[etni] Re: Teaching Literature for lit Exam
- From: renee wahl <renew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 04 Jan 2014 20:06:26 +0200
Dear ETNI community and Judy Granit,
I would like to relate point by point to what Judy wrote in her recent
message.
1) Judy: " there are only 2 HOTS
> questions and there are still alternative question options as far as I
> know."
That's not the point. What is taking up all our time is that we have to
TEACH all the HOTS and teach the pupils how to answer these so-called
thinking skills questions. The fact that the exam has only 2 HOTS questions
is irrelevant. What about the classes that are doing the log and not the
test? If you do the program according to the rules, you have to teach the
relevant HOTS for each lit piece.
2) Judy: "We have always
> taught literature and the only problem in the past was trying to prove
> the "legitimacy" of it to our students who could not see the point in
> learning for anything that was not on the bagrut"
Yes, we who follow the rules, have always taught literature. But I guess
Judy hasn't been teaching as long as I have, because when I started teaching
English here, there was a question on the Bagrut dealing with literature.
It was part of the composition requirement. There was no explicit HOTS
nonsense involved. Also, we never saw any reason why we had to justify the
legitimacy of teaching literature. What we now need to justify to our
students is why they have to learn HOTS! In English!
3) I want to explore more values and moral issues, and not in such
nauseating detail, than the literary pieces we are teaching. I want to do
this on a timely basis - right before or after special events, but I am
stuck for at least half a year with All My Sons.
4) Judy:" sadly, there is no official research on it, most
> of our teachers have found a "knock-on" effect, seeing a marked
> improvement in the students' writing abilities in yod-bet as a direct
> result of all the writing assignments they practiced and worked on
> while learning for the literature program."
Yes, sadly indeed. Shouldn't the research be done before the program is
approved and implemented?
As to the 'knock-on' effect, it is only common sense that the more they
write the better they will get at it. This can be accomplished in many
other ways, on other subjects.
5) Judy:" making up
> long grammar excercises or vocabulary fill-ins takes me much longer
> than thinking up good questions for literature"
Who needs to make up grammer exercises? There are endless supplies in their
grammar books. In any case I never mentioned grammar exercises because I
believe in teaching grammar in the context of any text that we happen to be
doing.
6) and if any of you have thought up great questions for the literature
tests that the kids can't locate on the web (together with their
correspondently great answers) it would be nice to share. Of course the
minute we use them, we can forget about recycling them because they, too,
will be available to our pupils.
7)Judy:
> "Is Renee saying that teaching literature is NOT teaching English??"
NO. Renee is saying (and I thought I put it quite clearly) that teaching
HOTS and how to answer HOTS questions is not teaching English and takes
precious time away from other ways of teaching English.
8) Also, for the record, Renee has been teaching only 5 point pupils since
the new lit program came into force, though she has also taught 8th, 9th &
10th graders both 4 and 5 pointers as well as very weak pupils. As I said
before, I do not object to teaching literature - a few (very few) of my
generally smart, science/math oriented boys actually like literature lessons
(I get this from their reflections after a unit). However, they don't like
the intensity of learning lit in every lesson.
Judy, and all you teachers who love literature, love to teach literature,
doing a great job of instilling your enthusiasm and energy into the job and
your pupils catching it, improving their English in this way, deserve their
appreciation and gratitude. What I mean with my comments is that one size
does not fit all. This program is going overboard. There are other
teachers who feel suffocated by the program and its demands.
Renee
-----Original Message-----
From: Avi Granit [mailto:judiavi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Saturday 04 January 2014 15:09
To: ETNI
Subject: Fw: Teaching Literature for lit Exam
> Dear ETNI community and Renee
>
> Felt like I had to express an opinion after reading Renee's note below.
> While I understand her issues about teaching the HOTS, I am less
> convinced of their importance on the actual exam as there only 2 HOTS
> questions and there are still alternative question options as far as I
> know. I am also surprised with some of her other objections
> concerning teaching literature and tips for teachers. We have always
> taught literature and the only problem in the past was trying to prove
> the "legitimacy" of it to our students who could not see the point in
> learning for anything that was not on the bagrut. Teaching literature
> does not mean you have no time for anything else - far from it, the
> issues and background to the settings and dilemas of many of the
> literature pieces provide freedom to explore and "make connections"
> (pardon my HOTS) to many issues moral and current that can always be
related to holidays and special events.
>
> In our school, the students cover the literature from yod and take
> the literature module at the end of yod-alef. This is our 3rd year of
> doing this and while, sadly, there is no official research on it, most
> of our teachers have found a "knock-on" effect, seeing a marked
> improvement in the students' writing abilities in yod-bet as a direct
> result of all the writing assignments they practiced and worked on
> while learning for the literature program.
>
> Yes, the tests take longer to grade however, I disagree about the
> amount of time it takes to prepare questions. Personally, making up
> long grammar excercises or vocabulary fill-ins takes me much longer
> than thinking up good questions for literature. Not to mention the
> fact that it gives our English team at school a wonderful opportunity
> to collaborate on writing the "matkonot" together; a good experience for
all of us.
>
> As for Renee's tips for teaching: "Forget about teaching
> English...........if you teach the lit program........" Is Renee
> saying that teaching literature is NOT teaching English?? I guess I am
> quite baffled by that point. I have always believed that teaching
> English literature is teaching English? If her students find it hard
> to listen to a text or teacher or read independently for more than 15
> minutes - surely this would be the same challenge no matter whether she is
teaching
> literature, grammar, vocabulary or Jewish holidays or whatever? As for
> using videos - I'm not sure whether that was suggested as a substitute
> for reading or as an extra? Obviously, it is totally silly to think
> that watching a movie is a substitute for reading a text. Learning
> English is all about interacting with the words and language itself
> which means they need to read, interpret and analyze the text itself.
> (If it were ONLY about the "story" line and not about learning English
> we could just bring Hebrew translations of the literature pieces -
> forget the English!!!) However, comparing the written text of any
> literature piece to its representation as a movie on video is a very
> valuable and educational excercise so I agree that showing videos to
> students AFTER they have dealt with the original text is a great idea.
>
> I intend absolutely no disrespect to Renee - perhaps she has been
> teaching 4 point students which is why she has found the whole
> experience more challenging and less valid? Admittedly, I have only
> taught the program to 5 point students and have found it to be
> perfectly suited to my students' abilities and needs. In fact, I
> would like to go ON RECORD in support of the exam as for the first
> time in my long career of more than
> 20 years I am finally seeing a DIRECT CORRELATION between the amount
> of effort a student makes and his or her grades. Those native or near
> native students who arrogantly assume that they do not need to study
> have little advantage with the literature program and in contrast, it
> is WONDERFUL to see those hard-working kids who may have less natural
> foreign language abilities succeed by virtue of their diligence.
>
> I am convinced that if our students were given a general English test
> checking their vocabulary and grammar before embarking on the lit
> program and then after, we would see an improvement for sure.
> Certainly not less improvement than if they had followed a non-literature
based course.
> Hey, anyone out there looking for a subject for their M.Ed??
>
> Judi G.
>
> renee wahl <renew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Subject: [etni] Sharing tips
>> Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2014 10:01:23 +0200
>>
>> Hi,
>> First of all I'll register my VERY strong objection to the Lit test
>> in general.
>>
>> I believe that teaching HOTS in English is NOT our job.
>>
>> The students are NOT learning thinking skills, except if you want to
>> call how to answer exam questions thinking skills (by the way, more
>> useful that what we claim to be teaching them, which if they haven't
>> worked out for themselves by grade 11, is never going to be learned).
>>
>> I believe the Lit exam should be dropped (That would free Ministry
>> budgets of millions -teaching hours, developing tests, testing, books
>> and put that money to good in reducing class size, etc). If you want
>> to test Lit, do it with one question on the D or G exam instead of
>> the composition.
>>
>>
>>
>> The Lit program is taking up all of my class time and I am not able
>> to teach anything else (the kids won't let me even if I try) in the
>> 11th & 12th grades. No holiday or special events material, no
>> interesting articles, no values, etc. Just to make things plain, I
>> teach very intelligent and ambitious 5 pointers. How you 4 point
>> teachers manage is a bad fairy tale.
>>
>>
>>
>> The Lit program is taking up all of my preparation time. It takes
>> forever to prepare a Matkoet (unless you give them the questions or
>> tests right out of the lit program books or previous exams, to which
>> they learn the answers by rote). It has taken me more than 12 hours
>> to correct and comment on the exams of my 25 12th graders. My 11th
>> graders are doing the log, checking of which keeps me (and them)
>> constantly busy for 2 years.
>>
>>
>>
>> Here are my tips:
>>
>> 1. Tell the kids not to learn the answers by heart. The questions
>> will
>> be different and the answers won't fit (no brainer, but that's what
>> they do.
>> They think one size fits all)
>>
>> 2. Tell them to prefer any HOTS over Inferring, which is the hardest
>> HOTS to prove.
>>
>> 3. Mark the key words (and especially the PLURAL S) in each
>> question:
>> AND, TWO, WHY, WHO. They get so carried away finding and writing
>> about an example that they forget to add the second example the
>> question is calling for.
>>
>> 4. There is no time to go back over the answers to correct mistakes
>> in
>> grammar. I tell my students to start by marking the question, then
>> write notes as to content & examples in the margin (can be in
>> Hebrew), and only then to compose their answer in English very
>> slowly, checking subject/verb agreement, tense, a/an/the, capital
>> letters, conditional, etc as they write.
>>
>> 5. Setting = time + place Any question about setting must
>> include
>> answers for each part.
>>
>> 6. Learn key words to use in your answers. Conflict, dilemma,
>> values,
>> ethics, moral dilemma, etc.
>>
>>
>>
>> Tips for teachers:
>>
>> 1. Forget about teaching English in grades 11 and 12 if you teach
>> the
>> lit program as instructed.
>>
>> 2. If you want to have time to teach English, just teach them how
>> to
>> answer HOTS questions, tell the kids to watch the movies on YouTube
>> or on video (80% of my kids won't read at home and won't listen in
>> class for more than 15 minutes if you read to them or they read to
>> each other), and MAYBE discuss in class.
>>
>> 3. If you're doing the LOG, let them start the work in class, when
>> the
>> period is over and they've written only 2 lines, let them finish the
>> work at home or with their private teachers. Don't make the mistake
>> of checking their work from time to time. According to the
>> instructions, you need to grade only ONE task, the Summative
>> Assessment and check that all tasks are included.
>>
>>
>>
>> Good luck to us all!
>>
>> Renee Wahl
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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- » [etni] Re: Teaching Literature for lit Exam - renee wahl