[etni] Fwd: More on cheating
- From: ETNI list <etni.list@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Etni <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:11:16 +0200
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From: Jenifer Byk <byk@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: More on cheating
I just have to add a story of my own, after Shoshana Sibert’s posting.
Many years ago I was given one of those ‘no-hope, just-keep
them-quiet’ classes – a tenth grade of 16 pupils who could either
barely read, or not at all; they didn’t expect to learn anything;
after all they had learnt much up to then.
How I went about turning them into a proper class, learning, doing
homework and exams is another story. However, I once mentioned that
in my schools in England (private or what we call public), we worked
on the honour system; exams were handed out and the teacher left the
room. Of course they found this uproariously funny, but I explained
to them that it was really fun knowing that, whatever your mark, you
knew it was your very own, so that even a 30 or 40 meant that you knew
30% or 40% of what you had to. The only real failure, I explained,
was if you got 0.
To cut a long story short, they got all enthusiastic about the idea,
and said they wanted to try it. I said they could have as much time
as they liked. We went ahead. I gave out the exam and left the room.
Yes, of course I eavesdropped and peeked through the crack in the
door! They was absolute silence. When I came to mark the exams, the
marks were between 45 and 60 something, but they were absolutely
thrilled. They insisted on going on like this, and their marks
gradually got higher and higher, together with their self-esteem.
The end of this story is that they all took their 3 point bagrut in
the days when the 3 point was the only exam one took (no modules) and
was considerably more difficult than today. I couldn’t have been more
proud of them
True, this was a class that nobody in the administration cared about,
and there were only 16 of them, but I still believe that the same
thing can be done, particularly if one starts in the lower grades.
Jennifer
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