The Workplace

I designed this project to use with the unit titled The Workplace. My students have enjoyed this project throughtout the years especially since they feel that the activities are related to their reality and that they will use the skills in future years. http://www.geocities.com/amalatrafeed/project1.htm


** note: the above link no longer works. I will update it soon. 

DRUG ABUSE 

This is a project for Unit 3/ Grade 10: Drug Abuse

WebQuest 

To 1st Secondary Students

Today I will be saying good bye to all my 1st Secondary Students. It was a great year full of activities and interest. I really enjoyed teaching you and the cooperative class atmosphere. Many of you had highly positive input, and I could see gradual growth and development. Best of wishes on your exams and have a wonderful summer.

To My 3rd Secondary Classes

Now that the year has come to an end, I can't but say that I really enjoyed this past year with you all and I learned so much from you all. It was really a pleasure working with you on language skills and prepartion for the official examinations. I enjoyed both the Humanities and Sociology & Economics classes; the class atomosphere was a warm, pleasant one and I had great example of students who were really willing to improve their language skills and so they did their best. Each one of my students has a special interesting personality, is unique in a way and I could see that each could excel in a specific domain. I would really appreciate your input on the past year whether positive or negative because I believe that the best way to evaluate myself and improve is to have my students express their opinions on what goes on in their class. Please feel free to say what you wish to say. Best of wishes to you on your official exams and have a great summer.

Cooperative Learning in the Lebanese Environment

We have always been trained and have read a lot about the importance of cooperative learning in creating a healthy learning atmosphere at schools where students not only learn their academic skills but also are prepared to real life situations where they will need to work in teams and share their ideas and products. One of the important aspects of cooperative learning is sharing rather than competing. I have been noticing lately that many students, when given the privilidge of being independent in the classroom, tend to abuse this privilge. And so I am wondering: If students are raised in their families where no freedom of choice or freedom of expression are encouraged and appreciated, and if those same students are bombarded with the politicians' and party leaders' stiff stands where no one is willing to compromise and accept others' views, how are we to teach students the importance of being collaborative and sharing? Aren't we contradicting their realities? Doesn't this contradiction created confusion and chaos in the students' behavior? Can teachers work on values in isolation of the society? Should we come up with an adapted method for our society rather than take what is not made for us?

The Tell Tale Heart/ A Web Quest

I replaced the Unit 4 short story "Mr. Loveday's Day Out" with Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart". Check out the web quest for resources and activities I used to teach the story.

http://www.geocities.com/amfarhat/index.htm

** note: the above link no longer works. I will update it soon.

Grade 10 Writing

Despite the major Lebanese educational reform, the English language books are still lacking in many skills at all levels. The writing skill is completely neglected in Grade 10 and then in Grade 11/Humanities, we see signs of writing and in Grade 12/ Humanities, writing is addressed in a completely different way than it had been in previous classes. This all leaves the teacher with no choices other than to neglect this skill or to make up for it using external material. For Grade 10, I have added the following writing lessons to give students the opportunity to improve their understanding of different types of essays and to have them go through the writing process and become better prepared for the coming grades :

• Narrative writing
• Physical description
• Compare and contrast essays
• Cause and effect essays
• Process writing
• Argumentative essays

For each essay type, students read a text and analyse its type and what characterize that writing. Then we focus on 2 or 3 grammatical points that I expect them to focus on in their writing. Preliminary writing activities are carried out and finally, they write the essay going through the steps of the writing process.