[etni] Fw: In response to Batya responding to Maxine

From: "Ask Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
To: "Etni" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:16:43 +0200
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Lev Abramov - lev.abramov@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: In response to Batya responding to Maxine


----- Original Message -----
From: sbshai - sbshai@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: in response to Maxine
--------snip-----------
The last question I have is how anyone can insist that teaching the HOTS
explicitly is going to improve the quality of our students' thinking (not to
mention their enjoyment of literature).  When this idea was suggested to a
very bright native speakers class, they laughed outright.  One student said
that all that will be accomplished is that students will learn to parrot the
terms that the teachers choose to associate with each piece of literature.
I have yet to hear a good rebuttal to this student's statement!
--------snip-----------

I guess I will answer this.

[A disclaimer is probably due. I was kicked out of my last school-teaching 
job for my arrogance four years ago. I am not teaching in any school (I 
teach college - but that's besides the point). I am neither for nor against 
the lit teaching reform simply because I am not part of the system anymore - 
which makes me totally impartial in this argument - within the constraints 
of my attitude to the ministry of miseducation and to the people running the 
show on the English teaching scene, which (the attitude, to clarify on the 
antecedent) has not changed a bit from disgust to affection. I still believe 
that the English inspectorate is involved in the petty MOE politics, pursues 
its own goals, and its policies do more harm then good. Hence, IMHO, it is 
desirable to oppose its "revolutionary initiatives" no matter what they are, 
simply because it is unreasonable to expect them to do any good.]

This issue aside... Please review Harold Bloom's Taxonomy of Cognitive 
Domains (1956) - 
http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/hi216/learning/bloom.htm, for example - 
to rediscover that the foundation cognitive skills include naming, listing 
and defining. Any objections?

Then let us review a learning event: a father teaching his 6-year-old son to 
use a hammer. Does it start with "Here's how you use the hammer to drive a 
nail in the wall"? No. It starts with "This is a hammer, and this is a 
nail." Naming; recognizing; listing and defining. No objections here, 
either.

How, then, do you expect your shining-bright native speaker students to be 
able to discuss literature without being able to recall and define the basic 
terms required for such discussion?

Oh, I know - an Israeli student can bluff their way through anything, and 
knowledge has nothing to do with this ability. The question is whether you 
intend to encourage this "workaround skill set." I strongly doubt this is 
your primary objective... :)

Your move now.

As always. sarcastically yours -

Lev
========================
Just FYI:
Lev Abramov MD
Team Development Manager,
Medical Division,
Innodata-Isogen (Israel)


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[etni] Fw: In response to Batya responding to Maxine

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