[etni] About "wait and see"
- From: James Backer <drjamesbacker@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 07:10:14 -0800 (PST)
Greetings, all!
Normally, I would accept Adele's logic about not jumping to conclusions before
we know about a new topic, procedure, or whatever. Unfortunately, this is a
case where the logic doesn't hold because we know that once the policies are in
place, they are pretty much chiseled in stone for at least four years (about
the time when next year's Yud students start failing modules D and F).
The obvious major problem is asking meta-cognitive questions about HOTS on an
exam that is meant to test English (not HOTS). It would be reasonable to ask
questions about alliteration, verse forms, stanza forms, internal and
end rhyme, types of meter, onomatopeia, assonance and consonance, refrain and
repetition, similes and metaphors, personification, hyperbole, symbolism, etc,
etc, on a F module about literature; but why in the world should we
ask students to name the cognitive process that brought them to answer a
question the way they did? (I doubt whether my graduate students in the US
could answer such meta-cognitive questions under the pressure of a
high-stakes examination.) And even after a hishtalmut, are we going to be able
to teach the kids to *really* be ready for such questions on the exam? Think
about all the other things we could be doing in English class instead of
prepping for potential meta-cognitive questions. How about using
that time to meaningfully teach/learn the list of poetic terms mentioned
above, in context of poems that actually demonstatrate them?
Fine, if the MOE really wants to kill the joy of learning and teaching
literature by forcing everything into a HOTS format in the classroom, well OK.
The kids will come out hating English literature and English class; the
teachers will have yet another reason to leave the profession as early as
possible; but having HOTS questions *on the exam* is just looking for massive
failure sooner, rather than later.
If people don't understand this, then what they are doing in the MOE?
Hmmmm..... maybe I should ammend that. These are the same people who presented
us with a Functional-Notational Syllabus, even after that methodology
had failed in Europe, and which has resulted in kids entering high school not
having the slightest concept of grammar and the ability to write a paragraph.
But we were told not to pre-judge the already-failed system until it was well
entrenched in our classrooms.
These are the same people who believe that two different types of assessments
(grade rubrics vs. exams) used on two different processes (class &
home work vs. taking a high-stakes exam) must come out the same. And if the
apples don't equal the oranges, then the school and teachers are punished.
These are also the same people who presented us with "The Project" that
demanded a great deal of unpaid extra work by the teacher. Once again, we were
warned not to pre-judge the system until it was well entrenched, taking many
precious hours of teaching/learning English at a time that the schools were
cutting back on the hours devoted to English teaching. No one can possibly tell
me that the endless copy-and-paste jobs from Wikipedia, or alternately, the
endless hours demanded of the teacher to deal with Wikipedia copy-and-paste, is
a better use of valuable time than having the kids read a book (a la Krashen),
listening to Abbot & Costello present "Who's on First," reading poetry (a la
Dead Poets' Society), learning grammar and lexis in the context of
literature and other intensive reading, actively listening to songs (with a
cloze, for example), watching/listening to Martin Luther King or Barak Obama
speak etc, etc. etc. (And please don't
say that we have time to do all of that these days!)
Because I am not a member of the Irgun, I allowed myself to go to
the HOTS hishtalmut. Our instructor is doing a great job of presenting the
given material. The problem is that the material is a recipe for more unpaid
hours, precious time being allocated to rather irrelevant issues, preparing the
kids for the wrong exam (if we really mean to test their ENGLISH), teaching
kids to hate literature, and convincing a greater number of teachers to leave
the profession as soon as possible.
Adele, please do not suggest that I am too inexperienced, too uneducated, or
too ignorant to see what is coming. I do use HOTS in my life. I can COMPARE
this on-coming fiasco with similar policies of the MOE that have dumbed-down
English instruction over the last 20 years and have made me work harder and
longer, without being paid for that extra work. In addition, these policies
have pretty much destroyed my joy and enthusiasm in teaching high school
EFL, feelings that I had always considered reasonable alternatives for not
making the big bucks. I can DRAW CONCLUSIONS and PREDICT THE CONSEQUENCES of
what we are all doing.
Although they have proven to be next to worthless, perhaps the Irgun and
Histadrut HaMorim just may surprise us by forcing the MOE to deal with some of
these questions, at least the monetary questions, which trade unionists tend to
understand. Please, everyone, call the Irgun and Histadrut. Get them to
understand that there are serious problems that need to be dealt with now,
before the chisel hits the stone.
Jimmy
From: "Adele Raemer and Laurie Levy" <raemer@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [etni] Interesting point
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 21:48:32 +0200
I refuse to get bogged down in another discussion of the new literature
bagrut, but what I WILL say is that from what I can see an awful lot of
people are kicking up a terrible storm around something that they either
know nothing about OR have heard only second hand, half-baked ("half-baked"
because anyone who is taking the course THIS year is still ONLY in the
middle of it) reports.
Those who REALLY want to know, have signed up for a course and will learn
everything they need to.
Is the program perfect? Of course not! It is only the beginning, following a
pilot that was done under difficult conditions (started late because of
teachers' strike, therefore forced to be split over two years - with
problems of teachers changing, loosing momentum over the summer, then
truncated in the south, anyway, by the war) yet has come out with some
interesting and encouraging results.
Bottom line:
1. it will put literature back on the map
2. it is more interesting and motivating than "another unseen"
3. we CAN all benefit from it.. If we open our minds long enough to
learn about it, and help improve and perfect it rather than going in kicking
and screaming.
Again now, as with the last spate of emails flying around out there - a LOT
is based on dis/mis/lack of information. It just seems a shame to me that
rather than put our energies into bettering our teaching programs, people
are putting their energy into opposing that which they do not understand.
Adele
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