[etni] Re: fw: Literature program
- From: Mitzi Geffen <mitzi1002001@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: ETNI <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, ask@xxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2009 22:35:39 -0800 (PST)
Hi Eleanor,
A few inaccuracies in your points:
1. Ask many of the teachers who participated in the pilot and actually tried
the program out with their students - learning the HOTS does NOT kill
literature or prevent anyone from enjoying a good story.
2. If you want to choose every single piece that you teach, you can opt for the
log.
3. The criteria for marking the log are set before you start teaching, and can
be seen by parents and kids and anyone else who might possibly contest the
grade at the end.
4. As it stands, markers of the log will be paid the bagrut markers' salary at
a rate of 5 logs per hour. (Markers of regular exams are paid at a rate of 6
exams per hour. There is an effort being made to change the log rate to 4.5 an
hour. If you mark the tasks as you go along, there are only 2 end-of-the game
tasks to mark before tallying up the log grade. It is not like the project,
where you only see the product at the end of the process.
5. (Personal opinion) - the difference in the amount of work between this and
pre-lit module teaching depends on the teacher. If you are not used to giving
your kids various writing tasks frequently, it will seem like a lot of extra
work, but if you are, I don't think the change in the amount of work is very
significant - spread over 2 or 3 years. I say this from having tried it both
ways. Also, if the MABAR kids are learning thinking skills in their L1, it
will be much easier to go through this program, reinforcing what they have
learned. That is a big plus!
Finally, you don't have to buy a book just because it is published. You can see
whether it serves your needs or not. New books are published every year,
regardless of changes (or lack of changes) in the curriculum. We choose to use
them, or not.
All the best,
Mitzi
--- On Sun, 2/8/09, Ask_Etni <ask@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Ask_Etni <ask@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: [etni] fw: Literature program
To: "ETNI" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sunday, February 8, 2009, 9:40 PM
From: ELEANOR ZWEBNER - eleanorz541@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Literature program
I wish to add my 2 cents to the discussion on the Literature module
As I am on sabbatical and there was a conflict with other programs I had
chosen earlier, after 3 sessions of our Jerusalem "hishtalmut", I
decided to
postpone the hishtalmut for this year. Again, I am on sabbatical and did
not feel it imperative to get involved already. However, there are several
issues which I personally feel are NOT being addressed.
1) The 4 point pupils, especially Mabar pupils who are categorized as
having special learning needs:
They have in L1 -- their mother-tongue -- additional hours of LANGUAGE
(their own) and additional hours of literature -- approximately 6 hours
weekly of the two (in the USA, we called it Language Arts..). We are
teaching a foreign language and are expected to deal with higher order
thinking skills in 4 hours a week. In L1, they are learning BASIC thinking
and study skills.
2) As noted, those of us who have been teaching literature find this
program restrictive regarding the lterature assigned; the multiple HOTS
requirements for each and every piece studied is going to KILL litertaure
for many pupils who have enjoyed a good story and have managed to learn
some words along the way.
3) The additional labor should not be sneered at -- both the project and
this new program are very labor intensive -- and the labor is ours: the
teachers. I believe each school (actually I think each teacher!) should
have the option of choosing one or the other but not both, i.e. either the
project or the Literature module. Even if the Irgun gets the ministry to
pay more, it is unlikely that it will really compensate for the time
invested and it will simply mean we can not complain.
An example is the money we are paid for going on class trips with pupils.
Years ago, we were not paid; now we get a few shekelim (I think 50 for the
night - but I don't remember exactly how little) It does NOT compensate
for
the babysitting, lack of sleep and denigration of our role as teachers when
at 2 am we are trying to get lively 15 year olds to sleep and praying they
don't have vodka in their water bottles. And we go to work the next day;
the pupils get (or take) the day off.
AND, the Ministry --no matter how much they pay -- will be SAVING money at
OUR expense. The grade will be internal. That means that 1/3 of the written
exams will not have 2 external markers as well as all the proctors during
the test itself, and no one will do a retest or moed bet! We certainly
will not be paid according to the pay scale for Bagrut examiners.
And last, the grade will now be determined by the teacher herself
sorry, --it is usually a female..). Besides being unethical and destroying
the notion of a standardized nationwide test, I find this totally
unacceptable. Two years ago, I was threatened in the teachers' room by 2
parents who were dissatisfied with their son's "Tziyun Shnati --
internal
final grade -- on the F module. They vowed they would get me, that I
hadn't heard the end of it and they would hound me... IN THE
TEACHERS'
ROOM with 10 others present . Now this was for 50% of 33% of 80%. What
will happen when it is 100% of the 33%?
How many of us are familiar with stories of schools where even principals
have been known to boost grades? Now, the pressure will be even greater for
such conduct.
I believe the ones who will truly benefit fromt his program are the
publishers. Those of us who taught literature because we enjoyed it, passed
this along to our pupils; those who taught literature because they it was
required and they followed the rules, got the job done; those who didn't
teach literature for whatever reasons, lost out and it is doubtful that
forcing them to teach it this way is going to make them better teachers or
their pupils more proficient in English .
Eleanor
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