Short Story competition for 12-18 year olds in Tunisa

"As part of the British Council’s global activities during 2009 to celebrate its 75 years of work in cultural relations, British Council Tunisia launches its 75 Anniversary Short Story Writing Competition...

The competition is open to 12-18 year olds in Tunisia and runs from 15 November 2009 to 17 February, 2010. It is open to Tunisian nationals only. There are two age categories, 12-14 and 15-18. Prizes will be awarded to winners in both age categories. Entries will not only be judged on the basis of standard writing marking criteria but also on originality and creativity, which will be viewed very highly. Winners from each group will be notified by the end of March 2010 and presented with their prizes by the end of April 2010. Students from across Tunisia are invited to enter this Short Story competition..."

For more details, visit the British Council Tunisia website by clicking here .

Workshop: Teaching Critical Reading

Posted by Mohamed Salah ABIDI, ELT Inspector.

"The following reading activities are elaborated by groups of teachers of English at the workshop organized at the CREFOC of Sidi Bouzid on November 14th, 2009. The aim of the session is to raise awareness of the benefits of being creative and teach beyond the textbook. The worksheets developed by the different groups of teachers are not lesson plans to follow implementing in the classroom.
Topic: Teaching Critical Reading through Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy
Audience: Teachers of 1st Year Secondary Education
Material: a selection of reading passages from the textbook “Perform through English”.
Step1: a PowerPoint presentation by Belgacim HAMDI, a trainee inspector at the CENAFFE.
Step2: Groups of teachers design reading activities relative to the reading passages selected from the above mentioned textbook.
Step3: OHP presentation of the activities by representatives of the groups and discussion and feedback."

Reading activities elaborated by teachers during the workshop:

Teaching critical reading: A PowerPoint presentation by Belgacim HAMDI

N.B: To download these documents, check also the Download Area: Workshops -> Teaching Critical Reading.

The Test Sampler IN ITS ENTIRETY!

The Test Sampler has received a very warm response from teachers as it is an essential reference for everyone who is interested in constructing clear, valid and cogent tests. For your convenience, the Test Sampler is here in its entirety.Check the sidebar for the full version.
To download it, follow these links:
Link 1
Link 2

New in the testing system

IMPORTANT: A few changes have been made to the official documents regarding tests (Basic & Secondary Education: click here to go to the related post) . Teachers are kindly requested to consult those documents and to make sure that the end-of-term tests and all coming tests conform to the previously mentioned directives and reflect those new changes.
Those and other documents can also be viewed here:
Evaluation in Basic Education:

Evaluation in Technical Basic Education:

Ongoing Evaluation in Secondary Education:

How to use the 4th Year Book (Skills For Life):