[etni] streaming

Dear  Etniers
I need enlightenment.
How does a pupil move from a lower stream to a higher one?
What are the procedures involved ? What is the pass mark he has to achieve. Can 
he do this in the middle of the school year? I know how quickly it is possible 
to be put down a Hakbatsa but I have found it difficult to get information on 
how it works the other way.

Why wait till grade four to stream kids? Any  experienced teacher in Grade 1 
can tell within the first six months which of her pupils are brilliant and 
which of them are going to struggle throughout their schooling. Why wait till  
grade 4, junior high or year 11 and 12? It would bemcu more efficient to 
introduce streaming in the first class.
 The teacher who walks into a lower stream classroom unwittingly conveys the 
message of the low expectations he has of the pupils in front of him. The 
pupils will not disappoint their teacher, they will achieve very little. Why 
should a  pupil invest more time and effort in his studies, or even take 
private lessons when the chance of him being able to  go to a higher stream, 
border on the non existent.
We do a terrible in justice to  our pupils, we hurt them deeply and make them 
feel like second class citizens. I have never seen a teacher delighted to get a 
Hakbasa B  class or a group of non readers., but they sure have a huge smile on 
their faces when they get a 5 point Bagrut class. Why do the new teachers at a 
school get palmed off with a Hakbsa C class, You will hardly ever see a veteran 
teacher get this group of children? Is it possible because the pecking order in 
the teachers room is based on what Hakbsa you teach? I have come across a maths 
teacher who had 15 pupils in her 4point streamed maths class who complained 
that she couldn't handle the diversity in her classroom and warned the pupils 
she would not stop to explain if they couldn't keep up. Lo and behold at the 
beginning of the following year she gave these 15 pupils an exam and then she 
was  down to 12 pupils in her streamed 4points. How did she get away with this? 
There aren't all that many maths teachers ar
 ound.  

It saddens me to see that there are so few  teachers out there who think the 
pupils might benefit  in learning in a heterogeneous environment. Why not keep 
the door of opportunity open as long as possible, encouraging the slower 
developer, not writing him off as below par before he has even got a start in 
life  It is certainly easier to TEACH in a homogenous group. 

 I have taught in heterogeneous classes with 42 pupils in the class. And the 
results were no worse than in homogeneous classes. In fact in the  District 
Standard tests they were better.

In my capacity as a remedial English teacher I have often taught pupils who 
come to me in Grade 7 not knowing the alphabet but eventually doing 5 point 
Bagrut. Obviously the school they attended had streaming only from 11th grade

We should be fighting for smaller classes and a more teachable curriculum 
instead of palming off all our problems by asking for streaming.

Dare I sign my name?
Tova T.


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