[etni] Sorry for the oversight
- From: James Backer <drjamesbacker@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 04:39:12 -0800 (PST)
Greetings, all - again,
I just realized that I got so wrapped up in the issues of teaching Literature,
that I didn't fully answer Maxine's question about testing it. I apologize for
that.
Yes, it would appear that many schools will only teach Literature if it appears
on the Exam, so it should appear somewhere on the Bagrut exam. Unfortunate, but
true.
Without claiming to be an expert on constructing exams, here are a few
suggestions:
1. Do not test meta-cognition, test English and English Literature.
2. Ask general questions that could be relevant about most pieces of
Literature. Have separate questions about plays, novels, short stories, and
poetry. These general, yet genre-specific, questions will give the teachers and
the kids more flexibility in the Literature they experience in class. Preparing
for this type questions will train kids to appreciate, and even enjoy,
literature in the future. (Asking about which HOTS they used will have very
little value in their future.)
3. Let the kids choose one or two questions out of a larger number of questions.
4. I guess this means going back to the Literature essay format, or some type
of short-essay format. I don't think that this would be an unreasonable
challenge for real 5-pointers. I'm not so sure about 4-pointers - that takes
more thought.
Of course, having more essays would cost the MOE more money, but sometimes the
right way of doing things cost more.
I'm sure that there are lots of other reasonable ways of examining ENGLISH and
ENGLISH LITERATURE, without having to ask meta-cognitive questions.
Jimmy
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