[etni] fw: NBA

From: "Smadar" <atzmon@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: NBA

6/15/2006

Dear Etniers, 

We, the English teachers of Ben Gurion high school feel the 
present situation of the NBA puts us English teachers in a very 
uncomfortable position.

The components of the final school marks for English are different 
by 30% from the components of the English Bagrut exam and this creates 
an upsetting discrepancy in the students' grades. It leads to 
unnecessary friction between English teachers and all the other 
people involved in the students' education :parents, counselors
and school administration? no matter how extensively we explain 
the grade calculation.

This discrepancy is wider for the basic module (A, C and E ) 
because students are taught and assessed on a higher level. 
Furthermore, after doing the first module they lose their motivation 
for studying , especially when they feel that each module is 
"more of the same".

Another source of frustration for us as well as for our students 
is the fragmentation of the assessment (by modules) as opposed 
to the rather holistic method of teaching. Students can't see 
one grade that assesses their knowledge of English, nor do they 
feel they can really prepare for their mock or Bagrut? exam. 
(Only few of them realize the accumulative aspect of learning English).

Our next remark concerns the oral exam in which testers inevitably 
assess the 4 point students more leniently, thus distorting the 
assessment of the oral competence.

As budget concerned citizens we would like to draw your attention 
to the extra expenses involved in the NBA; 3 cassettes and 3 notebooks 
per student instead of one and 5 hours of?? "hashgaha" instead of 3 .

We would feel much better if the following items could be included 
in the test:

Literature

One longer written assignment

A linguistic component

We are looking forward to your comments and help

The English staff of Ben Gurion high school


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