[etni] Re: the NBA

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Dear All,
It was refreshing to read Maxine's reasonable comments, and I agree with 
most of what she said (are these 2 different Maxine's who were writing this 
past day?  Bennet and Tsvaigrach?If so, I agree with both of them.... it 
must be something in t he name ;).  I think that, once one gets used to the 
curriculum, it is much more comprehensive and its guidelines are more 
specific than the vocabulary and grammar years of the previous curriculum. 
It assumes that teachers are intelligent and responsible (which I believe we 
are) and I feel comfortable with the terminology (not that I actually USE it 
all the time - I, too, call reading comprehension what it is rather than 
AIW, but -so what? )

The only thing I DISAGREE with in Maxine's letter is the following:

"I firmly believe that our native speakers should be the yardstick here as 
to whether a test
> is valid or not; if the best learners of English in the country  are not
> capable of achieving high grades on the Bagrut, there is something wrong
> with the Bagrut  and we are not testing what we are supposed to be 
> testing:
> English language proficiency.  "

As has been mentioned before, our native speakers are ONLY that: native 
speakers.  This does NOT assure that they are necessarily the brightest 
bulbs on the tree - only that they speak English at home.  A better 
indication, for me, is the very good 5 pointers who are NOT native speakers. 
Aside from that, they cannot be a yardstick for the lower modules - they 
don't touch them!

I am not saying that everything is perfect the way it is. I agree with many 
of the complaints about the tests having questions that are too difficult 
for ME to be sure what the answer is (and I am a native speaker with a 
second degree).  I think that, after participating in a session about how 
the tests are graded - with the testers being encouraged to "look for points 
to give credit " rather than taking off points and being picky-uni (sp?) - 
the grading part of the system is working well.  (not that I agreed with all 
of the points discussed, but the tests are NOT easy to grade).  Maybe there 
could be some sort of a "curve" system that could be used on the tests that 
are found to be unreliably difficult? The question is, how to do THAT 
reliably? I believe that the test this year, with additional questions being 
added, will be a help (the testees won't be penalized so much for each 
question)  and hopefully, discussions like these will also have their affect 
(I KNOW that Judy reads the list, and I believe those writing the tests do, 
as well.)

As Maxine writes:

 I prefer to wait and see how the pupils do
> on this year's crop of exams before I decide what I think about the new
> Bagrut format.

And then, concrete suggestions, channeled properly, will surely be listened 
to and taken into account.  So- call me an optimist - but believe me, it is 
more effective than whining and complaining all the time. Like I teach my 
kids - it is often not WHAT you say, but HOW you say it that determines 
whether or not you will be heard.

Adele 


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