[etni] Meitzav

  • From: Kara Aharon <aharonmk@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2015 22:25:07 +0300

I've been following the thread about the Meitzav for the 8th grade. I was 
present before and during the 5th grade Meitzav (not in the classroom during 
the test, that's forbidden) at our school and almost everything that's been 
said is also true in 5th grade, and they had 7 tasks. And yes, there are trick 
questions. I almost missed a couple of answers while going over previous 
Meitzav exams. 
It's unfortunate that in spite of the growing awareness of the damage done by 
standardized tests no one has succeeded in cancelling them.


Kara Aharon, English is Fun
Yerucham, Israel
קרה אהרן, אנגלית בכיף
ירוחם
aharonmk@xxxxxxxxxxxx
www.englishfun.net
https://www.facebook.com/englishfunkara
052-3903306, 08-6589425
> 
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 17:49:08 +0300
> Subject: [etni] Fwd: the Meitzav for 8th grade
> From: David Graniewitz <davidzalman@xxxxxxxxx>
> 
> Rachelle has hit the proverbial nail on the proverbial head with 
> regards to
> the drawbacks of the Meitzav exam, which we have been 
> complaining about for
> years now.
> I would like to point out that in addition to all the important 
> points that
> Rachelle made, it is significant to note that this exam is harder
> comparatively than any module that pupils will take for the 
> Bagrut in which
> pupils are required to complete no more than two tasks. In the Meitzav
> test, however, they have to complete SIX tasks. They might be 
> short ones,
> but it is still too demanding on 8th grade pupils.
> I agree that the test is soul-destroying for many pupils causes 
> more damage
> than any good it does. But what can we do?
> Shabbat shalom
> David Graniewitz
> Jerusalem
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: <graniewitz@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 27 March 2015 at 17:42
> Subject: Fwd: [etni] the Meitzav for 8th grade
> To: davidzalman@xxxxxxxxx
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "R. Borenstein" <rachcb1@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cc:
> Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 19:55:51 +0200
> Subject: [etni] the Meitzav for 8th grade
> Good evening,
>      I am sending this both to ETNI and to 
> Dr. Judy Steiner and doing so
> now since the test was supposed to be completed before Pesach 
> vacation.     Regardless of who the next 
> minister of education is and their approach
> to Meitzav, as the case has been for years, I feel that more 
> damage than
> good is done to many students each year with the test.
> For strong students - it's no problem.
> For average students - some parts are fine, others not.
> But, for weak students who are finally finding some footing and 
> a feeling
> of partial success in their English studies, it's a 
> setback.  Year after
> year, a number of our students get this test and are devastated, 
> giving up/
> bursting into tears (girls' school) leaving them discouraged. IMHO
> "participate", "however", "recommend", "memory card", "manners" 
> are not all
> words that can be understood by context, especially by a weak 
> student who
> also has to contend with a writing task, two listening tasks, 
> and three
> unseens, under a time constraint. "Participate" may be a proper 
> lexicalchunk to go with "competition", a common Meitzav word, 
> but most students
> are exposed to "take part" or "race" in a competition by 8th 
> grade. Why use
> this term in the lowest level unseen? In most textbooks, the 
> advanced words
> on this year's Meitzav are spiralled in upper grades. Not 
> everyone has the
> opportunity to introduce and regularly review the entire 
> intermediate band
> of the lexis of the new curriculum by the second half of 8th 
> grade. This
> needs to be considered when the English Meitzav is drafted annually.
>     Perhaps things have changed since my MA years 
> ago when we studied the
> art of test writing. Back then, multiple choice questions were 
> discouraged.It expedites the grading process but makes test 
> taking that much harder -
> reading each option, trying to establish if there are trick 
> questions or
> not, and making a decision, be it by process of elimination or 
> guesswork.A strong student can identify the answer with ease but 
> weaker students have
> to struggle with each mc question, and this year's test was 
> packed with
> multiple choice. Using this test to "map" a school's success is
> unreasonable.
>     My last issue is the fact that manpower is 
> necessary for "hakraat
> she'elon". Putting all "hakraa" students in one room with one 
> teacher is
> ineffective when students of all levels who work at different 
> paces are
> together and there's often a shortage of qualified teachers. In 
> our case,
> we were all occupied. I'd recommend RAMA provide MP3 files to be 
> downloadedon the day of the exam and transferred to each 
> student, similar to the
> bagrut. There's no iTest or CD per student and these students 
> need it just
> as much, if not more, if audio clues are their only crutch to 
> cope with the
> test.
> Shabbat Shalom.
> Rachelle

‭‮

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