doing coursework or even sending off an application form for a potential job opportunity.

 

The good thing about learning when and how to use punctuation and grammar properly is that once you have learnt the basics, it will almost become second nature and save both time and effort.

Grammar Bytes 3 – Apostrophes – To replace letters

An apostrophe can be used to replace missing letters; these are most commonly used when we speak.

-Don’t look down (Do not look down)

-I can’t open this bottle (I cannot open this bottle)

Note: ‘can’t’ can be written as ‘can not’ or ‘cannot’.

Can not (two words) is used to add extra emphasis rather than using as one word.

 

Words such as don’t, you’re, and it’s are called contractions.

Contractions are not always used in formal writing, however some businesses prefer this, as it is a more friendly approach. So before using these in your writing it is best to see what approach you are aiming for.

News Analysis 3 – Facebook to buy WhatsApp!!

This article has been taken from tech radar and focuses on Facebook buying the messaging app Whatsapp.

“Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp for $16 billion (about £9.5b/AU$17.7b) isn’t supposed to change the popular instant messaging app, but it certainly changes the landscape of the real-time messaging services.”

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/web/what-s-up-with-facebook-buying-whatsapp-it-s-about-the-developing-world-1226429

The first paragraph shows good examples of using apostrophes appropriately. “Facebook’s” and “isn’t.”

Here Facebook’s purchase of Whatsapp indicates belonging and possession.

“Isn’t,” an apostrophe is used to show that a letter is missing in the contraction form.

 

These are the main 2 uses of apostrophe and should be used correctly. You can go through our Grammar Bytes blogs to look at this in more detail as there are some exceptions.

Many of us use an apostrophe when writing plurals of words for example in the 3rd paragraph the words,  ”chatters, appears and users” are all plurals and do not have apostrophes as the rule of apostrophes does not apply to plurals. We need to understand when it is appropriate to use them.

 

Can you find any other words that have used an apostrophe?

Quote of the day 2 ..

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Insight into CELTA 4 – Top 4 tips for Teaching

These 4 tips are to help you to achieve good classroom teaching.

 

– Say hello to your students when the class begins. Quickly ask how their weekend has been.

– Give instructions out before handing out any worksheets to your students. This is to ensure that they have listened to the instructions and know what is expected from them.

– Always keep your eye on the time. Stick to each tasks time limit that you have written on your lesson plan. Your teacher will not be telling you how much time you have left; good time keeping is your responsibility.

– Be organised with your resources. Ensure that you lay out your resources in front of you so you know for which task which resources will be needed.

 

If you implement all these, your CELTA observation teacher will be impressed.

Quote of the day…

Insight into CELTA 3 – Lesson Planning

 

It’s vital that you get your lesson plan right, as this will be scrutinised by your observation teacher. Lesson plan along with the resources that you will be using need to be at your teachers desk before your session begins.

AIMS:

Students aims and your (teacher) aims for each session need to be worded clearly. You do not need to let the students know of what they aims should be in the session. This is just between you and your teacher.

Skills development:

Here you need to write what main skill area the session will target and the sub skill area, for example my session might mainly focus on writing and will also work a little bit on reading (sub skill).

Activity:

Both teachers and students activity need be highlighted in this section. What the teacher will do and then what the student will do. This needs to be written step by step for each stage of the lesson. For example teachers activity to introduce shopping vocabulary to the students through using the picture cards on the board. The students activity is to orally repeat the vocabulary after the teacher.

Interaction:

T《 S (teacher to student)

S《 S (student to student)

At each stage the interaction needs to be noted, as the aim is to ensure that:

S 《 S  Interaction is more occurring than the T《 S interaction throughout the whole lesson.

Timing and Materials:

If you only have a 45 minute session you have to divide the time out for each stage. Do not go over your time, as you will be criticised for this. Write down all the materials that you will need for each stage. This helps your lesson to run smoothly. Place everything on your desk in order so that you are not looking for the materials in your bag whilst your lesson time is ticking.

A good organised lesson plan assists a lesson to run smoothly and the resources you make will help to build up your teachers toolkit.