[etni] Re: The inherent unfairness of the log.
- From: Leah Urso <morahleah@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "davidzalman@xxxxxxxxx" <davidzalman@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 17 May 2013 11:18:30 +0300
As a teacher of English Speakers, I found this post of interest. This is my
approach to the Literature program. While I use the set-pieces for the Logs, I
always choose a related text to supplement, either as a Bridging task,
Post-Reading, or even Pre-Reading. For instance, for "A Summer's Reading", I
included a biography of Bernard Malamud (that I composed and am happy to
share). Reading about Malamud's life as a teenager and Jewish writer brought
the story to life. For "Introduction to Poetry", I brought in my favorite poem,
and we identified the metaphors and imagery. For "Count the Day Lost", we read
a Jewish folktale with the same theme of "Doing Kindness for Others", and
compared the message of the poem to the story, which was quite different. This
approach can satisfy the need for consistency, while giving the teacher the
ability to enhance the curriculum by bringing in other sources.
Sent from my iPad
On May 16, 2013, at 11:36 PM, David Graniewitz <davidzalman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> A few weeks ago, I went to test orally a class of English speakers. The
> pupils had done a bridging task in lieu of the project and with several of
> them the conversation got around to discussing what they thought of the
> literature programme.
>
> Their teacher had opted to create her own literature syllabus as opposed to
> choosing the set-pieces. I was very impressed by the thought and work that
> had gone into it, as well as more than a tad jealous of the fact that she
> had been teaching pupils who were of the level of coping with something a
> little more stimulating than the poem “Grandmother”.
>
> However, it seemed that some of the pupils were not happy with the pieces
> that she had chosen and with the fact that they had had to work very hard
> to complete their logs. Later, the teacher told me that she had had a hard
> time getting pupils to hand in all of the assignments and that some would
> be getting low grades for their logs. One mother had phoned her to complain
> that her daughter had only been given 70 as a final grade. Her son who was
> in another school where the set-pieces had been studied had not had to work
> as hard as his sister and had got 90 for his log.
>
>
> I commented that the point was that the harder that a teacher works, the
> harder the pupils will have to work. However, they will do so, in general,
> without the enthusiasm that accompanies the teacher’s efforts. And, in the
> case of the log, when they realise that there was a way of doing less work
> and attaining the same or even higher grades, they will feel, quite
> understandably, annoyed about this.
>
>
> One of the selling points of the log at first was that teachers could
> teach the literary pieces that they want to teach rather than the worn-out
> stories that have been staples of the syllabus for decades. It seems though
> that in many places this isn’t being done for several reasons. Firstly, it
> turns out that it is not so simple to get approval for stories. Having
> looked through the list of pieces that have been given approval for the 4
> and 5 point exams on the TLC site, I was unable to find much consistency in
> the decision-making process. Secondly, many teachers simply don’t have the
> time to start from scratch and build their own syllabus. It is far easier
> to take the ready-made one-size-fits-all pieces and their accompanying
> exercises in the text books. Also, building your own syllabus is a risky
> business. There is no guarantee that the pupils will be inspired by the
> stories and poems you have selected. When a pupil complains that he doesn’t
> like “A Summer’s Reading”, what better answer can there be for a teacher
> than to give a shrug of the shoulders and say “That’s the syllabus. You
> want your Bagrut, you’d better study the story, no matter what you think of
> it.”
>
>
> But therein lies the rub. The new literature programme was enacted in order
> to amend a previously untenable situation. When literature became an
> internal component of the Bagrut and was only assessed as part of the
> school grade, it was inevitable that some schools would not do the required
> syllabus in its entirety or not at all whilst others stuck to it
> religiously. In other words, not all pupils were doing the same amount or
> level of work, but were receiving the same grades at the end of the day.
> The purpose of the new programme was to standardise the teaching of
> literature as much as possible.
>
>
> The irony is, though, that now the situation has become more inequitable
> with some teachers building challenging and demanding syllabi whilst others
> are just going through the textbooks that have been published over the past
> couple of years. In the old days, the literature component was less weighty
> as it was part of one of the school grades given on a module so it could be
> argued that doing it properly or not made little difference in the end.
> Nowadays, it counts for almost a third of the final grade.
>
>
> The only fair solution in my opinion would be to get everyone to do the log
> based on the set-pieces. I know that this was not the point of the log in
> the first place; however, I believe that it is nigh on impossible to have
> standardisation when a third of the final grade depends on what the teacher
> wants or doesn’t want to teach. Perhaps when pressure is brought to bear
> from parents and principals, even the most enthusiastic teachers will
> realise that it is their own interests to go along with the set-pieces.
>
>
> This is, of course, an unfortunate situation, but if the powers-that-be
> want to encourage teachers to teach literary pieces that they feel
> comfortable with then the whole idea of the log has to be rethought. Two
> suggestions have sprung to mind; a) reduce the weight of the log in the
> final calculation of the Bagrut exam or b) offer a 6-point Bagrut in which
> teachers could build their own syllabi which would give pupils the feeling
> that if they work harder for their Bagrut, it will be worth more than those
> who are just doing the set-pieces.
>
>
>
> David Graniewitz
>
> Jerusalem
>
> **************************************
> ** Join ETNI on Facebook
> https://www.facebook.com/groups/31737970668/
> ** ETNI Blog and Poll
> http://ask-etni.blogspot.co.il/
> ** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org
> ** post to ETNI List - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> ** help - ask@xxxxxxxx
> ***************************************
>
**************************************
** Join ETNI on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/31737970668/
** ETNI Blog and Poll
http://ask-etni.blogspot.co.il/
** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org
** post to ETNI List - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
** help - ask@xxxxxxxx
***************************************
Other related posts: