[etni] Magen grades
- From: Orly Sela <orlysela@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:06:26 +0200
Dear Linda and All,
I completely understand Linda's bewilderment regarding the concept of MAGEN
grades, and having had the 'pleasure' of explaining this to generations of
pupils and parents I will try to do the same here.
This grade used to be called MAGEN, but quite a number of years ago the name
was changed, as the powers that be realized it was misleading, causing
pupils and parents to expect it to 'protect' or 'defend' them from the nasty
Bagrut exam grade. It is now (and has for a number of years) been called
'the school grade' (TZIUN BEIT SIFRI), for exactly this reason. The fact
that many people insist on still calling it MAGEN is unfortunate, but I
guess old habits die hard. When I taught high school I always insisted on
calling it by its right name, for this reason exactly.
But what exactly is it? Well, the idea is that a grade as important to the
pupils' future as the Bagrut grade is shouldn't be determined on the basis
of a one-off exam, which may not reflect the pupil's ability for many
different reasons. Thus, it was decided that 50% of the final Bagrut grade
will be determined by an objective nation-wide exam and 50% by the pupil's
ongoing school work. In general, this is helpful to weak hard-working pupils
and harmful to strong lazy ones. This is, of course, a huge generalization,
but I hope it clarifies the principle of the thing.
Soooo, in my opinion teachers should insist on calling it a school grade
(which is what it is) rather than a MAGEN grade (which it isn't), and they
may receive fewer complaints (or am I only dreaming?).
Hope I was able to help,
Orly Sela
Dr. Orly Sela
Head - Department of English Language and Literature
Oranim Academic College of Education
Email: orlysela@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Tel: +972-52-3358643
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