----- Original Message ----- From: Esta Yaaran - estaestayaaran@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Philosophical questions about the "NEW" Bagrut exam Dear Ruthi I agree with you completely!I am tired of projects, teaching for the Bagrut from the 11th grade until the end of the 12th grade and still seeing that our students actually know less English than our pupils did ten years ago! Bring back the one exam with a little bit of everything - much like the old Bagrut and let me broaden the pupils' horizons by not teaching specifically for the Bagrut but teaching authentic English!
Esta Ruthi wrote:
Dear Fellow Etnians,
Ok I am going to write a long rant now so anyone who can't take it is welcome to delete straight away.I am writing this letter from the perspective of my sabbatical year ,so please feel free to take issue on anything which you think I have got wrong.Also it is a culmination of talks I have had with various friends at different schools, and in no way a reflection only of the situation in my own school. I have had nothing to do with the Bagrut this year whatsoever, so I have no personal ax to grind.I am not writing anonymously because a). .I am not scared of being fired since I know how many teachers are lacking in our system, and that is a sad reflection of some of the things I am going to say and b) I believe we should be honest within our own teaching community about the things that bother us, even if we sometimes feel that nobody "upstairs" is interested in what we have to say. It seems to me that something is seriously wrong with the way we are going about things . And I mean principally the New Bagrut program. And I don't know why we continue to call it "NEW" (hence the inverted commas) because, maybe we gave it the benefit of the doubt when it was teething but by now the admin problems should all have been ironed out.They haven't. Far from it. The new system , as I understand it, was instituted in order to allow for more borderline students to move from one level to another. The second idea was that of alternative assessment as embodied within the Project part of the exam. So for a relatively small number of students to be allowed to complete modules ,the whole system was rearranged at great cost to the teachers, who spend hours preparing lists, more lists, and grading the different modules, both at exam time ,and of course throughout the year.I personally have not yet understood the difference between modules F and G (when often G is easier than F bit that is a minor point) Then there is the added stress of the Moed Bet. I still have not understood the logic in having a second exam 3 weeks after the first, as if a student is going to have studied in order to improve in such a short period of time. I have other issues but am loath to overload Etni with all of them now, especially as other people have pointed them out in the past. Now I come to the subject of the Project ,which is intended as an example of alternative assessment, to encourage creativity etc. Well over the course of the past year I have spent some time examining what EFL teachers in other countries are doing to encourage their students to speak ,write, and read in English.And believe me there are some incredible projects going on out there, and we could definitely allow students to prepare oral presentations using Voicethread, or blogs incorporating music and film on any number of free websites that they could present to an examiner.Or ,students could collaborate with other classrooms on world projects on eclassroom or the flat classroom. And any of these would be a great form of alternative assessment, where students would be engaged in using REAL English in the classroom and interacting with other students in other countries.All of these would be NEW. The world the students move in contains google, Facebook, and Instant messaging, none of which are reflected in the so-called new bagrut, which in many ways represents a retreat away from the Old Bagrut ,where at least we could relate to the Literature on many levels,including Film . But we can't get them to doany of this,if ultimately it is not tested in the Bagrut...( I know we have extended reading but again, not tested in the Bagrut,therefore hard to enforce) Yet students in Qatar,Egypt, Finland , Italy and so on are doing all of these things . I hardly think that a 10 page printed project mostly culled from Wikipedia with a few pretty pictures stuck in is as fullfilling for the students. And we all know how impossible it is for teachers to play cat and mouse with students to find out who /where they cut and pasted from. Sorry to go on so long,and I did want to mention the Listening fiasco with the radios,but I am sure you are tired of me by now. All comments appreciated, -----------------------------------------------** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org or - http://www.etni.org.il **
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