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Workshops in Input sessions / Making assignments more manageable / Strategies to support weaker candidates

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View the story "#CELTAchat Monday 4 December" on Storify ]

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How much support is enough / too much?

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#CELTAchat Storify Monday 6 November 2017

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View the story "#CELTAchat Monday 6 November 2017" on Storify ]

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Input sessions: How do you choose?

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Hi teacher trainers! #CELTAchat is on the first Monday of the month from 7-8pm GMT/ 8-9pm CET on Twitter and then goes into asynchronous mode for 24 hours for those trainers that can't make the live chat. You can suggest a topic on the monthly Padlet that gets posted a week or so before, then vote for the topic & join in.

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What do we do with extra TP slots? / Pros & Cons of the S+ grade

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Hi teacher trainers! #CELTAchat is on the first Monday of the month from 7-8pm GMT/ 8-9pm CET on Twitter and then goes into asynchronous mode for 24 hours for those trainers that can't make the live chat. You can suggest a topic on the monthly Padlet that gets posted a week or so before, then vote for the topic & join in.

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What is the future of CELTA in the 21st century?

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This #CELTAchat topic came from Christian Tiplady @xiantiplady who is delivering a session on the future of CELTA in the 21st century at the 3rd CETA Symposium in September in Sheffield.

Many thanks to Darren Bell @bellinguist for volunteering to write the summary:

There was some brief discussion at the beginning about whether we need to be 21 st century teachers in order to be 21 st century trainers - Who is a 21st century Teacher?

@Cathyofnusle asked whether methodology on future CELTA courses may reflect current trends, referring specifically to DOGME or reactive teaching.@bellinguist stated that on his current course the MCT had decided to stick to a text-based presentation format, fearing that other approaches such as TTT or TBL confuse trainees.@Marisa_C said that mastering the basic skills was still an issue for many trainees, even in their final lessons and the skill set for DOGME was not in place for many.@Cathyofnusle said that trainees generally coped better when they had researched the language focus of their lessons and found it more difficult to deal with adhoc questions.

In terms of online/blended delivery of CELTA courses, the following opinions were given:

Some other suggestions were made about future course provision:

@angleos_bollas would also like to see less formal planning on the second half of the course.@ChrisCattaneo tried less formal planning as an option on course, but the trainees opted to carry on with full lesson plans.

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Hi teacher trainers! #CELTAchat is on the first Monday of the month from 7-8pm GMT/ 8-9pm CET on Twitter and then goes into asynchronous mode for 24 hours for those trainers that can't make the live chat. You can suggest a topic on the monthly Padlet that gets posted a week or so before, then vote for the topic & join in.

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Are your TP points always coursebook-based?

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Many thanks to Annie Thomson @anniethomson78 for volunteering to write the summary for our 3 July #CELTAchat on the following topic:

Teaching Practice (TP) points whether written or oral are in some ways one of the most challenging parts of running a CELTA course. What can we use to meet both student and trainee needs?

It seems like a lot of us do use coursebook-based TP points. This may be because these are provided by the institutions where the CELTA is running and tutors are expected to use them.

The question quickly moved on to whether this was useful or not, especially when these coursebooks can be very dated (I love the Cutting Edge series but can't believe I still have to work with the text about the 'young' Olsen twins!). Of course, we can get trainees to rewrite and update texts where appropriate, but that's a lot of work, and for some trainees that may be asking too much, especially early on in the course.

Most of us try to pick and choose the most interesting/appropriate parts of the coursebook for TP points, but this is not always possible with restrictions on how much coursebook is available per course. There was some agreement though, that it is good to mix these with non coursebook-based points where possible. For example, the last trainee of the TP may extend the topic/text/language point beyond the coursebook.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using coursebooks for TP points?

-Trainees will need to be able to use and exploit the coursebook in future so this is a useful skill to learn

-Trainees will also be able to see how tutors use coursebooks to plan lessons

-Coursebooks have Teacher Books and Resource Books to give more support to trainees, e.g. with guidance and extra ideas.

-Students can have a sense of progress and see some coherence over the course

-It's a time saver for tutors, especially with large groups of trainees. To some extent, these can be written/sketched out beforehand.

- Trainees benefit from seeing tutors planning without the coursebook.

- Relevance of coursebooks to students' and trainees' lives and contexts (a real example I have had recently:trainees from the USA doing CELTA in Ecuador using a UK-based coursebook!)

So a coursebook isn't used as the basis for TP points, then what is?

As well as heaps of authentic listening and reading material, there were a number of good ideas of sources and materials to use.

Just because you're not using the coursebook, doesn't mean there is no support!

It was noted in the chat that this sort of approach would really depend on both/all tutors being committed to this type of TP point and there may well be trainees who are less willing to be creative, so as with anything, it may not be best in all cases.

The discussion naturally led on to discussing how to make the link between TP points, input and assignments stronger and more useful for trainees. A lot of people were in favour of setting Language Skills Assignment as the first one of the course so that trainees gain confidence in designing their own lessons and using authentic materials early on in the course. In addition, input sessions on authentic materials will often double as a way to revisist and further explore receptive skills work.

So there seemed to be some acknowledgement that TP points are usually coursebook-based and there are some clear reasons for doing this, namely to enable trainees to work with and exploit coursebooks in their future teaching. However, there was a strong feeling that TP points should not be exclusively coursebook-based, with the internet there are more than enough sources of lesson ideas as well as authentic materials.

Here is the link to the Storify in case I missed anything.

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Hi teacher trainers! #CELTAchat is on the first Monday of the month from 7-8pm GMT/ 8-9pm CET on Twitter and then goes into asynchronous mode for 24 hours for those trainers that can't make the live chat. You can suggest a topic on the monthly Padlet that gets posted a week or so before, then vote for the topic & join in.

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TP Observation tasks - ideas and best practice

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Many thanks to Sandy Millin for writing this great #CELTAchat summary. Read her blog post here: Observation tasks: ideas and good practice ...

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TTT - the good, the bad, the ugly

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Many thanks to Teresa Bestwick for volunteering to summarise our Monday 1 May Bank holiday #CELTAchat on Teacher Talk.

You can read Teresa's blog post here:
Teacher Talk - a #CELTAchat summary

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Monday May 1: Teacher Talk - a #CELTAchat summary

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Many thanks to Teresa Bestwick for volunteering to summarise our Monday 1 May Bank holiday #CELTAchat on Teacher Talk. You can read Teresa's blog post here: Teacher Talk - a #CELTAchat summary

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Making the CELTA course really global

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April 3 2017 summary by @GioLic1976

Making the CELTA course really global: how to implement the CELTA syllabus around the world

A dancefloor with different colors.

We all train in different countries/contexts; yet, the

syllabus we follow is fairly static across the world.

Is diversity reflected in the materials we use? The

course has to be standardized so trainers play an

important role in adaptation to context.

The use of global coursebooks for TP

Participants in the chat seemed to agree that a

standardized course books are more problematic.

books for trainees to use. Issues were raised

use around the world, are Eurocentric

and only cater to a small part of learners. Some

coursebooks are beyond adaptation. Centers could

get updated material from publishers that trainees

The issue of YL and the lack of a dedicated

course was raised. While this might be a fairly

global trend in the demand, we didn't really

delve into solutions to incorporate YL

pedagogy into the tight CELTA schedule. A

good topic for future chats?

It was generally felt that it is the trainer's job to adapt seminars and input sessions to reflect the needs of the target group of trainees and learners. For example, a trainer might find you need to spend more on teaching techniques to adapt reading materials or find authentic texts when coursebook topics/text- types really don't resonate with the context. Hence, negotiation of input sessions becomes key when you are out of your usual "element".

1) Adapting and negotiating input sessions;

3) Expanding on the criteria 1a - 1d to reflect the global context in which trainees may teach;

4) Showing trainees that trainers are ready to adapt content to the context and respond to learners' and trainees' needs: a form of ingrained loop input in the course program that shows how thorough NA can work for all;

5) Simon Marshall's post on celtatrainers.com about CELTA criteria? Do we give Topic 2 in the CELTA5 more importance than Topic 1?;

Raising Trainers' awareness of the variety of English spoken in the target language community, especially when teaching in ESL contexts;

Whatever the specific context, contextualizing the course through getting trainees to do authentic needs analysis to tie needs analysis in with Focus on Learner assignment and truly link it to TP;

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Hi teacher trainers! #CELTAchat is on the first Monday of the month from 7-8pm GMT/ 8-9pm CET on Twitter and then goes into asynchronous mode for 24 hours for those trainers that can't make the live chat. You can suggest a topic on the monthly Padlet that gets posted a week or so before, then vote for the topic & join in.

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TP - What works best?

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Hi teacher trainers! #CELTAchat is on the first Monday of the month from 7-8pm GMT/ 8-9pm CET on Twitter and then goes into asynchronous mode for 24 hours for those trainers that can't make the live chat. You can suggest a topic on the monthly Padlet that gets posted a week or so before, then vote for the topic & join in.

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Lesson Observations - How to manage those difficult situations

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Hi teacher trainers! #CELTAchat is on the first Monday of the month from 7-8pm GMT/ 8-9pm CET on Twitter and then goes into asynchronous mode for 24 hours for those trainers that can't make the live chat. You can suggest a topic on the monthly Padlet that gets posted a week or so before, then vote for the topic & join in.

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Supported instruction and Lesson Plan support

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On Monday 9 January we had our first #CELTAchat on Supported lesson planning and Input - the winning topic with 35% of the vote by 17 voters. There were 9 participants in the live chat and the following asynchronous discussion forum.
We discussed the following specific questions that had been posted on Padlet:

@GioLic started the discussion off by tweeting that his centre had recently changed their strategy re support saying that they were now giving progressively reduced support from TP1 through to TP7.
@TeresaBestwick said she thought it was hard to find a balance between giving trainees support they need in LP and allowing space to grow alone, adding - 'Also to be "fair" - giving a trainee more independence may be seen as unfair advantage either way.' @fionaljp asked her what was expected for TP1 and @TeresaBestwick responded by saying that for TP1 her centre is INCREDIBLY prescriptive with very thorough TP points across the board. @angelosbollas responded by saying, 'For TP1, our written TP points are very explicitly written (e.g. 1. Do this, then this, then...).
@Sarah_TT commented on how different the approaches at the centres mentioned were and @bellinguist agreed that as a freelancer, he has worked at a number of different centres and it is interesting to compare levels of support. 💕 He followed up by saying that there doesn't however, seem to be a best practice method and asked if we thought there should be. @fionaljp said she didn't think so as you can differentiate according to trainee needs - a point that received 💕 and agreement - @GioLic 'Agreed. Like I said, a mix of the context of the centre and trainee needs.' Referring back to TP1 expectations, @bellinguist tweeted - 'Interesting point - do we insist on a plan for TP1 using the centre's template?' @Sarah_TTrainer replied by saying 'TP1 & 2 (I think) we use v.simple plan, then move to more standard one for the rest of course' and @GioLic asked how templates compared saying his centre used the same template but expected less for TP1/2. @bellinguist tweeted -'I am flexible in terms of plan for TP1, but prefer them to try to write as complete a plan as possible from the outset' - receiving 💕s and agreement - @Sarah_TTrainer - 'Yes, encourage to have a go at writing but TBH I want them to feel v.comfortable w/TP1 delivery.' - and a suggestion from @tesolmatthew - 'TP2 could be more "diagnostic" *without* prescribing so much there but then you risk trial by fire burn' @GioLic responded, - 'I tend to use TP1/2 as diagnostic in terms of planning and negotiate the content of LP with trainees.' and he agreed with @sandymillin saying, 'Definitely mostly positive FB in TP1.'
Later, in the asynchronous discussion forum, it was suggested that we shared lesson plan templates and fionaljp made a Padlet for this purpose - still live if anyone would like to add to this shared resource, please do. Click on the pink + to add content:

@fionaljp asked, "So in answer to - When does it drop off? - do we agree more expectation after TP3? This seemed to be the case - @GioLic ' Definitely more expectation in terms of aims/activity after TP3.'
The next question was:

@fionaljp "I try to encourage reflection/expansion on input with -

scoop.it/t/celta-at-stc' - adding, ' However, time contraints on a 4-week CELTA - key issue for trainees - difficult to support and not overburden.'

@Sarah_TTrainer ' yes, take stock of things/input and not overload but reload. '

@Sarah_TTrainer also responded to the question by tweeting ' Oo, that's a tough one.... have infml chat w/trainee asap to check in' adding ' can be personal issue that's just cropped up & resolveable or more complicated(personal) issues. Best to check.'

Yes. If general issue maybe adapt input sessions - leave space. '

And negotiate with trainees content of input if need be.' and @GioLic If trainees are falling behind, maybe focus feedback: e.g. how quickly can they locate notes form Reading/Listening?'

@tesolmatthew ' one thing is to facilitate & ensure they peer support (horizontal support not just vertical).'💕💕

@sandymillin ' I tend to walk them through where to find the relevant resources for one TP e.g. do you remember that handout/input?'

@sandymillan asked for clarification ' Is that referring to a specific criterion?' and @Sarah_TTrainer responded, ' partially achieved aim? @ fionaljp responded, ' Not sure - maybe Cambridge criterion for a Pass?

@ bellinguist tweeted, ' Relating their lessons to the learners' language learning needs is also important' receiving 💕💕💕 and agreement @angelosbollas ' Very much agree with this. Don't you think trainees tend to focus less on improving in Topic 1 issues?' @fionaljp agreed but added, ' ...although sometimes it is difficult to build fixed profile with CELTA TP students' +/- attendance '.

As we came to the end of the live chat, @GioLic said, ' This is a huge area for CELTA training, however. Need more time.

@sandymillan agreed, saying ' I think criterion 5d is a whole chat in and of itself! @angelosbollas clarified '5d' - Managing the learning process in such a way that lesson aims are achieved'.

Please see Storify #CELTAchat Monday 9 January page on

blog and #CELTAchat for more details, but hopefully this summarises some of the key points in our very first #CELTAchat on Supporting Lesson Planning and Input. Thanks to all for participating.

Looking forward to next #CELTAchat on Monday 6 February - watch out for next Padlet and please submit topics...

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Hi teacher trainers! #CELTAchat is on the first Monday of the month from 7-8pm GMT/ 8-9pm CET on Twitter and then goes into asynchronous mode for 24 hours for those trainers that can't make the live chat. You can suggest a topic on the monthly Padlet that gets posted a week or so before, then vote for the topic & join in.