[etni] [FWD: Re: [FWD: The modular unseen]]

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 -------- Original Message --------
 Subject: Re: [etni] [FWD: The modular unseen]
 From: "Sarah Maoz" <srmaoz@xxxxxxxxxxx>
 
 Regarding what Leora wrote, I agree that we teachers can no longer
teach a specific text form to our students.  I also, as a teacher with
26 years of high school experience have seen the level of the Bagrut
sliding so that the texts which were once 3 point level 12-15 years ago
became the level of the old 5 point Bagrut!  I assume this was so that
various Ministers of Education could claim that more students were
passing the higher level English Bagrut.  
 However, what has happened now is exactly the opposite!  Students of
modules E, F and G
 are being tested on pure reading comprehension, which includes such
intellectual activites as reaching conclusions and making assumptions
(neither of which I am sure they can do well in their mother tongue -
as in most Hebrew language subjects they are required to spout back
what they have been taught).  
 We are now faced with teaching our students to read between the lines
and understand high level texts and then actually use the information
they have understood to answer questions which are not always clear -
even to the teachers.
 On the one hand, I am encouraged by a seeming attempt to raise the
level of the Bagrut - and I can already tell the Ministry that many
pupils will fail the higher levels and in the coming years there will
be fewer pupils achieving this level.  On the other hand, I disagree
with what was said previously.  I believe that we do need to continue
to teach grammar and especially the advanced grammar and the special
structures, both for the composition and for the answers in the unseen.
 Also, how can the students understand the structure of a high level
text without learning all the advanced grammatical structures,
connectors, phrasal verbs, word families, etc.?
 As for Dovrat - this is the first time in all my career that I have
begun to think about retirement/leaving the profession.  English
teachers, in my opinion, are the most hard-working group of teachers
around and the most dedicated!  Whereas the biology teacher has at best
two tests and a semester exam, we have- let's count minimum -1) a book
report 2) grammar test 3) unseen 4) vocabulary test 5) literature test
6) composition 7) listening comprehension
 8) project/performance task/oral work - and of course - we don't just
have ONE of each!!!   This semester my team and I had around 14 grades
per class - yes - we are mad - and I am sure there are a lot of others
like us!!
 So whatever happens - I feel we have to keep on teaching English as a
language with all its intricate grammar - and in addition now we have
to get our pupils to think intelligently.  If we succeed, we English
teachers just might be the saviours of the Israeli youth!


Liora wrote:
> I have been teaching English at highschool level for 30 years now. With
> every periodical change in Bagrut formats, I have managed to adapt my
> teaching techniques to the new requirements and thus successfully
> prepare the students for their Bagrut exam in particular and for
> tertiary education in general.
> It goes without saying that a learner of a foreign language, who is, on
> the whole, not exposed to the language itself outside of school,
> requires tools with which to "climb" the linguistic ladder in order to
> tackle the English exam. That required an ability by the teacher "to
> enter" the mind of the exam writers, discover the skill being tested
> and pass it on to the student with directed teaching of the various
> techniques required to master those skills.So if, for example, there
> was a completion question which tested the passive, the student
> recognized the structure being tested and was then able to apply and
> use his knowledge of the structure in answering a question of
> comprehension.
> With the modular Bagrut, the student requires none of these tools, at
> least not in direct use. In other words, a student may very well answer
> all questions in the unseen correctly without having to use ANY of the
> grammatical structures acquired throughout his schooling. He will not
> need the conditional, the passive, phrasal verbs, special structures,
> relative clauses, reported speech, most tenses, etc etc Even in his
> "composition" (which has been reduced to paragraph writing), there is
> no need to include these structures in order to attain a high mark.
> Now, we, English teachers, are told to teach a whole global language
> without the provision of helping tools which are the student's crutches
> when it comes to acquisition of a second language. Teach a baby to walk
> without his legs.How on earth do you teach a child to comprehend if you
> don't supply him with the tools to do so? Under the New Bagrut, these
> tools are redundant! How do you teach one to be intelligent, which is
> what is asked of the English teacher now? 
> I understand the need to prepare students for academic studies where
> they need to grapple with professional bibliography in English, but the
> New Bagrut requirements will not do the job, for they do away with the
> whole English language edifice that has been systematically built for
> years only to be replaced with an exam in which the good students will
> do well in without any need to even study English at school, while the
> unintelligent ones will fail miserably even with the best teaching, or
> else will suffice with module A or B or C at best!!
> I do hope that these comments are taken into account next time an exam
> is written.


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