assignment 4

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Content related to english exams and courses., |celta-013| assignment 4: lessons from the classroom.

Hello Exam Seekers,

We are about to end a semester and with a semester on the verge to finish, there are lots of courses finishing and lots of exams coming up.

I’ve already given you tips on how to write your  Assignment 1: Focus on the Learner ,  Assignment 2: Language Related Task  and Assignment 3: Language Skills-Related Task . Today I’m going to give you tips to write Assignment 4: Lessons from the classroom.

This assignment shouldn’t be hard, it is based on the previous lessons that you taught. Therefore, if you still have some lessons to teach, make sure you are aware of the items from this assignment because it will make it easier for you to do it later.

By now, you must have taught at least 80% of the lessons you are supposed to teach, right? So you have had a good amount of feedback given to you. You should choose  three aspects of classroom teaching that have been raised during input and feedback sessions, and reflect on them.

This assignment is assessing your ability to:

• identify your own teaching strengths and development needs;
• reflect on your teaching;
• reflect on the implications for your own teaching from the observation of experienced ELT professionals and colleagues on the course.

According to Cambridge, Candidates can demonstrate their learning by:

• noting their own teaching strengths and weaknesses in different situations in light of feedback from learners, teachers and teacher educators;
• identifying which ELT areas of knowledge and skills they need further development in;
• describing in a specific way how they might develop their ELT knowledge and skills beyond the course;
• using written language that is clear, accurate and appropriate to the task. 

Step 1:  You have to choose three aspects of your lessons, they can be:

instructions / planning / monitoring / TTT / board work / drilling / conducting feedback / rapport / correction / setting tasks / warmers

Step 2: State what you believe to be the key features of the issue you have chosen:

For example, in my case, I decided to talk about Presentation of the Target Language (ECDB & MPF), then I described what happens in my classes:

Presenting the TL has been a complicated issue for me. Sometimes I feel confident about it, especially when giving a vocabulary lesson, but sometimes it seems that it won’t work and I can’t figure how to do it properly. This problem occurs not only when I’m actually presenting the TL to a class full of students, but it also happens when I am planning the lessons and I see myself taking too much time to do so. This is simply not good in either of the cases.

Step 3:  Describe and evaluate how you have dealt with each issue in your own teaching practice and what you have seen your colleagues and experienced teachers do in their lessons. Include specific examples.

It is a piece of good advice for you to try and use your peers and tutors as examples. This is a nice way to show that you are paying attention to the course and that you are observing people around you:

I’ve been paying attention to my peers during the class observations and it seems that PEER1 has been very good in presenting the TL to the students. It seems natural for her to ECDB even in grammar lessons, which earned her positive feedback on her lessons. On the other hand, it seems to me that PEER2 is having some problems with the same situation. While I observe my peers’ classes, I try to write down some notes and compare the way they do it so that I can replicate the good aspects of their lessons, and while PEER2 usually gives the students the target language instead of eliciting, PEER1 tries to make them figure out the rule by themselves. I’ve seen the tutors doing the same procedures: they give us a good context and elicit the TL in a very subtle way, that makes us give them what they want without their handing us the answer.

Step 4: Specify how you plan to develop in this area after the course , including an objective and measurable plan of action. Do not mention what you have already been doing. Write a simple plan of action with three or four suggestions as follow.

At this point, it is a good idea for you to use sentences like:  In order to improve in this area after the CELTA course finishes, I will… Be straight to the point:

On the whole, drilling and boarding aren’t real issues for me, but eliciting and clarifying (meaning) are areas that I feel that I have to develop a bit more. I do have a good understanding of the main principles, but I am not completely comfortable putting them into practice. In order to improve in this area after the CELTA course finishes I will:

• Read the chapters “Eliciting” from Jim Scrivener, Learning Teaching and “Presentation, Practice, Production ” from Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching ;
• Ask my peers at work and friends in the field some tips;
• Ask some colleagues at work to observe my classes and make notes about this issue then give me feedback.

Remember that you have to hand in a 750-1000 words assignment . So be careful on how you divide the paragraphs. I would divide each part into 300-350 words. This way would make things balanced.

I hope that this text was really helpful for you to write your assignment 4. If you still have questions don’t forget to send us a message or leave a comment in the comment section below. There’s also ExamSeekers social media:

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Have a great weekend, Patty

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4.3: Writing Assignments

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Learning Objectives

• Describe common types and expectations of writing tasks given in a college class

What to Do With Writing Assignments

Writing assignments can be as varied as the instructors who assign them. Some assignments are explicit about what exactly you’ll need to do, in what order, and how it will be graded. Others are more open-ended, leaving you to determine the best path toward completing the project. Most fall somewhere in the middle, containing details about some aspects but leaving other assumptions unstated. It’s important to remember that your first resource for getting clarification about an assignment is your instructor—she or he will be very willing to talk out ideas with you, to be sure you’re prepared at each step to do well with the writing.

Writing in college is usually a response to class materials—an assigned reading, a discussion in class, an experiment in a lab. Generally speaking, these writing tasks can be divided into three broad categories: summary assignments, defined-topic assignments, and undefined-topic assignments.

Link to Learning

This Assignment Calculator can help you plan ahead for your writing assignment. Just plug in the date you plan to get started and the date it is due, and it will help break it down into manageable chunks.

Summary Assignments

Being asked to summarize a source is a common task in many types of writing. It can also seem like a straightforward task: simply restate, in shorter form, what the source says. A lot of advanced skills are hidden in this seemingly simple assignment, however.

An effective summary does the following:

• reflects your accurate understanding of a source’s thesis or purpose
• differentiates between major and minor ideas in a source
• demonstrates your ability to identify key phrases to quote
• demonstrates your ability to effectively paraphrase most of the source’s ideas
• captures the tone, style, and distinguishing features of a source
• does not reflect your personal opinion about the source

That last point is often the most challenging: we are opinionated creatures, by nature, and it can be very difficult to keep our opinions from creeping into a summary, which is meant to be completely neutral.

In college-level writing, assignments that are only summary are rare. That said, many types of writing tasks contain at least some element of summary, from a biology report that explains what happened during a chemical process, to an analysis essay that requires you to explain what several prominent positions about gun control are, as a component of comparing them against one another.

Writing Effective Summaries

Start with a clear identification of the work.

This automatically lets your readers know your intentions and that you’re covering the work of another author.

• In the featured article “Five Kinds of Learning,” the author, Holland Oates, justifies his opinion on the hot topic of learning styles — and adds a few himself.

Summarize the Piece as a Whole

Omit nothing important and strive for overall coherence through appropriate transitions. Write using “summarizing language.” Your reader needs to be reminded that this is not your own work. Use phrases like the article claims, the author suggests, etc.

• Present the material in a neutral fashion. Your opinions, ideas, and interpretations should be left in your brain — don’t put them into your summary. Be conscious of choosing your words. Only include what was in the original work.
• Be concise. This is a summary — it should be much shorter than the original piece. If you’re working on an article, give yourself a target length of 1/4 the original article.

Conclude with a Final Statement

This is not a statement of your own point of view, however; it should reflect the significance of the book or article from the author’s standpoint.

• Without rewriting the article, summarize what the author wanted to get across. Be careful not to evaluate in the conclusion or insert any of your own assumptions or opinions.

Understanding the Assignment and Getting Started

Often, the handout or other written text explaining the assignment—what professors call the assignment prompt —will explain the purpose of the assignment and the required parameters (length, number and type of sources, referencing style, etc.).

Also, don’t forget to check the rubric, if there is one, to understand how your writing will be assessed. After analyzing the prompt and the rubric, you should have a better sense of what kind of writing you are expected to produce.

Sometimes, though—especially when you are new to a field—you will encounter the baffling situation in which you comprehend every single sentence in the prompt but still have absolutely no idea how to approach the assignment! In a situation like that, consider the following tips:

• Focus on the verbs . Look for verbs like compare, explain, justify, reflect , or the all-purpose analyze . You’re not just producing a paper as an artifact; you’re conveying, in written communication, some intellectual work you have done. So the question is, what kind of thinking are you supposed to do to deepen your learning?
• Put the assignment in context . Many professors think in terms of assignment sequences. For example, a social science professor may ask you to write about a controversial issue three times: first, arguing for one side of the debate; second, arguing for another; and finally, from a more comprehensive and nuanced perspective, incorporating text produced in the first two assignments. A sequence like that is designed to help you think through a complex issue. If the assignment isn’t part of a sequence, think about where it falls in the span of the course (early, midterm, or toward the end), and how it relates to readings and other assignments. For example, if you see that a paper comes at the end of a three-week unit on the role of the Internet in organizational behavior, then your professor likely wants you to synthesize that material.
• Try a free-write . A free-write is when you just write, without stopping, for a set period of time. That doesn’t sound very “free”; it actually sounds kind of coerced, right? The “free” part is what you write—it can be whatever comes to mind. Professional writers use free-writing to get started on a challenging (or distasteful) writing task or to overcome writer’s block or a powerful urge to procrastinate. The idea is that if you just make yourself write, you can’t help but produce some kind of useful nugget. Thus, even if the first eight sentences of your free write are all variations on “I don’t understand this” or “I’d really rather be doing something else,” eventually you’ll write something like “I guess the main point of this is…,” and—booyah!—you’re off and running.
• Ask for clarification . Even the most carefully crafted assignments may need some verbal clarification, especially if you’re new to a course or field. Professors generally love questions, so don’t be afraid to ask. Try to convey to your instructor that you want to learn and you’re ready to work, and not just looking for advice on how to get an A.

Defined-Topic Assignments

Many writing tasks will ask you to address a particular topic or a narrow set of topic options. Defined-topic writing assignments are used primarily to identify your familiarity with the subject matter. (Discuss the use of dialect in Their Eyes Were Watching God , for example.)

Remember, even when you’re asked to “show how” or “illustrate,” you’re still being asked to make an argument. You must shape and focus your discussion or analysis so that it supports a claim that you discovered and formulated and that all of your discussion and explanation develops and supports.

Undefined-Topic Assignments

Another writing assignment you’ll potentially encounter is one in which the topic may be only broadly identified (“water conservation” in an ecology course, for instance, or “the Dust Bowl” in a U.S. History course), or even completely open (“compose an argumentative research essay on a subject of your choice”).

Where defined-topic essays demonstrate your knowledge of the content , undefined-topic assignments are used to demonstrate your skills— your ability to perform academic research, to synthesize ideas, and to apply the various stages of the writing process.

The first hurdle with this type of task is to find a focus that interests you. Don’t just pick something you feel will be “easy to write about” or that you think you already know a lot about —those almost always turn out to be false assumptions. Instead, you’ll get the most value out of, and find it easier to work on, a topic that intrigues you personally or a topic about which you have a genuine curiosity.

The same getting-started ideas described for defined-topic assignments will help with these kinds of projects, too. You can also try talking with your instructor or a writing tutor (at your college’s writing center) to help brainstorm ideas and make sure you’re on track.

Getting Started in the Writing Process

Writing is not a linear process, so writing your essay, researching, rewriting, and adjusting are all part of the process. Below are some tips to keep in mind as you approach and manage your assignment.

Write down topic ideas. If you have been assigned a particular topic or focus, it still might be possible to narrow it down or personalize it to your own interests.

If you have been given an open-ended essay assignment, the topic should be something that allows you to enjoy working with the writing process. Select a topic that you’ll want to think about, read about, and write about for several weeks, without getting bored.

If you’re writing about a subject you’re not an expert on and want to make sure you are presenting the topic or information realistically, look up the information or seek out an expert to ask questions.

• Note: Be cautious about information you retrieve online, especially if you are writing a research paper or an article that relies on factual information. A quick Google search may turn up unreliable, misleading sources. Be sure you consider the credibility of the sources you consult (we’ll talk more about that later in the course). And keep in mind that published books and works found in scholarly journals have to undergo a thorough vetting process before they reach publication and are therefore safer to use as sources.
• Check out a library. Yes, believe it or not, there is still information to be found in a library that hasn’t made its way to the Web. For an even greater breadth of resources, try a college or university library. Even better, research librarians can often be consulted in person, by phone, or even by email. And they love helping students. Don’t be afraid to reach out with questions!

Write a Rough Draft

It doesn’t matter how many spelling errors or weak adjectives you have in it. Your draft can be very rough! Jot down those random uncategorized thoughts. Write down anything you think of that you want included in your writing and worry about organizing and polishing everything later.

If You’re Having Trouble, Try F reewriting

Set a timer and write continuously until that time is up. Don’t worry about what you write, just keeping moving your pencil on the page or typing something (anything!) into the computer.

Contributors and Attributions

• Outcome: Writing in College. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence. Authored by : Amy Guptill. Provided by : SUNY Open Textbooks. Located at : textbooks.opensuny.org/writing-in-college-from-competence-to-excellence/. License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Image of man writing. Authored by : Matt Zhang. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/pAg6t9 . License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
• Writing Strategies. Provided by : Lumen Learning. Located at : courses.lumenlearning.com/lumencollegesuccess/chapter/writing-strategies/. License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Image of woman reading. Authored by : Aaron Osborne. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/dPLmVV . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Image of sketches of magnifying glass. Authored by : Matt Cornock. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/eBSLmg . License : CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial
• How to Write a Summary. Authored by : WikiHow. Located at : http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Summary . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• How to Write. Provided by : WikiHow. License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Image of typing. Authored by : Kiran Foster. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/9M2WW4 . License : CC BY: Attribution

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CELTA Assignment 4: Lessons from the Classroom

One of my goals in my career was obtaining CELTA course to maximize my chance in updating my teaching skills and provide me with solid knowledge on how to focus on students' needs. Through my journey, I went through some of the ups and down teaching moments, but I will highlight the four areas of my teaching aspects that have effectively developed during the CELTA course.

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