[etni] Fwd: re: module f (literature) winter 2013
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- Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:17:52 +0300
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From: Debora Siegel <debora.siegel@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: module f (literature) winter 2013
Last year I completed a LOG with my 11th grade English speakers and
this year I have almost completed a LOG with my 11th grade 5 pointers.
I have actually enjoyed a lot of it although I suffer when marking the
LOG.
However, I am really utterly baffled at how intelligent and
experienced administrators have come up with our current English
bagrut system.
How can the decision makers have put teachers in the position of
choosing between a LOG which creates more work for them and preparing
for a test that will result in lower grades for their students?
How can the decision makers have okayed as an objective test a test
that is 50 percent subjective (oral grade and LOG grade)?
I am all for teaching literature and encouraging students to think
deeply about what they read. I am glad that literature is a required
component of the English language curriculum. However, I don't
appreciate being part of a farce that makes believe that the LOG
grades are objective grades that reflect a student's knowledge of a
selection of English literature. If anything, the LOG reflects my
abilities as a teacher, not the abilities of my students.
Why couldn't we simply have required students to put together an
English literature portfolio (that also includes book reports of books
that the students have chosen to read) which is then presented in the
oral bagrut orally and physically (so that the oral examiner has to
actually see the portfolio, make sure it is complete as well as listen
to the pupil present the portfolio) and perhaps have added a
literature based essay question to the bagrut exam? Wouldn't that
have been a much more logical option and certainly more objective? An
option that would have enhanced our teaching and placed proper
emphasis on literature as part of the curriculum?
Baffled Debora
Batya wrote:
> The (rhetorical) question many teachers ask is whether students are actually
> doing better or just getting higher grades on the logs (which can't be
> equated with the exam for objectivity, of course)! This is not to say that
> the exams are necessarily fair, and that's the dilemma we're faced with.
>
> I don't think most teachers who choose the exam over the log do so because
> they think it's less work; our concern is undue pressure from students,
> parents and administrators regarding the grades we must submit.
>
> When you look at it this way, it seems rather ridiculous to have a system
> that contains such disparity with regard to assessing students' achievement.
> Rumor has it that test results cannot be as good as log grades, and that's
> part of the plan to "encourage" us to mark logs. If so, this is an example
> of a choice that isn't choice (adjective intended)!
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