[etni] Re: more thoughts on Reed counseling
- From: Bari Nirenberg <bnirenberg@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "steveh@xxxxxxxxxxx" <steveh@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:07:31 +0300
For the record, reflection is not supposed to be graded. We are supposed to
reply to our students' reflection just as you imply. Have you actually taken
the HOTS course? If not, I suggest you do, as you will discover that many of
your assumptions are inaccurate.
Bari
On Sunday, September 18, 2011, Steve Hellmann <steveh@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Adele is most reassuring in her conviction that ". everything which Avi
and
> the dedicated counseling staff do is aimed at professional development and
> improvement." Support expressed by teachers for Adele and her team is also
> encouraging. I hope this puts paid to the reservations expressed by
> Anonymous about overzealous bureaucratic inspection of unit planners for
the
> log, etc.
> Where I share Anonymous's concern is in whether we will be able to nurture
> enthusiasm and a love for literature in students who are assessed and
graded
> at every turn by teachers whose language and tools of instruction are
> dictated solely by the handbook on
>
> Integrating Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) with the Teaching of
> Literature (updated as the version may be)
>
> What chance do we have of convincing students who are bombarded with
> literary terms, Hots and rubrics that the way to the garden of great
grades
> is not to beat a poem
>
>
>
> ".with a hose
> to find out what it really means." but
>
> ".to waterski*
> across the surface of a poem
> waving at the author's name on the shore. (Billy Collins)
>
>
>
> * NOTE: Waterskiing is not a simple automatic activity
>
>
>
> How do we avoid the inexorable slide into explanations and arguments about
> why did you "bring" me a 7 and not a 9?"
>
> I would like to share the response of a 12th grade student after I had
> worked with his class on comparing and contrasting. The works we had
studied
> were Fire and Ice by Robert Frost, and Leonard Cohen's Who by Fire? "This
> is what the student wrote: "In our poetry lessons you always tell us about
> listening carefully to the speakers and thinking about if we agree with
what
> they are saying. Next year I will go the army. I don't want to think
about
> the end of the world and if it is boiling or freezing. In Hebrew
literature
> we also spend a lot of time on tragedy and other bad stuff. We are
seventeen
> years old and want to live like young people. Why can't we study stories
> and poems about things that make us smile? Why can't we choose for
> ourselves?"
>
> It does not require much imagination to realize how devastating it would
be
> for this student were his reflection to be assigned a number dictated by
the
> official rubric from a printed page. With a log ,written comments could
be
> added and the logic explained, but the number would dominate the focus
> and the spirit battered. i prefer not to contemplate an exam assessment
> done in July by a harassed external grader.
>
> I know that it is time to get on with the what and the how, rather than
> waste time on the why. It is my hope that a liberal approach to working
the
> log will offer sufficient flexibility to keep the demons from the door.
>
> Steve Hellmann
>
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