[etni] Fw: still listening.. !!

----- Original Message ----- From: Rivka Lewenstein - rlewen@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: still listening.. !!

Aviva, I absolutely agree with you that we shouldn't just be teaching listening comprehension just for the Bagrut, and I'm sure that many of us don't. Yet, as you well know, there is something called test washback - tests DO influence the way we teach, maybe to a lesser extent in some classrooms than in others, but in my opinion it's there in almost every classroom to some degree or another. You and I (and many others) may not do Bagrut practice in our classrooms all day for the two or three years leading up to the Bagrut, but whether we like it or not, we do have to do certain things just because the Bagrut does exist in its certain format. Maybe we would do some of them anyway, but maybe not all. And there are other teachers who do spend a lot more time teaching for the Bagrut, as you put it. That may not be what you and I consider ideal, but how are we going to stop it? At least let's try to keep testing as many different aspects of the curriculum as possible, so as to ensure that those areas are covered in the classroom by those who do teach for Bagrut.

All the best,
Rivka


Aviva wrote:
<I don't believe we should stop doing listening exercises in class
because I do think it is very useful to hear other accents and that it
does improve aural skills. However, what you say is that we only
do LC in order to prepare them for the Bagrut and that is what I
am trying to get away from.
If we only do LC exercises because of the bagrut we really are just teaching for bagrut.
I know that many of us try to use music in our classrooms and this
is a listening exercise which most kids love and learn from .
And yes we can still practice listening in class even it it's not on the
bagrut just like we teach literature and it's not on the bagrut. Because we teach kids English!!!!

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