Hi fellow teachers, I am one of those English teachers who is taking the on-line HOTS course -- I am taking the course to understand the program so I can express an educated opinion. This is my educated opinion one task before finishing the course: Putting the payment issue aside -- only because I have nothing new to add there -- and I certainly agree that every new program requires additional work hours that must be paid for -- but here I want to discuss the program itself. What I have discovered is that those of us who have been teaching literature in the classroom consistently -- the idea of HOTS is nothing new -- you can't possibly teach literature properly -- in particular to non-native speakers -- without engaging higher order thinking skills; in fact you can't teach language in general properly without engaging HOTS. So I have no problem with that premise. I can cope with backward planning and with Unit Planners -- although I think that it is essential to preserve spontaneity in the classroom and the ability to change and select texts as issues arise in the classroom. Furthermore, I do not have any problem with teachers being exposed or as in most cases -- re-exposed -- to what is meant by higher order thinking skills and how they are helpful to the learning process ; and I certainly do not have any problem at all with making English literature a required element of the English Bagrut -- nor do I take issue with allowing teachers to choose between a standardized exam or a form of alternative assessment of the literature taught. The real problem in my opinion is the details of the HOTS program -- For instance why force teachers to match particular texts to particular HOTS -- and to plan that matching in advance ?? That does not encourage educational "flow" in the sense of Csíkszentmihályi, nor respect the particularity of every learning situation. It's limiting us as teachers which should be the opposite goal of such a program. The idea should be to empower teachers not to clip their wings. And most importantly -- we all know that teachers always have to make choices of what they do with the limited time they have -- there is never enough time to get everything done, so we need always to keep readjusting our priorities according to the needs of every learning situation -- and moreover, I strongly believe that a good teacher is an eclectic one, that does not stick to one methodology but that freely flows between many such instructional methods -- imposing a program such as HOTS on teachers does not take these facts into account. In conclusion, I have no problem with the Ministry presenting HOTS and its advantages, but I do have a lot of issues with forcing teachers to implement the program as is. Debora Siegel ----------------------------------------------- ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org or - http://www.etni.org.il ** ** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx ** ** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** -----------------------------------------------