[etni] Fwd: the Meitzav for 8th grade

From: David Graniewitz <davidzalman@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "R. Borenstein" <rachcb1@xxxxxxxxx>, English teachers Network of Israel <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, etni.list@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 17:49:08 +0300
Rachelle has hit the proverbial nail on the proverbial head with regards to
the drawbacks of the Meitzav exam, which we have been complaining about for
years now.
I would like to point out that in addition to all the important points that
Rachelle made, it is significant to note that this exam is harder
comparatively than any module that pupils will take for the Bagrut in which
pupils are required to complete no more than two tasks. In the Meitzav
test, however, they have to complete SIX tasks. They might be short ones,
but it is still too demanding on 8th grade pupils.
I agree that the test is soul-destroying for many pupils causes more damage
than any good it does. But what can we do?
Shabbat shalom
David Graniewitz
Jerusalem
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <graniewitz@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 27 March 2015 at 17:42
Subject: Fwd: [etni] the Meitzav for 8th grade
To: davidzalman@xxxxxxxxx





---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "R. Borenstein" <rachcb1@xxxxxxxxx>
To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc:
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 19:55:51 +0200
Subject: [etni] the Meitzav for 8th grade
Good evening,
     I am sending this both to ETNI and to Dr. Judy Steiner and doing so
now since the test was supposed to be completed before Pesach vacation.
     Regardless of who the next minister of education is and their approach
to Meitzav, as the case has been for years, I feel that more damage than
good is done to many students each year with the test.
For strong students - it's no problem.
For average students - some parts are fine, others not.
But, for weak students who are finally finding some footing and a feeling
of partial success in their English studies, it's a setback.  Year after
year, a number of our students get this test and are devastated, giving up/
bursting into tears (girls' school) leaving them discouraged. IMHO
"participate", "however", "recommend", "memory card", "manners" are not all
words that can be understood by context, especially by a weak student who
also has to contend with a writing task, two listening tasks, and three
unseens, under a time constraint. "Participate" may be a proper lexical
chunk to go with "competition", a common Meitzav word, but most students
are exposed to "take part" or "race" in a competition by 8th grade. Why use
this term in the lowest level unseen? In most textbooks, the advanced words
on this year's Meitzav are spiralled in upper grades. Not everyone has the
opportunity to introduce and regularly review the entire intermediate band
of the lexis of the new curriculum by the second half of 8th grade. This
needs to be considered when the English Meitzav is drafted annually.
    Perhaps things have changed since my MA years ago when we studied the
art of test writing. Back then, multiple choice questions were discouraged.
It expedites the grading process but makes test taking that much harder -
reading each option, trying to establish if there are trick questions or
not, and making a decision, be it by process of elimination or guesswork.
A strong student can identify the answer with ease but weaker students have
to struggle with each mc question, and this year's test was packed with
multiple choice. Using this test to "map" a school's success is
unreasonable.
    My last issue is the fact that manpower is necessary for "hakraat
she'elon". Putting all "hakraa" students in one room with one teacher is
ineffective when students of all levels who work at different paces are
together and there's often a shortage of qualified teachers. In our case,
we were all occupied. I'd recommend RAMA provide MP3 files to be downloaded
on the day of the exam and transferred to each student, similar to the
bagrut. There's no iTest or CD per student and these students need it just
as much, if not more, if audio clues are their only crutch to cope with the
test.
Shabbat Shalom.
Rachelle

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[etni] Fwd: the Meitzav for 8th grade

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