[etni] Fw: Re: Reflections on the HOTS course

From: "Ask Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
To: "Etni" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:19:53 +0200
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Danny and Esther Behar and Family" <behar123@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Reflections on the HOTS course


Dear Anonymous and Jimmy,

I too took a HOTS course this past year.  I agree with EVERYTHING that  
was said about the chaotic nature of the course.  And, yes, I got into a 
discussion with another teacher who insists that a novel/play is STILL 
on the five point core list, and yes, no one seems to know how or what 4 
pointers are going to be expected to do. Both of us were quoting our 
instructors who heard it from Judy Steiner herself.

Most of us have been teaching literature for years.  Most of us agree 
that it is a necessary, enriching part of the English curriculum, the 
icing on the cake, the part we enjoy teaching the most.  We have all 
been teaching HOTS, we have NOT been calling them HOTS, nor have we 
required students to discuss "which HOTS skill helped you answer this 
question."

The one issue that Jimmy and Anonymous have not addressed is what I 
believe will happen to literature teaching if and when we are all forced 
to follow the new literature module.  The entire country will be 
learning the same few tired pieces of literature, in exactly the same 
way.  As a result, students will be turned off to English literature.  
The fact that the entire literature module consists of digging into 
these same few pieces,  reading and re-reading the poems, searching for 
whatever HOTS of the day,  doing at least four or five written 
assignments for each, is in the words of a student whose class I tried 
out my unit planner on, incredibly dull and needlessly repetitious.  
Many students I believe, will decide not to produce anything, or just 
one assignment per module.

As for HOTS, why insist on students learning this new gobbledy-gook?  
Don't our current literature assignments bring out insights and 
thoughtful interpretations? Must we destroy whatever creative thought 
students still have in high school?  Let them learn grammar, writing 
skills in English.  Those are necessary.  HOTS in my opinion, is just 
foolish.

Esther Behar

P.S. Please don't tell me that I can always do the log and choose my own 
pieces of literature.  The amount of work for the teacher  in such a 
case is multiplied by at least four.


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[etni] Fw: Re: Reflections on the HOTS course

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