You've brought up an underlying problem for us to ruminate about so that we can
hopefully consider suggestions about how to deal with it.
Since our students are growing up with the (inevitable) idea that "smart" can
be purchased and/or acquired through their fingertips, there's a growing
tendency among them to question or challenge the need for that infamous (yet
invigorating) 4-letter concept spelled w-o-r-k. (If there's anyone on the
forum who's old enough to remember the beatnik named Maynard G. Krebs from
"Dobie Gillis" reruns [not sure that's the correct name of the old TV show],
you'll recall his unforgettable reaction to that word; though I haven't watched
TV in ages, any time students recoil from work, I'm reminded of Maynard!)
More unfortunate than this, however, is the rising instance of somewhat similar
behavior among ourselves. For example, most of the postings I see on ETNI are
requests to "share" work, usually unit planners. Interestingly, I haven't seen
offers to exchange unit planners, thereby somewhat fulfilling the definition of
sharing!
Please don't misunderstand: I'm certainly not against expanding our
perspectives by exchanging ideas, but for something to become our own, we
obviously need to work on it, adapt it, etc. to suit our style and our
students' needs. Yes, it takes time and energy, but the result is that our
teaching becomes more proficient. I've been teaching for a long time yet can
honestly say that I still find new aspects to focus on from material I might
have prepared and revised more than once. (Otherwise, I suppose, I'd have
stopped teaching altogether years ago!)
It occurs to me that the story "Quality" by John Galsworthy is good teaching
material because, for one thing, it can motivate interesting discussion on the
subject of being able to take justifiable pride in one's work. It may be out
of style to sweat it out in today's world, but IMO it's really a healthy way to
live. To paraphrase something a grandchild once noticed, there's no growth
without "ow;" hopefully not too many growth pains are required!
Happy working!
Batya
-----Original Message-----
From: etni-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:etni-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of ;
david hyatt
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2017 20:31
To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [etni] The Quality of our Projects
The State of our "Projects"
Greetings All,
Just want to express an opinion about the quality of the projects I'm
reviewing as an oral tester.
I'm now in my 22nd year of teaching English in Israel, which though not
half a century, is enough to have seen some changes. Here I'd like to
speak about our projects which I still find an excellent assessment tool in
themselves and have the potential to be a very good way of testing oral
skills. Sadly, however, I have seen a marked drop in the quality of
student's projects over the years. This, no doubt, is a product of the
general level of culture and also, I'm afraid, of teacher's negligence.
Please know that I am not a guide and have no desire to be one. My
comments are simply aimed at the integrity of our profession.
I would like to remind us that the projects (at least on the 4 or 5 point
level) are intended to be based on a *research question—*and, as we were
wisely taught in the Project training sessions, a research question
develops *from* a Wh-question. Yet the projects I generally review are
merely at best Wh-questions. Today I tested students whose *FIVE point
projects *had titles such as "Tigers," "Drugs," "Potato Chips," "The Porn
Industry," "Las Vegas" and "Therapeutic Marijuana". Though all of these
subjects could potentially have depth, what I read was a random selection
of information on the subjects. On the other hand, I have could have read
projects like "What efforts are being done to prevent the hunting of
Bengalese Tigers" or "How has drugs among Israeli teenagers changed over
the past 15 years?" or "What are the causes of the commercial success of
potato chips?"
Re-gaining our focus on research questions would help the situation.
Nevertheless, I'm afraid that reviving our research questions would not
address another problem which I believe is far more serious. This is the
unfathomable superficiality of most of the projects I'm privy to. Here
too I have seen a marked change over the years. It's not just the subjects
but the lack of imagination, curiosity, and *desire *to explore an idea or
subject. Whether the cause is the smart phone/internet culture (or the
fact that most of our students just don't read) doesn't really matter. The
question is what we, in our small capacity, can do to raise the deplorable
state of youth's cultural consciousness.
My suggestion is this (and I know it is already on option). Have our
students *only *do their projects on one of the literary works they studied
for the Log. This will demand of them to deal with moral, cultural,
psychological, historical or spiritual issues whose potential depth is
already inherent in the literary piece. Beyond invigorating the Log
(which justifiably has been much diluted), this would offer our kids an
opportunity to put some real *soul *into their minds—to grapple with
something which we know is grapple-able, that has *substance*.
Okay. Those are my two cents. Had to get it off my back. Hope I didn't
offend anyone. I only wish the best for our students and our nation.
B'bracha
David Hyatt, Ulpana Meron
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