[etni] hot hots

  • From: sommer ben <sommerbtch@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2010 17:34:15 +0000 (GMT)

Greetings all,
 
                      It distresses me to see dissension 
among us. I have always had, and have, the greatest respect for Avi, his 
dedication to education and his willingness to help others in the field. 
However, I feel compelled to say that in this case I do not see how he can 
possibly have come to the conclusions he has from that ETAI meeting on HOTS. 
What impressed me forcibly was the degree of opposition, it seemed no mere 4 or 
5 lone voices to me.
 
 The sad truth is that too many students reach high school way below the 
required level in English. Years of budget cuts and large classes etc. have 
taken their toll. If a student arrives at the required level, it is no problem 
just to move him along, and teach him literature as we always did, even back in 
the days when questions on literature were simply part of the written bagrut. 
 
However, it should be up to the teacher to decide whether and how much he wants 
to use a consciously emphasised metacognitive approach as part of this. When 
teaching a good story comparison, contrast, synthesis and conclusion etc were 
always used in a natural, integrative fashion as they presented themselves in 
the discussion. This was a natural part of getting one's teeth into the story. 
 
I love the power of a story, but let me teach it as I feel is right for the 
class. And if our students arrive way below the required level in English and 
unequipped with the skills required for dealing with literature, or projects - 
or even analyzing and critiquing a movie -  in their native language�  
 
 I'm not convinced that this Hots program is the solution. Apparently taken 
from a program designed for primary students in their native language, adding 
yet more work to teachers overburdened with just trying to teach the curriculum 
so far in the few hours they have, it seems yet another program aimed at the 
better students who are not the problem. 
 
I'd like to find the magic bullet too. However, if so many experienced, 
successful, and dedicated teachers find something is rotten in the state of 
Denmark �  
 
Ben Sommer
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  


      
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