[etni] A Response to Sharon Tzur - The Literature Pilot
- From: "Abraham Gartenberg" <agarti@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:20:01 +0200
Dear Sharon,
It was good to hear from you and read your involved interest in what I believe
to be no less than a revolutionary upgrade of both the teaching of English in
general and the attitude towards the subject of English in high schools in
particular.
I'll gladly answer each one of your many : ) questions, all important and
relevant. Be advised, though, this mail will be anything but short..
First I'd like to emphasize that when I referred to the very demanding and hard
work we had to put in, the pilot is what I had in mind. We all know that pilots
are by definition very challenging and, more often than not, the learning and
initial experimental implementation of all those new ideas could involve
strenuous and often stressful effort. (Especially if you happen to be a
hopeless geek heading a team of some more hopeless geeks..)
Much of it is the result of the nature of such projects, they're experimental,
and they require a lot of resourcefulness, adjustment abilities and resilience
on the part of the participants. (yes, I'm complimenting my staff members,
proud of you, dears!) But - all this concerns working under pilot conditions.
It is a totally different saga when the program is implemented as an integral
part of the High School Curriculum in English starting from 10th grade.
We implemented the Literature Pilot Program in our 11th 5 point classes. We
were only 4 teachers, because that particular year we had fewer students than
the usual in our school. The number of students who participated in the pilot
is around 130.
We were sure we wanted to join in and participate in the pilot because it
happens that practically (apart from one teacher, who along the way got swept
into our enthusiasm as well) all of us are avid literature appreciators. We
were not sure whether to choose the log or the exam. My staff pushed for the
exam and though I was concerned about the risks I thought we were taking, in
hindsight I can only hug them and thank them for insisting on the exam.
The literature pieces were 6 all time favorite classics, traditionally taught
in many schools in Israel: All My Sons, Eveline, A Summer's Reading, The Road
Not Taken, Richard Cory and Musee Des Beaux Arts.
Since I myself have been teaching these classics for some 28 years, the more we
delved into the new program, the more I felt confident about teaching them for
an external exam and also incorporating the new HOTS approach to literature
that the pilot was about. We taught the pieces as usual but we added the aspect
of Higher Order Thinking Skills which (believe it or not ) got many students
interested in the actual process of recognizing thinking skills and applying
them to reading literature (and in English..)
We taught literature as we knew how, including literary techniques, thematic
analyses and even bridging text and context though we didn't call them that,
previously. The background material that students studied was used as an
introduction and we would occasionally quote the authors or comments about the
authors or their pieces and ask the students what they thought about that
comment etc. I remember an exam I gave some 4 years ago to my 12th 5 point
class in which I included a writing task with a quote by Joyce about The
Dubliners and Eveline in specific, saying that through those characters he
wanted to recount "the moral history of his country". The students had to
respond to that quote and they found it interesting and some came up with
really insightful ideas.
At any rate, the teaching itself was probably one of the most professionally
gratifying experiences for one main reason: students, for the first time,
perhaps, could be presented with a direct, unequivocal cause and effect link
between what they put into the subject of English and their performance on
tests.
That is one great advantage of choosing the exam rather than the log. In fact
what I'm advocating as a wonderful experience is the exam option of the new
Literature Module. As for assessment, we gave them tests and writing tasks.
Many of them. First, we put together exams according to our own interpretation
of what was required. Later on, we got the detailed specifications and the
sample exam and that paved the way to more and more tests and writing tasks
based on the same principles.
You're asking if it's the same amount of work as a regular F or G. Truthfully,
I think that given the fact that so far we had to teach the literature in depth
in addition to and not instead of one of these modules, I can almost dare to
guess that having a Literature Module might even save us some work..
I have to add here that all this holds true if you do indeed teach literature
in depth and implement the requirement of Appreciation of Literature and
Culture to the letter.. which I have been doing wholeheartedly since 1982..
Back to numbers: we had 5 weekly hours (alas not enough but..) out of which 2
or 3 were devoted to the literature, not including the past three months..
The program, which will hopefully be implemented starting next year, is the
best thing that has happened to the subject of English in years. How often have
you heard that there is nothing to study for prior to a test in English? Not
from students, but from other professionals in the system? How often have you
heard that students could be asked to give up a lesson of English in order to
catch up on history, math, physics or any other subject with specific material
that needs to be covered for exams?
Our students, not without moaning and groaning, to be sure, were lucky to
experience the true meaning of "no pain no gain" or Yagata umatsata, in ancient
Hebrew. That in itself is no less than a revolution.
I have to, again, stress that this is true about our experience doing the exam
and not the log. I'm afraid that, especially where the status of the subject of
English is concerned, the literature exam rather than the literature log is the
change that a system like ours needs.
To conclude, if you're interested in how the program has affected the learning
process, go to the students. One comment that can attest to its beneficial
impact on the subject comes from a 12th grade student council activist who,
while presenting the plan for the school Purim party, has announced that "all
English teachers are invited to the party thanks to the good exam they arranged
for us".
That more or less covers about .. half of what I had to say..
I hope it helped clarify the picture a bit.
All the very best,
Aviva Gartenberg
Hadarim High School
Hod Hasharon
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