"The snag with English in Tunisia" by Abdelmalek Hadji

An article by Abdelmalek Hadji, Senior Teacher, Dar Chabaane Secondary School.

Reading through the literature issued by the ministry of education and training about the profile of the outgoing student after the 7 years of prep and secondary education, a statement reiterated in every page of the orientation book drew my attention.
It says ‘the outgoing student is expected to have a good command of three languages (at least) in spoken, read and written forms.’’

Do factual data gathered after national exams corroborate these expectations?
How do we account for the common students’ underachievement in languages?

Our major concern in this paper is the substandard outcome of the outgoing students and the way to address it.

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A sample lesson plan using Bloom’s taxonomy by Hechmi Hamdi

Posted by Hechmi Hamdi ,a teacher of English in Ibn Roshd High School, El Maknassy, Sidi Bouzid.
This is a lesson plan applying Bloom's taxonomy for 4th year secondary students.
It thoroughly explains the procedure that could be implemented and details the steps that both teacher and students would follow."The focus in the procedures is intensively and extensively set on applying critical thinking via critical questions."
Lesson Plan details:
Lesson :Education for all
Page: 93
Unit :2
Level :Year 4 secondary education
Source: Skills for life


About Hechmi Hamdi:
EFL teacher since 1996
Ibn Roshd High School in El Maknassy
Main interests: test construction,translation,media studies
Proficiency certificate from Brighton University 1991

Guidelines For Better Power Point Presentations

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Guidelines For Better Power Point Presentations

This presentation offers guidelines and tips on how to make better PowerPoint presentations. Here is also a list of well-designed presentations that can be used in the classroom: chompchomp
Important:You need to prepare a printed version of your presentation(handouts) just in case.

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Ideas for the classroom: The Weekly Class Newsletter

I came across this weekly classroom newsletter template while browsing Reading Rockets for interesting reading materials. The original template is meant for "parents [who] love to know what's going on in their child's classroom.". This inspired me to use the template to produce a Weekly class newsletter that I stick on the classroom's door every week. It displays information about what the students are going to learn during the week, important expressions /idioms/proverbs, local news, riddles, world news, reading and writing tips, common mistakes, etc..
To download the original template (with graphics and headlines), please click here.

Direct / Indirect Speech : PowerPoint Presentation

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Direct Indirect Speech

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"Proverbs in Action" worksheet

Summary: In this activity, the learners will have the opportunity to think about the significance of proverbs, and how they are formed. They will be asked to complete the proverb with the missing words with reference to the pictures. The aim of activity is to provide a visual reference that learners can later use to remember the proverb. Besides, it is a good activity for visual learners, especially kids. For intermediate level learners, this can be used as a starting point to think about how proverbs work and to relate proverbs to their own lives through writing or speaking.

Skills: Speaking/Reading

Objectives: To learn about proverbs and their cultural significance

Time: 10-15 minutes

Level: beginner to intermediate

Procedure: Learners sit in groups. They are asked to complete the missing words to get the proverbs. Then, they think about similar proverbs in their own language. The learners may be encouraged to ask their partners to guess the proverbs. If they do, they get on point for that. If they don’t, the next partner tries to do it, and so on. The pictures can also be used later to help the learners remember the proverbs. For intermediate level learners, the teacher can ask them to write about a particular proverb that is particularly meaningful for them and how it relates to their real lives.

This is a second handout that can be used along with the first one.