[etni] Re: Fw: penalizing students whose teachers are on sanctions
- From: David Graniewitz <graniewitz@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ask@xxxxxxxx, "Etni" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 7 Feb 2010 10:08:38 +0200 (IST)
Sharon,
You have hit the proverbial nail on its proverbial head.
However, I think that you are rather tilting at windmills, if
you think that anyone at the Ministry is going to take a blind
bit of notice at your well-written and well thought out point
of view.
I'm sure that they have been well aware of the unfair
situation that has existed ever since they tried to make work
done in class count for a substantial part of the final grade
without enforcing an effective system of supervising that
everyone works in the same way. To do so would have created a
lot more work on their part. As long as we, the teachers, kept
quiet, everyone was happy. I can't see them backing down over
their decision to penalise pupils without projects somehow.
Well done on your effort.
David Graniewitz
Jerusalem
penalizing students whose teachers are on sanctions
----- Original Message -----
From: Sharon Tzur - sharontzu5@xxxxxxx
Subject: penalizing students whose teachers are on sanctions
Dear Etniers:
I have just sent a letter to Judy concerning the latest
clarification. If I
understand correctly, students who come in to the oral without
a project
will get a maximum grade of 40 on the oral bagrut, even if the
reason for
their not having a project is that their teacher is upholding
the Irgun
sanctions.
If it turns out that I misunderstood, I will send an
appropriate posting.
However, if I understood correctly, I think it is unfair, and
I wrote so to
Judy. Here are my arguments"
It is a departure from long-standing ministry policy which has
always been
to minimize damage to students that results from teacher
sanctions. For
example, in the year of the 2 month strike, bagrut exams were
postponed and
the mikud came out early so that damage to students' bagrut
grades resulting
from the strike would be minimized.
I can remember no precedent of students being penalized 12
points in a
bagrut subject because their teachers upheld sanctions.
I suggested that the ministry change its policy and either:
1) Students whose teachers upheld sanctions and did not
do projects get
a grade out of 100 based on their interview.
or
2) Students whose teachers upheld sanctions and did not
do projects be
allowed to present a book report or present a piece of
literature in place
of the presentation on the project.
I anticipate that one response to my letter will be that
students who did
not do projects can't get the same grade as students who did
projects
because that would be unfair to those who did projects. To
that, I gave a
rather lengthy response.
It is no secret that ever since the bagrut program was
changed, some schools
and some teachers do not teach literature or do book reports.
In fact, the
non-teaching of literature by many teachers is openly given by
inspectors as
one of the reasons that the ministry has decided to put
literature back into
the bagrut. And yet, during all those long years, students who
did no
literature, and read no books were never penalized - nor were
their
teachers. At the same time, many of us continued to loyally
carry out the
program as dictated by the ministry, teaching and testing
literature and
doing book reports. In fact, in cases where the lit grade and
book reports
led to students having a lower school grade than their test
average, we
often had to take flak from students, parents and principals,
but we stuck
to our guns and followed the ministry guidelines. That was not
fair.
As to the project, a similar problem exists. Some of us have
carried out the
work on the program as dictated by the ministry. We have taken
the students
through the process of finding sources, we have had the
students do process
writing, which means checking at least one rough draft and
then checking the
good draft against the rough draft, etc. This is a great deal
of work for
which we were never paid. And yet all of us conscientious
teachers are well
aware of the fact that many schools were taking shortcuts -
having students
turn in only one good copy (no process writing), having
students do the
entire project on their own over summer vacation, accepting
projects that
are mostly cut or pasted or even downloaded in their entirety
from the
internet. That was not fair.
Even in the event that teachers penalized students in their
project grade
for cutting and pasting, when it came to the ORAL bagrut, the
students were
not penalized. They could give their three minute talk and get
100 even
though they never really did a project in the full sense of
the word. That
was not fair. That is not fair.
Therefore, I do not think that an argument about equality or
fairness to
those who did do projects is sufficient reason to penalize
students 12
points on their English bagrut. Students who were guided
through projects by
teachers in Histadrut HaMorim, or non-union teachers, or even
Irgun teachers
who chose not to carry out the sanctions (at least not in
their entirety)
benefitted from the knowledge they gained by doing a project.
Furthermore,
the three minute presentation is something that students can
prepare for and
do well on - so it is to their benefit that they can do it on
the oral
bagrut. For the sake of equality, the ministry can make the
project
presentation optional for all students.
I also pointed out that in our school, my students did their
projects in
10th grade, so this does not affect me personally this year.
However, I felt
that I must speak out on behalf of many conscientious teachers
(who also
happen to be conscientious union members) If eventually the
irgun manages to
negotiate pay for projects (as the Civics teacher are to be
paid), then all
English teachers will benefit. I call upon the Ministry of
Education NOT to
penalize students whose teachers are carrying out the
directives of the
Irgun.
Yours,
Sharon Tzur
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