Chess As Content

Dear teacher,
Focusing solely on structure and form
Brings no good but a storm
That drowns learners' motivation
Suffocates any source of inspiration
Increases inhibition and frustration
Impedes language learning progress
Causes failure to perform and express
Oneself in target language with success

Dear teacher,
Think of first language acquisition
Its environment and conditions
Create similar situations and context
To enable learners acquire at best
Integrate language and content instruction
Prompt interaction and meaning construction
Develop interpersonal language competency
Along with cognitive academic proficiency

Dear teacher,
Apart from academic subjects as content
Recreation is an area of interest
Among learners' hobbies I made my quest
As leisure activities incite them to do best
Hey! The most optimal I can suggest
Promote target language through chess
As it is fun and free from stress
So rich that vouches for learning progress

Dear teacher,
Chess is an optimal tool
For the effective learning goal
Gives learners mastery and control
To learn the language as a whole
Through integration and experience
Total physical response and graphics
Cooperative and task-based learning
A journey from low to high order thinking

Dear teacher,
Nothing to fear, just give it a go
Here are some tips you may follow
Through L1 teach them how
Get your ducks in a row
Then switch to L2 and start the show
Enhance what they already saw
Introduce what they didn't know
And use inference when doing so

Be An Interactive Teacher!

Dear teacher,

It's the early twenty-first century
Time to check your teaching inventory
So as to adapt a rich variety
Of classroom roles to share the territory
With learners and afford them mastery
Of their own learning and discovery

Dear teacher,
Say adieu to autocracy and welcome democracy
Overwhelm learners with much interest and courtesy
Create classroom dynamics with great efficiency
And perform an array of roles with high proficiency
To empower learners to achieve the intended competency
And use the target language with accuracy and fluency

Dear teacher,
Get rid of the way you were taught
To get off to a flying start
Facilitate learning and avoid learning by heart
No more prevailing instructions, use directions instead
Make your guidance and assistance a work of art
And make the learning on students' part

Dear teacher,
We live in the information technology age
Time to be a tech-savvy to update your page
And time for learners to take the stage
Forget about being the only source of knowledge
And create productive learning environments to engage
Learners to develop skills needed in the workplace

© Chaouki Mkaddem
June 13th, 2013

Know Your Learners!

Dear teacher,

Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner
Refuted any speculative rumor
Presuming the teacher is the knowledge owner
And the child is a passive acquirer
They sought deep inside the learner,
Assembled an empirical picture
To help motivate the language teacher
To be an excellent classroom practitioner
And assume the role of a facilitator
The former proved the learner
To be an active individual and thinker
A discoverer and meaning constructor
The second had inspired the latter
They both emphasized the child’s social nature
That is tied to a society and a rich culture
And within the ZPD can be an effective grasper
Through interactions with a more knowledgeable partner
Like a caregiver scaffolding a toddler

© Chaouki Mkaddem
June 1st, 2013

World Cultures Within Kids’ Reach

Dear language teacher,
Young learners are known for malleability
And zeal to quench their curiosity
So as to grasp life aspects and any novelty
Why not seize such a golden opportunity
And make their future free from hostility?

Dear language teacher,
It is mainly your responsibility
To offer young learners the immunity
To stereotypes, prejudice and bigotry
By exposing them to a selected variety
Of other people’s culture and society

Dear language teacher,
Enrich every class with an extra activity
About cultural aspects of a different community
Be careful! Select your items with sincerity
And mind those concealing duplicity
To avoid any backfire or tendency to animosity

Dear language teacher,
When it comes to techniques and methodology
Do some readings to broaden your creativity
Then adjust them to match learner specificity
Make use of twenty-first century technology
To manage motivating hands-on activity

© Chaouki M’kaddem
October 4th, 2012

Crucial Years

Dear teacher,

When it comes to teaching teenagers

Never deem them absurd or strangers

They are wandering at crossroads

And undergoing changing behaviors

To find themselves in their own sculptures



Dear teacher,

Adolescence is a developmental phase

Teens are vulnerable these crucial days

Busying themselves clearing up the haze

Relying on their own to elbow their ways

Be patient! it is but a temporarily craze



Dear Teacher,

Dealing with teens is ne’er humdrum

They are curious and adventuresome

They seek autonomy and freedom

In their kingdom you are welcome

If you understand their own anthem



Dear teacher,

Tailor your activities to engage them

Let them feel important and awesome

Evince interest in their lives and realm

Carefully, allow them to be at the helm

Together, you can indite a lovely poem

© Chaouki M’kaddem

January 12th, 2013

You Are the Kids’ Best Companion

Dear teacher,

Young learners eagerly tend to thrive
Into a foreign language they need to dive
They are naturally zealous, curious, energetic, and alive
And sometimes are hyper and loud as if in a beehive
You should scaffold them all along the drive,
Provide them with adequate tools to survive
And consider the appropriate ways you should contrive

Dear teacher,

Young learners are fragile and vulnerable
With affection and care you should handle
With them into language learning you will travel
To stroll around their world that is not ample
But cozy, overwhelming and still humble
Use your magic to make them twinkle
And make their learning setting real and meaningful

Dear Teacher,

Young learners are individuals with different smarts
Some use their brains, others prefer to see their targets
Some favor auditory styles, others fancy kinesthetic arts
Consider these differences when designing lesson parts
And make your objectives clear as if playing darts
Engage them in activities and assign purposeful projects
Make of their performance a shiny surface that reflects
Your successful mission to embrace those sweet hearts

© Chaouki M’kaddem
February 7, 2012