[etni] Re: A Response to Sharon Tzur - The Literature Pilot

I was plesaed to read that Aviv has so many positive things 
to say about the upcoming literature module. However, I do 
have a couple of questions about what she wrote.

1. Aviva writes that her pupils were given 5 hours of 
English a week and that was not enough. What will happen in 
those schools (such as the 2 in which I teach) where only 4 
hours a week are allocated? If 5 hours was not enough for 
Aviva, what are the rest of us to do?

2. The issue of the workload was brought up. Given the fact 
that the F and G modules are basically the same, getting rid 
of one should not, in theory, cut down on the amount of 
preperation time needed. How will getting rid of the F 
module cut down our workload?

It must be stated thast there is still a great amount of 
apprehension about the new module amongst teachers that I 
have spoken to or corresponded with.

Regards
David Graniewitz
Jerusalem



Dear Sharon, 


It was good to hear from you and read your involved interest 
in what I believe to be no less than a revolutionary upgrade 
of both the teaching of English in general and the attitude 
towards the subject of English in high schools in 
particular. 



I'll gladly answer each one of your many : ) questions, all 
important and relevant. Be advised, though, this mail will 
be anything but short.. 



First I'd like to emphasize that when I referred to the very 
demanding and hard work we had to put in, the pilot is what 
I had in mind. We all know that pilots are by definition 
very challenging and, more often than not, the learning and 
initial experimental implementation of all those new ideas 
could involve strenuous and often stressful effort. 
(Especially if you happen to be a hopeless geek heading a 
team of some more hopeless geeks..)   



Much of it is the result of the nature of such projects, 
they're experimental, and they require a lot of 
resourcefulness, adjustment abilities and resilience on the 
part of the participants.  (yes, I'm complimenting my staff 
members, proud of you, dears!) But - all this concerns 
working under pilot conditions. It is a totally different 
saga when the program is implemented as an integral part of 
the High School Curriculum in English starting from 10th 
grade. 



We implemented the Literature Pilot Program in our 11th 5 
point classes. We were only 4 teachers, because that 
particular year we had fewer students than the usual in our 
school. The number of students who participated in the pilot 
is around 130. 



We were sure we wanted to join in and participate in the 
pilot because it happens that practically (apart from one 
teacher, who along the way got swept into our enthusiasm as 
well) all of us are avid literature appreciators. We were 
not sure whether to choose the log or the exam. My staff 
pushed for the exam and though I was concerned about the 
risks I thought we were taking, in hindsight I can only hug 
them and thank them for insisting on the exam. 



The literature pieces were 6 all time favorite classics, 
traditionally taught in many schools in Israel: All My Sons, 
Eveline, A Summer's Reading, The Road Not Taken, Richard 
Cory and Musee Des Beaux Arts. 



Since I myself have been teaching these classics for some 28 
years, the more we delved into the new program, the more I 
felt confident about teaching them for an external exam and 
also incorporating the new HOTS approach to literature that 
the pilot was about. We taught the pieces as usual but we 
added the aspect of Higher Order Thinking Skills which 
(believe it or not ) got many students interested in the 
actual process of recognizing thinking skills and applying 
them to reading literature (and in English..)   

We taught literature as we knew how, including literary 
techniques, thematic analyses and  even bridging text and 
context though we didn't call them that, previously. The 
background material that students studied was used as an 
introduction and we would occasionally quote the authors or 
comments about the authors or their pieces and ask the 
students what they thought about that comment etc. I 
remember an exam I gave some 4 years ago to my 12th 5 point  
class in which I included a writing task with a quote by 
Joyce about The Dubliners and  Eveline in specific, saying 
that through those characters he wanted to recount  "the 
moral history of his country".  The students had to respond 
to that quote and they found it interesting and some came up 
with really insightful ideas. 



At any rate, the teaching itself was probably one of the 
most professionally gratifying experiences for one main 
reason: students, for the first time, perhaps, could be 
presented with a direct, unequivocal cause and effect link 
between what they put into the subject of English and their 
performance on tests. 



That is one great advantage of choosing the exam rather than 
the log. In fact what I'm advocating as a wonderful 
experience is the exam option of the new Literature Module. 
As for assessment, we gave them tests and writing tasks. 
Many of them. First, we put together exams according to our 
own interpretation of what was required.  Later on, we got 
the detailed specifications and the sample exam and that 
paved the way to more and more tests and writing tasks based 
on the same principles. 



You're asking if it's the same amount of work as a regular F 
or G. Truthfully, I think that given the fact that so far we 
had to teach the literature in depth in addition to and not 
instead of one of these modules, I can almost dare to guess 
that having a Literature Module might even save us some 
work.. 



I have to add here that all this holds true if you do indeed 
teach literature in depth and implement the requirement of 
Appreciation of Literature and Culture to the letter.. which 
I have been doing wholeheartedly since 1982.. 



Back to numbers: we had 5 weekly hours (alas not enough 
but..) out of which 2 or 3 were devoted to the literature, 
not including the past three months.. 



The program, which will hopefully be implemented starting 
next year, is the best thing that has happened to the 
subject of English in years. How often have you heard that 
there is nothing to study for prior to a test in English? 
Not from students, but from other professionals in the 
system? How often have you heard that students could be 
asked to give up a lesson of English in order to catch up on 
history, math, physics or any other subject with specific 
material that needs to be covered for exams? 



Our students, not without moaning and groaning, to be sure, 
were lucky to experience the true meaning of "no pain no 
gain" or Yagata umatsata, in ancient Hebrew. That in itself 
is no less than a revolution. 

I have to, again, stress that this is true about our 
experience doing the exam and not the log. I'm afraid that, 
especially where the status of the subject of English is 
concerned, the literature exam rather than the literature 
log is the change that a system like ours needs. 



To conclude, if you're interested in how the program has 
affected the learning process, go to the students. One 
comment that can attest to its beneficial impact on the 
subject comes from a 12th grade student council activist 
who, while presenting the plan for the school Purim party, 
has announced that "all English teachers are invited to the 
party thanks to the good exam they arranged for us". 



That more or less covers about .. half of what I had to 
say.. 

I hope it helped clarify the picture a bit. 



All the very best, 

Aviva Gartenberg 

Hadarim High School 

Hod Hasharon 

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