Second assignment - preparing for module G

[Mitzi100]

Hi Everyone,
I have now finished grading the first compositions for G, and I have sent each of you a message with your grade for the composition. The second topic was given in class on Tuesday. It is: "Should literature be part of the English Bagrut Exam program?" A few of you handed in the composition at the end of the lesson, but if you didn't, you must post it to the forum by Sunday.
After the compositions are posted, find at least 2 grammar or word usage mistakes in the compositions of your classmates and post a message saying how you think the mistake should be corrected. The more mistakes you correct, (correctly!) the higher your grade. This time, I will not mark your compositions twice. Look at the corrections your classmates suggest, and decide whether they are right or not. You may edit your composition until next Wednesday. I will grade them then, and post the next topic.
In the first round, many of you did not read the task carefully, and did not really answer the question. This time think before you write. You are not asked whether you like literature or not. You are not asked if you liked this semester. You are asked to think about whether literature should be included in the English curriculum and be tested ( or assessed) for the Bagrut. Remember that if you present both sides of the issue, you must take a stand in the last paragraph, and relate to what you said that does not support your opinion.
Though I won't check your composition twice, you can certainly write to me to ask a question. Use your dictionary ( not online!!) to check your spelling and your book to check your grammar. Look at what your friends have to say about your composition, and decide whether you want to take their advice.
We will have a lesson on Tuesday afternoon, and I strongly suggest that you all come!
Mitzi

[emanuel.Y]

Should literature be part of the English Bagrut Exam program?
Recently a lot of people have thought that learning of English language in schools have to be improved,and be more difficult.Some of them suggest to add the literature learning in the English curriculum and be tested for the Bagrut.

In my opinion, it is a good idea because learning literature will improve the pupils spelling and grammar,and their vocabulary,and this way their English will be better.I think it's must be tested for the Bagrut because if the pupils won't be tested for the Bagrut they won't take the literature learning seriously,and won't learn it.

In conclusion the literature learning is very improtant,and it can help the pupils, and it should be part of the English Bagrut Exam program.

to Ilan-
*instead "deal with harder texts" you have to write "get along with harder texts".
*You have to write "I think that the pupil must know basic words" without "that".

[ilan.p.]

Should literature be a part of the Bagrut exam?

Some teachers think that literature has to be included in the Bagrut exam.
Well, I don't. I think that the pupil must know basic words and basic grammar during his studies at school. The whole point of the Bagrut is to give basic tools for the future.
Literature has to be added when the person goes to the university, and if he has these basic tools which are given in school, it will be easier for him to deal with harder texts.
It is wrong to think that the Israeli student ,who has not any connection to the English literature will do a Bagrut exam about it .The point of the English lessons is to give basic understanding of articles and basic grammar rules. If the person wants to learn English literature later, after graduating, of course he can do that and take it seriously, but we don't have to give more headaches to pupils with this "English Literature".

In conclusion, literature task in the bagrut is wrong and it won't help pupils to know English better , certainly not at this age.

[ilan.p.]

to Emanuel: 1)"in schools", "the" is not neccesary
2) "won't be tested" instead of "won't tested"..

[Eran]

It is wrong to think that the Israeli student ,who has not any connection to the English literature will do a Bagrut exam about it .

You need a comma after the word "will".

I think that the pupil must know basic words and basic grammar during his studies at school.

I think that you need to replace the word know with the word learn. I don't think the student knows words and grammar rules during his studies. He learns them.

[ilan.p.]

to Eran:
Yeah I forgot to put a comma:)

About your second comment, I don't really think it's a mistake, the sentence (in my opinion) is very logical.Anyway, it's your opinion

to Emanuel: I agree with you. I didn't like the phrase"deal with harder texts" from the beginning, but I had'nt anything better in my mind. Your phrase sound much better.

[Anton ch]

Should literature be part of the program of the studies for the English Bagrut Exam?

Recently, a lot of English teachers argue about one very serious issue. This one is if literature has to be included in the studies of English for the Bagrut exam or not.

On the one hand, the graduates have to know mainly three things in English: to write, to read and to speak a little or more. These enable them be ready for the academic studies in the university. Furthermore, there are some teachers who state that English is English and literature is literature. In Hebrew the students don't learn the language together with the literature. In my opinion, it helps us know better and deeper both subjects.

On the other hand, learning and knowing English literature always adds to our general knowledge and level of intelligence. Moreover, it enchases the knowledge in many areas of life. Thus, the process of learning the combination of English and literature makes the studies, be more creative and productive. The study of literature makes the student think more than he/she used to.


In conclusion, if I were part of the English teacher’s team, I would strongly recommend promoting program of studying English and literature for the Bagrut exam.


To Ilan:
"Who doesn't have any connection" or "who has no connection" in stead of "who has not any connection".

To Emanuel: You forgot a comma (" In my opinion,")

[Anton I]

Should literature be part of the bagrut? In my opinion it should, and that’s why:

Every English teacher wants his students to success after they graduate. That’s why many of them think that studying English in the literature style doesn’t help the students to see the whole picture, doesn’t expand their horizons, doesn’t improve their reading and writing and so on.

I think the exact opposite of what they think. Studying literature actually adds to our general understanding of life (by studying poems\stories that teach us different and various lessons about life), not to mention that the learning progress is very creative and interesting (and can give new idea to students who likes to write their own poems or stories). In addition to that, the lessons make students think more then usual, to understand every action, and this process helps a lot not only in English lessons, but in the every-day life.

In conclusion, I explained why learning English in literature style is much better then the normal way, and therefore should be a part of our bagrut.

To Anton Ch:
1) In the second line you ment to write "argue" bud accidently you forgot the "r" --> "argue"
2) In the fifth line, you wrote: "These enable them be ready...". You forgot to write "to" --> "These enable them to be ready..."

Good Luck

[yula k]

"Should literature be part of the English Bagrut Exam program?"

The literature work that we did this year was very educated.We learned many new literature works like: poems ,stories and a fascinating play.
But the issue is it usefull?

On one hand We would never be exposed to this works unless the literature part, and the students can only learn from this ,from the high level of English and the skills that they learn from the story that they can use later in the everyday life.

On the other the purpose of English lessons is to know English in a good level for writting ,and talking correctly,and also to prepare us for the University so we could read scientific articles in a high level.

In my opinion I dont think that literature should be part of the Bagrut exam, although literature would help us with our English ,but learning the grammer rules and practice writting compositions also would help.May be we need to join this two things together and in this way we will learn English in the best way there is.

[Yana S]

There are many things which are taken into considerations during making the bagrut exams. There are always attempts to make the bagrut exam’s level a little bit higher, and not everyone agrees that the now day’s English Bagrut exams are at the very high level they are supposed to be. So there is an idea which says that for increasing the writing and the reading level of the students there must be a literature part at the bagrut exam.
In my opinion there aren’t disadvantages at this decision. I think that this is a very good idea and it can really improve the writing, the reading and understanding English. I can tell that it happened to me. At first this was very annoying, reading long stories, plays, or poems which were very difficult to understand. The non stop writing that we did after every story wasn’t something I liked and didn’t think it can be helpful. But at the end I saw that I have learned to express myself better, to write long assignments and was able to write my thoughts on paper, and I think that it is a very big improvement.
So I think that at the beginning the students not going like this but at the end they will see that their English is much better and that they will able read more difficult stories and literature and to write their thoughts which they couldn’t express earlier.
In conclusion, adding the literature part to the school program and to the bagrut exams will be a very contributing thing.

To Michel: "In the literature course we read few pieces and after reading them we did few tasks about them, which will affect our final bagrut grade." The sentences is strange and doesn't seem right, maybe you need to change to past verbs to present perfect and maybe it will sound better.
"and because the literature course has a bad evaluation method." you need to add "of"

[Julia Klepfish]

This year instead of having module F Bagrut exam in the regular way my class did literature project. This is the first year of this project and teachers and students are skeptical whether it should be part of the Bagrut exam or not. I think it should be part of the Bagrut exam although it has many disadvantages.
In my opinion, this literature project expends the horizons of the students. While doing this project they learn poems, plays and short stories in English and do tasks about them. This teaches them how to express themselves in a better way. In this course the students also learn about "Higher Order Thinking Skills" (HOTS), and it gives them tools for the everyday life.
In my opinion, this project didn't work well in my class because it was the first year of the literature project. The teacher and the students didn't know exactly what they need to do and it created a big mess. Another disadvantage is that while doing this project students don't learn how to work with different kinds of articles.
In conclusion, I think that the students should decide in which way they want to do their Bagrut exam and not the teacher or the school. Although the disadvantages of the project it should be part of the Bagrut exam because the students can learn from it many important and new things.

*Emanuel:You should write "their" instead of "thier".
Ilan: You should write "Bagrut" instead of "bagrut",capital letter.
Michael: I think instead of "this course is wasting time to pupils" you should write "this course is a waste of tome for many pupils"

[Michael]

This semester we did the literature course instead of the regular “F” bagrut exam. In the literature course we read few pieces and after reading them we did few tasks about them, which will affect our final bagrut grade.

I certainly didn’t enjoy this course because of few reasons which I will present in my composition. One of the reasons is that this course is wasting time to pupils, whose level in English is above average and they could get easily ninety or more in the “F” bagrut exam. The second reason is that the evaluation of the tasks are 0,60,80,100,and I think it’s not fair for a student ,who wrote a task which worth 88 or 89, and still will get only 80, because his grade is closer to 80.

In conclusion, I think the literature course isn’t the ideal choice for a pupil whose English level is above average and can get good grade in the “F” bagrut exam, and because the literature course has a bad evaluation method.

[Michael]

Yana S:
"high level they suppose to be." - high level they are supposed to be.
"there must a literature part at the bagrut exam." - there must be a literature part at the bagrut exam.
Yula Kogen:"We learned many new literature works "- we learned many new literature pieces.
"But the issue is it usefull?" - But the issue is whether it's useful or not
Julia Klepfish:
"them tools for the everyday life"- I think it's better this way,"them tools for the daily life"

[liorap]

It is always very helpful and useful to learn new teaching methods. But the most important thing that needs to be in the English Bagrot is the basic,the gremmar part. Literature we learn in the Literature lesson and in the English lesson it's more important to learn how to improve our English.

I think that Literature shouldn't be part of the English Bagrot Exam program. That's because this project isn't the most important and necessary material that the students need to learn at school. And I also think that not all the students can succeed in this project. For example , I am sure that I can get a better grade in the normal Bagrot exam.

In conclusion, I believe that the English Bagrot exam doesn't need to be changed. Perhaps the Literature part can be an addition of some extra points to the basic program.

[liorap]

To Emanuel: Well, I don't-But I don't think like them.
To Yana:I can tell that it happened to me-For examle, this thing happened to me.

[Dima]

Should literature be part of the English Bagrut Exam program?
A lot of English teachers think how to make the students success after graduate and they focusing on teaching how to speak correctly in English, and forget about the literature part.
In my opinion literature should be part of the English Bagrut Exam program, because literature expands the student’s horizons. This semester we did a literature project instead of having “F” module Bagrut Exam. This way of learning ware very interesting, while doing the project we read a poem, short stories and poems and do tasks during or after learning the literature pieces. Also we learned some thinking skills that can help us in real life.
In conclusion, I think that students must have a choice to choose learn according to the old program (ordinary Bagrut exam) of to do a literature project as my class did.

[jenia buzilo]

"Should literature be part of the English Bagrut Exam program?"

There are many argues between the teachers and the ministery of education to include literature in English exam.
In my opinion, literature should be part of the program of the studies for the English Bagrut exam. I think it is important to learn literature because it helps you to improve your knowledge of the language. You can learn more words and special structures and expressions. It takes you a lot of subjects for speaking and writing compositions.

In conclution I think that literature should be included into the Bagrut for improving your language.

to Dima: "ware"= was!

[Adi]

Should literature be a part of the Bagrut exam?
Currently the English Bagrut exam is very superficial and general. Some teachers even think that making English literature a part of the Bagrut exam could make it more intensive. It could be not a bad idea.
English literature is very rich. There are a lot of talented classical poets and writers like Edgar Poe, Byron and Kipling. English literature is very beautiful, but the most brilliant masterpieces are very difficult as well - it could be a problem to a lot of students. The point of the English Bagrut exam is to teach us to talk, write, and understand Basic English. It is not easy to learn a new language. I think that not everybody will be able to learn literature and there will be much less students who will have 5 points for English Bagrut. Plus this is not necessary, because the ones who want to read and know English Literature will read it by themselves.
The literature doesn't have to be part of the Bagrut, but it has to be a small part of learning for the Bagrut.

[Ilia Altmark]

The idea of putting the literature module into the English bagrut exam is quite interesting and new but the question is if it’s really that good.

I think that the literature module is very nice. The literature module can be very comfortable and the tasks are nice and good for improving English. The literature helps on keeping the students interested and it could be very useful for just knowing it.

Overall, I think that the literature module should be a part of the English bagrut exam as it’s very comfortable for learning English.

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