[etni] native speakers/bagrut grades
- From: "Sharon Nussbacher" <snussbacher@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 10:14:01 +0000
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I'd like to join the list of teachers who are upset about the grades of
their native speaker students. Yesterday I met with a few students who
wanted my help before the moed bet exam. I discovered that some of the
difficulty they had with the bagrut was based on a lack of general
knowledge. For example, in Module G, they didn't understand what "rights to
their discoveries" the winners must relinquish. They were unfamiliar with
the entire concept. They also didn't understand why Michael Calkin had to
give some of the award money to his university. It simply didn't make sense
to them. Therefore, they had trouble answering questions 2 & 3. ..
As adults, we read the passage and understood these general facts, but we
have to remember that the exam is given to 17-year olds, many of whom
(unfortunately) are not well-read and do not have a great amount of general
knowledge
Also, in the famous Module E question, many students answered "sentimental"
rather than "humorous". I believe this mistake occured due to a lack of
experience in reading satiric articles. After all, most of our native
speaker students have only completed the 11th grade. It takes a certain
amount of maturity and experience to recognize the tongue in cheek tone of
that article. It's unfair to expect that from the average 17 year old.
What exactly are we testing here? intelligence? reading comprehension
skills? general knowledge? English?????
Good luck to everyone on Thursday.
Sharon Nussbacher
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