[etni] Re: NBA etc [longish posting - sorry!]

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I wish to comment on a few of the messages that have been posted on ETNI in 
the last day or two (VERY interesting reading!)

  1)    While I found myself feeling very much the same way as Avi Tsur must 
have felt about the griping tone of many of the messages relating to the 
NBA, and the assumptions of their writers that they speak for all of us, I 
felt his vitriolic tone was out of place.     The "gripers" are smart, 
hard-working professionals  who care and are not afraid to voice their 
opinion about what they see as a wrong turn that English teaching has taken 
in Israel.  Hey, Avi, this is a democratic country.

2)  I found myself agreeing completely with Lev.  Reading comprehension is 
supposed to test reading comprehension, not skills such as grammar, 
vocabulary  and spelling (not to speak of the highest levels of cognition). 
Just take a look at the psychometric exams or the TOEFL to see the way 
reading comprehension is tested.  There you are testing reading 
comprehension, neto.     On the unseens we are taking off too many points 
for extraneous elements that are not related to understanding the text per 
se, and therefore are missing the mark in what we are supposed to be 
testing.   Test spelling, vocabulary, grammar in the composition.

3)  Of course you're right, Lev, that it is too much to expect that the 
Ministry will suddenly admit that the Moed Aleph exam was a fiasco.   But it 
angers me that because of this refusal to admit a simple mistake, teachers 
have had to pay the price.  Why did Aviva Shapiro, for example,  have to go 
through what she went through in having her Magen grades disqualified 
through no fault of her own?    And hers was not an idiosyncratic case.

4)  You teachers who say that we have to embrace change and not be afraid of 
it are quite right.   However,
I think it was Lev who just said that this change is making us work like 
dogs.   Modular exams might be a boon for certain pupils to help them 
achieve a Bagrut, but many teachers I know are on the verge of a nervous 
breakdown  trying to implement it all:  three different Modular exams which 
have to be prepared for the Magen, the literally scores of cassettes which 
have to be prepared for all these different modules for all the pupils 
getting "hakra'at sheelon,"* (see bottom), myself as rakezet trying to 
organize Magen day with all the Bs, Cs, Ds, Es, Fs, and Gs (in order to save 
rooms, I have the Cs sitting with the  Gs, the Ds with the Fs, and a 
scattering of Bs and Ds - of course we have to make sure they all get the 
right form!), separate tsiyunim shnatiim for each module,
the new Oral Tsiyun Shnati, for  which I feel obligated to give my Yud Bet 
pupils an Oral Magen exam despite the instructions of the Irgun not to do 
so, the added complication of the project for those who have either not done 
it or have not done it but have thrown it out, and countless other details 
that the Pessach holiday is mercifully helping me to forget.    We are 
drowning in all this added bureaucracy that I think was
not even taken into consideration when all these changes were decided upon.

4)  Jody, Kol HaKavod for a beautifully written letter that articulated much 
of what I'm feeling, too.

Chag Sameach, Maxine Tsvaigrach

* - Speaking of Hakra'at Sheelon, I don't want to sound like one of those 
"gripers," but hasn't the time come to provide pupils with discs instead of 
tapes for hakra'at sheelon?     Most pupils already have a "diskman" but how 
many own a Walkman with a tape?  They have to go out especially and buy one! 
And disks take seconds to copy.   Just a thought...............





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lev Abramov" <lev@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "ETNI" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 1:34 PM
Subject: [etni] NBA etc [longish posting - sorry!]


> **** ETNI on the web http://www.etni.org.il   http://www.etni.org   ****
>
> Dear all -
>
> I've been following the latest development of the NBA debate with a
> feeling of great bemusement. Deja vu. I've read it before: three blind
> men come across an elephant and decide to feel the elephant to determine
> what sort of creature it is, etc.
>
> When educators of such caliber (and we all know Ronald and Avi have been
> around for a long while) say things so drastically different, the first
> reaction is, hey folks, are you sure you're talking about the same thing?
>
> And then I think, there must be something wrong with the method these
> two people use to study the object in question. This is where the
> parable comes into play. However, neither one can be suspected of vision
> impairment when it comes to English. I wonder what fundamental
> difference makes them view NBA with such polarity.
>
> And, of course, I agree with those who believe the discussion could
> benefit from a better approach than the one adopted by Avi when he calls
> us "gripers"... An apology is probably due here. I recognize others'
> right to adopt and defend NBA; I want my right to deny and fight it, in
> its current form, to be recognized as well. And let's do it in a
> civilized manner, OK?
>
>
> Now, regarding the NBA itself. On the one hand, rubrics and projects are
> certainly a huge leap forward. On the other, the whole point of testing
> reading comprehension is to find out whether - and to what extent - the
> reading passage in question has been understood. Pure reading
> comprehension should not include any productive skills. The whole TOEFL
> world uses one method for it: read the passage and tick/circle the
> correct answers to a number of multiple-choice questions. True/false is
> ok, too. The rest is no reading-comprehension testing per se: fill-in
> (mini-clozes) and open-ended questions test other things, like grammar
> and vocabulary and usage (subcategorizational restrictions, for
> example). I'm not saying these skills should not be put to test - but it
> makes little sense putting the two together and calling it "access to
> written information." Not to mention the new question types and formats
> that do not test English at all - they test IQ, inferencing, analytical
> skills, critical skills, whatever. This is why we suddenly need answer
> keys: we see a question like that and we say to ourselves, I wonder what
> sort of answer the guy who has written this test expects me to give.
>
>
> Your expectation that the ministry will experience a sudden attack of
> guilty conscience and will admit the '04 Module E disaster is hardly
> realistic. The moment someone up there admits it, crowds of angry
> graduates and their parents will either storm the ministry building
> demanding a "factor" - or will just sue the ministry (and, just to
> remind you, the only way of doing it is to go to the High Court of
> Justice) - which is exactly what the ministry guys do not want to
> happen, as it will cost quite a few of them their jobs. The new Pope
> will bless gay marriages before this happens.
>
> The same refers to the whole issue of the NBA. Accepting our criticism -
> or merely our suggestions - would mean making us partners in the
> process. This is exactly what the ministry will want to avoid. They
> don't need partners - they need control.
>
> To give you a clearer perspective, I'd like to invite you to visit the
> website of our Hungarian colleagues
>
> www.examsreform.hu
>
> Here's what it says, in case you'd rather suffice with a quotation:
> =============================================================
>
> Project Philosophy
> Testing is about ensuring that those tests and examinations which
> society decides it needs, for whatever purpose, are the best possible,
> that they represent the best in not only testing practice, but in
> teaching practice, and that the tests reflect the aspirations of
> professional language teachers. Anything less is a betrayal of teachers
> and learners, as is a refusal to engage in testing.
>
> =============================================================
>
> See? Others implement changes too. But... Feel free to compare it with
> how it is done here, and make your own conclusions.
>
> I also want to encourage you to download Detailed Requirements and Test
> Specifications from
>
> http://www.examsreform.hu/Media/Specifications.PDF
>
> and compare it with NBA for clarity. How these guys manage to survive
> without calling Reading Comprehension "access of information from
> written text" is just beyond my comprehension.
>
> Next. Many say NBA has increased the amount of work while the pay has
> not changed. Let me translate this into some applied economics. This
> means that we make less per hour. Have you been able to figure out
> exactly how much? No? Let's give it a try. If you teach full-time, you
> work a 50-hour week (your regular 24 contact hours + roughly an equal
> amount of time spent on preparation, grading, teaching enhancement,
> meetings, etc). 200 hours a month. If you make NIS 5000, this is NIS 25
> an hour. A cleaner gets 30.
>
> Where do we go from here? Some quit (a very wise move, if you can find a
> job that pays more than 25 shekels an hour; most do); others say, hey,
> if they think they pay us a wage let'em think we do them a job. And
> start the game called "screw the system" (pardon my French). No wonder
> the standard of English has lately deteriorated: not everyone will kill
> themselves year after year for 25 shekels an hour. Some will just go
> through the motions.
>
> Another consequence of this creeping salary erosion is the fact that
> teacher turnover is so high,  and that language proficiency of some of
> them is so horrendously low. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Present
> company excluded.
>
> Knowing my ability to trample over so many people's toes in one brief
> posting, you appreciate my political correctness, I hope.
>
> Gripingly yours -
>
> Lev
>
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