[etni] NBA thoughts

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>
>
>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.  
>
Which makes me wonder if the test was based on an L1 model.  Did you 
know that our children were taught Hebrew using "whole word" when Hebrew 
is a totally phonetic language just because it was the fashion for a 
time in the U.S.?  And they wonder why our students did so badly the 
last few years in international tests.  Well, they never really learned 
to read effectively in their mother tongue so only the brightest and/or 
most motivated were able to reach a level of reading that allowed them 
to excel.  Is this the same story all over again?  And what about the 
Junior High?  Hadera and Netanya were forced to implement the Junior 
High program when the teachers (and the Ministry if they were really 
watching) already knew that it was a disaster.  Is the Ministry again 
doing the 3 monkeys performance.  Yes, I agree that change can be good 
but not just for the sake of change.  No, don't throw the baby out with 
the bath water but the bath water has to go.  And unfortunately there is 
a lot of bath water in the NBA.  Such as:

1. Length of exam if the students do all 3 at one time as is still being 
done in many schools.
2. Added difficulties for the truly dyslexic child in doing projects 
during class time.
3. Access to written information which attempts to test more than 
reading comprehension so that even experienced native speaking teachers 
aren't sure of the answer.

I'm sure you can all add to the list.  Speaking of the 3 monkeys, I met 
an English Inspector at the International Book Fair in Jerusalem two 
years ago.  I told her I was glad I had retired because there were so 
many problems with the NBA and so many teachers were unhappy.  She 
blithely  told me that all the teachers were delighted with it.

Sue from Netanya
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