[etni] Re: Reflections on the HOTS course
- From: "Ask Etni" <ask@xxxxxxxx>
- To: "Etni" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:33:00 +0200
Wow, Jimmy, that was some letter! Having taken the course myself this year
(also not an Irgun member, etc. etc.), I cannot help but agree with you
regarding the chaotic nature of the course. Just this week, I met up with a
few teachers who had attended the literature course in another city, and we
were divided on such essential points as to whether the four-point program
is starting next year and whether a play / novel will be compulsory. This
wasn't a matter of opinion - we were each quoting our own instructors!
Speaking with another few teachers who attended various other courses around
the country, I had the same experience. And no, there was no single
instructor to blame, because (at least according to those who attended the
instructor's course given by Judy Steiner) I was right about half the time,
and the other teachers were right the other half. Which points to the fact
that there is a huge amount of misinformation floating around out there -
or, as you so aptly described it, pure chaos, if even teachers from
different courses are in possession of different so-called facts about the
program.
I (and the rest of the participants of the course I attended) was as stymied
as you about Personal Response (which you may or may not know has officially
been removed from the program, thank G-d!) and the reflection. We must have
spent a whole lesson just trying to get a grasp on the reflection issue, not
with much success (at least not on my part). Now, I do say kol hakavod to
the Ministry for having realized that the Personal Response wasn't working
and taking it out. But there are just too many other examples of confusion
and poor planning.
As you said, the fact that we STILL don't know what the 4-pointers are doing
(forget about that - we still don't know what the core program for
5-pointers is!) is ridiculous. Now what really annoys me is the reason given
for not coming to final decisions about all this - the fact that the
inspectorate / program heads first want to analyze the literature exams
from this year and draw conclusions from there. So wouldn't it have made
more sense to push off this whole literature program by a year, do another
year of pilots for teachers who are absolutely gung-ho about these things
and get their reactions, then wait for the results to come in, and only
after that formulate a final plan which will be taught to all the teachers
throughout the country? How can we be expected to start implementing this
next year if we don't yet know just what we're supposed to be doing? There
are actually some teachers out there who spend the summer planning their
teaching for the year...
While I agree with the criticism about lack of time (despite all protests
that it'll only add a few extra minutes to each literature lesson), the
Inspectorate's poor planning put me off this program much more than any
extra time requirements. I'm sure that a few people will jump right in and
yell at Jimmy and me and anyone else who dares to agree with us about our
bias against the Ministry and about how we're not giving the HOTS program a
chance, but that's not going to change the reality - the reality being a
huge mess.
Anonymous
P.S. I was surprised to read Jimmy's assertion that we must use the same
methodology for both HOTS taught in a story - either I slept through that
one, or our instructor forgot to teach it, or his instructor is wrong about
that. But that's just another example of the confusion that reigns...
-----------------------------------------------
** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org
or - http://www.etni.org.il **
** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx **
** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **
-----------------------------------------------
Other related posts: