CELTA Writing

The first assignment that I did was a language assignment where I was given four target language statements and was required to do a language analysis on those statements. The statements ranged from 2  sentences focused on grammatical features, one statement focused on a vocabulary feature and the final statement focused on functional language. For the four statements I was required to do a language analysis on meaning, form, and pronunciation. I was also required to include anticipated problems for those three areas. I needed to provide a context in which I would be able to teach these target language statements. I needed to provide some concept understanding or concept checking questions. And finally I needed to reference materials that I used to come up with these Solutions and information included and my language assignment. 

This might not be an intimidating task for me to do now however, when I was doing the Celta it seemed like an impossible feat. First of all, there are criteria in which you need to meet to complete the assignment. You also have some chances of resubmission so if you are not able to pass on the first draft you are able to resubmit with some guidance and Corrections from your tutors. It's not an assignment that you were going to pass or fail as soon as you turn it in, there is some communication involved with your tutor and being able to analyze the language that you need to do.

Referencing my first assignment, which was the language assignment, I did overall okay in most of the categories except for clarifying a range of pronunciation features of the target language  and providing a clear and appropriate context to help convey the meaning. These two areas were concerning for my tutor with my first draft and he made comments directly on my paper that guided me to be able to address those two criteria to standard.

 The second assignment was to focus on the learner. In the first part, you need to analyze your learners and their classroom behavior and styles of learning. If you haven't heard my podcast about recommendations of things that I wish I had done early on in my career (click here) to listen to that because those recommendations directly reflect something that would be beneficial for you to do prior to writing this specific assignment for CELTA. In the next part, you need to define some specific weaknesses of the learners. And in part 3 you need to provide evidence of appropriate activities to help learners based on the needs analysis that you developed. In total, my paper was two pages and I used two references to complete this assignment. Some of the tutors' comments that might help future candidates is using terminology that's appropriate for the analysis. Also when you're identifying problems whether it be grammatical, phonological, or lexical issues be sure that you are classifying them appropriately. This could be helped if you communicate with your fellow CELTEEs and confirm your suspicions of some of the weaknesses that learners might have. In all of the parts you need to justify what you believe, therefore be prepared to possibly reference a book or some material to help with your justification.

 My third assignment was a skills assignment. Essentially I needed to choose a text, give some justifications on why I chose the text for the specific students that I was teaching at the time and develop a lesson for the text.  I chose an authentic text and created a very standard receptive skill lesson based off of a reading text. Then I detailed out the stages and within all of the stages I chose to justify my reasoning using some references.  I used five references plus my authentic material. Basically, this writing assignment is for you to choose some new material and develop a lesson based on all of the information and input sessions that you're receiving regarding lesson planning. It also allows you to justify your reasoning for the stages in your lesson.

 The final writing assignment was lessons from the classroom.  This assignment is primarily a reflective essay about your strengths and weaknesses during the course. Also, there are opportunities for you to justify your positioning of how you felt and your reflections from observations by your peers and the experienced teachers. And finally, at the end of the assignment, you need to write about your future intentions for professional development once you finish the course. This assignment is obviously the easiest in terms of grading, however there are some criteria that you need to meet when you describe your strengths and weaknesses, and action plan. I did include some references in this assignment as I felt it was necessary to justify some of my positions. The basic outline was:  I had three teaching strengths, three areas for improvement, a paragraph regarding observations and the final paragraph regarding my action plan for future development. All in all it was a two-page assignment reflecting on your CELTA experience and what you plan to do moving forward.

 All of these assignments have grades and like I mentioned before you have the opportunity to resubmit if you don't meet all the criteria with your first submission.

My first writing assignment I passed on the second draft. The second  writing assignment I also passed on the second draft. The skills assignment I was able to pass on the first draft as well as lessons from the classroom I was able to pass on the first draft.

 I hope this was helpful to give people some orientation and bearing on what types of things they will be expected to produce in a CELTA course.