[etni] Fw: More on HOTS

From: "Ask Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
To: "Etni" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:05:19 +0200
----- Original Message ----- 
From: remanuel - remanuel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: More on HOTS

This is Rachelle Emanuel speaking. I'm a participant in the Jerusalem HOTS 
course bravely led by Judy Siegal. "Bravely" because she has to put up with 
so much "griping". In every session a lot of time has been wasted on 
arguing/discussing the whole principle of the thing and Judy has to 
constantly be on the defensive and can't really proceed as she would like 
to.

The reason why I am writing now to the list is because I don't want to waste 
any more time in the course and I want the Etniers to read what I have to 
say.

Anonymous 1 writes that it seems as though the powers that be have 
conveniently decided to kill two birds with one stone as they have (rightly 
so) decided to bring back literature as a serious component of the bagrut 
and if they have to deal with HOTS, hey presto lets put the two together.

Yesterday instead of doing my course homework I decided to do some research 
on the net to see to what extent HOTS are being used in conjunction with 
literature in the big wide world out there. My conclusion is - HOTS hardly 
appear together with literature. I found just one example on a very low 
level of children's books. Most of the sites I found had to do with maths, 
science and technology and social sciences. When the students are asked to 
solve a problem they have to show that they are aware of exactly which HOTS 
they are applying. This is logical and we have nothing against this. My ten 
year old son is extremely adept at this. He learns Talmud/Gemara and slowly 
but surely he is accumulating a whole list of concepts (HOTS) that he will 
apply in his Talmudical study till the age of 120. High order thinking 
skills is a divine gift for the human race and our people has been applying 
them for thousands of years!

Our whole contention is that HOTS and literature don't seem to go together. 
Literature is an art. Art is not and, in my opinion, cannot be created by a 
conscious use of HOTS. Robots can and should be built using HOTS, so should 
complicated problems be solved using HOTS. If literature is not created thus 
then we should not be forced to appreciate it with  aconscious use of HOTS. 
Yes, we do have to learn how to verbalize our appreciation, and for that we 
teach literary terms, but to have to constantly be aware of what HOTS we are 
using when answering a question on the literature is stifling and will limit 
the way we will teach the literature and the way the kids will  appreciate 
it. I can see it happening to me as I think about our homework on "A 
Summer's Reading". My research on the net seems to support my gut feelings.

I say, as others have said before me - if we have to teach HOTS and have the 
kids tested on them, then lets do it on the unseens but not on works of 
art!!


-----------------------------------------------
        Call for Articles
      The Etni Rag needs you

** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org 
   or - http://www.etni.org.il **
** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx **
** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **
-----------------------------------------------
[etni] Fw: More on HOTS

Other related posts:
