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Fw: etni Digest V1 #129
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Ask Etni
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Dec 11, 2003 23:47 PST
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----- Original Message -----
From: "FreeLists Mailing List Manager" <ecar-@freelists.org>
To: "etni digest users" <"etni digestsubscribers"@freelists.org>
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 9:08 AM
Subject: etni Digest V1 #129
etni Digest Thu, 11 Dec 2003 Volume: 01 Issue: 129
In This Issue:
[etni] Re: Meitzav test
[etni] Fw: Unseen Practice
[etni] Fw: A Font to Simulate the Dyslexic experience
[etni] new ETNI poll
[etni] Fw: Hanuukah activities
[etni] S-O-S teacher needed
[etni] Re: this winter's 4 points
[etni] Fw: re: How many modules?
[etni] Fw: Are Projects a prerequisite
[etni] Looking for a teacher
[etni] Trilingual program opens doors to Bedouin youth
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 09:50:52 +0200
From: michele ben <ben-@internet-zahav.net>
Subject: [etni] Re: Meitzav test
I honestly don't know what you do to prepare for the meitzav other than
normal
teaching. We taught English as usual at all levels. One week before the
test
we gave the kids a copy of the example test that we were given 2 years ago.
They did it as an exercise, we went over it, they took it home to get used
to
the format and that's it. We also did a few listening comp exercises with a
tape. We explained to our weakest kids that the test would be hard for them
but
that's OK. We said that it doesn't reflect on them and the efforts they are
making in English and that they should continue trying to do their best.
We
also said that they don't have to worry, that their grades won't reflect
badly
on the school because we know that they are doing their best. We have about
15%
very weak English learners in the eighth grade level, and another 15%
weakish,
and I just hope that everyone else did well enough to reflect the hard work
we
do throughout the year.
Michele
Liya Barak wrote:
| | **** ETNI on the web http://www.etni.org.il http://www.etni.org ****
Finally the histery is over, and we can return back to normal teaching!
|
Did
| | I say" normal"? and what about the "wasted" months which were dedicated
solly to preparing for the "MEIZAV"? Wake up teachers! What have we been
doing for the last months? We have been cheating ourselves. What did we
want to prove? That we are excellent teachers, that our schools are
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reaching
| | results that are far above the norms, that we are cooperating with the
system. Unfortunately, it happens to be, the same system we are opposing,
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or
| | actually, yearning to improve... We're doing that by feeding it with
distorted data. On the one hand, we witness in our soul and blood, that
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we
| | are in desperate need for assistance, for adjusting material to different
population etc. On the other hand - when THE DAY comes - we exempt our
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weak
| | pupils from doing the test (without warning them. I've met some real
frustrated kids who don't understand why they were not allowed to attend
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the
| | test, .One of them told me: I'm probably "mefager"... In other cases,
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pupils
| | reported that the teachers actually "helped" them find the answers. In
other cases pupils were simply told to stay at home... They didn't even
have to fake an excuse. )What does all this tell about US? What message
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are
| | we teaching our pupils? A test which is supposed to mirror the state of
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the
| | education, actually mirrors nothing but US!! GOOD SIMHAS and don't forget
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to
| | be update with the class curriculum! Or you'll be punished by the
inspector...
P.S . All this excludes, by definition ,some Zadikim in Sedom...LIYA:
<et-@freelists.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 8:09 PM
Subject: [etni] 5th grade Meitzav test
| | **** ETNI on the web http://www.etni.org.il http://www.etni.org ****
Thanks so much to Renee for her professional and careful comments about
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the
| | test yesterday. I too felt so badly for the kids that were trying to
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|
hard
| | to
| | figure out what was being asked of them. I was able to stop the tape in
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one
| | class and give the kids time to think but the "official" in the other
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class
| | would not allow it and i wasn't there to insist. There was just not
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|
enough
| | | | time for the kids to think and figure out what was being asked of them.
The "weekly newspaper" section was so difficult. I think some students
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would
| | have had difficulty with the same task even if it was in Hebrew. What is
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the
| | point of frustrating the kids and making them feel so inadequate? In my
opinion some of the questions and answers seemed designed to trick them.
To whoever is involved in designing these tests: Please include
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elementary
| | | | school teachers who are currently in the field to help design these
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|
tests
| | in
| | the future.
The only consolation is that we can now get back to teaching normally.
mara
| | Grade 5 - I think that many parts of the test (especially the
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|
|
accessing
| | | | | | information from written texts, otherwise known as reading comp) tried
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to
| | | | assess the benchmarks that should be reached by the END of the
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|
foundation
| | | | level e.g the end of grade 6. More specifically:
Listening 1 was fair; even easy.
Listening 2 was more difficult, but doable if the teacher was allowed
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|
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to
| | | | | | stop the tape while the pupils marked each answer, in order to give
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|
|
the
| | | | kids
| | time to think (and we DO want them to think, don't we?)
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##### To send a message to the ETNI list email: et-@freelists.org
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| | ##### Send queries and questions to: as-@etni.org #####
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------------------------------
From: "Ask Etni" <as-@etni.org>
Subject: [etni] Fw: Unseen Practice
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 11:49:57 +0200
----- Original Message -----
From: "adriana raviv" <adriana-@hotmail.com>
Subject: Unseen Practice
I hope these unseens will save my colleagues some work.
www.etni.org.il/elementary/teachers/zipora/animalemotions6.doc
www.etni.org.il/elementary/teachers/zipora/israelprize12.doc
or
www.etni.org/elementary/teachers/zipora/animalemotions6.doc
www.etni.org/elementary/teachers/zipora/israelprize12.doc
Zipora Raviv - Haifa
------------------------------
From: "Ask Etni" <as-@etni.org>
Subject: [etni] Fw: A Font to Simulate the Dyslexic experience
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 14:01:06 +0200
----- Original Message -----
From: <bsha-@research.haifa.ac.il>
Subject: A Font to Simulate the Dyslexic experience
Dear Barry and everyone,
I mailed this reply a few days ago but I did not see it appear on the e-mail
list. I'm resending it now, hoping it will arrive this time.
Best regards to all,
jade
-------------------------------------------------
Dear Barry,
As far as I am aware, there is no commercial font that attempts to reproduce
what “the” dyslexic experience might be.
I think this is largely due to the reason behind font designs, which are
intended to produce a certain stylistic effect while maintaining
communicability. A commercial font designer would not normally design a font
for the stated purpose of making text obscure and to cause meaning to break
down.
But, even for the sake of argument, such a distorting font would exist, it
would not be very useful for demonstrating ”the dyslexic experience.” For
many visual dyslexics, the problem is less that the type appears distorted
than that letters may appear in inverse order at the beginning, middle,
and/or end of words, or that letters seem to disappear, particularly in
suffixes at the ends of words.
I think that the samples to which you refer as having seen around may be
amongst those I’ve created for my own presentations. Perhaps these are
samples others have created for similar purposes, although perhaps they were
produced under under different conditions,
I have found out, unfortunately, that sometimes people duplicate samples
used in my seminar presentations to show these to other parents and
teachers. The problem is NOT the duplication, but the dearth of sufficient
explanation and qualification.
In the absence of a general presentation, these samples become
over-generalized. That is, they are handled as if they clearly demonstrate
what “the” dyslexic experience is. Teachers and parents misunderstand these
as insights to all dyslexic readers.Therefore, if they can “solve” how to
handle the printout samples, they think they can “solve” dyslexic reading
difficulties. This is not because these teachers and parents are not very
smart. But it is greatly caused by their motivations: they care so darn much
that despite their depressing salaries and working conditions, they remain
overwhelmingly determined to help their weak learners. They are willing to
grasp at whatever they can that they think might help.
By way of analogy, we can look at our experiences as parents. When a parent
has a sick child with a complicated illness and someone says, they know what
that illness is and how to cure it based on a single sample of someone’s
else’s illness, a parent desperate enough might listen. But the advice being
given to that parent is not really scientifically based, is it?
Perhaps some background information may be in order. I make the samples that
I use with the help of my husband. As I read a text, I work very hard to
copy exactly how things look as I see them while reading. I then type up the
text. My husband uses a computer generated program that handles each letter
in the text as a separate piece of art. Each letter can be flipped,
stretched, moved, etc. He works to convert the typed text into the closest
he can approach to what I drew out to imitate what I am seeing while I am
reading the text.
The result is a static approximation of how things looked to me at that
moment and in that context.
Why do I use so many qualifiers in the last sentence? Well, for one
important reason, a printed sample is only able to give you a static view of
what is actually non- static viewing for visual dyslexics.
For visual dyslexics, two dimensional objects do not stand still. The light
and dark areas appear to shift. This is why a non-dyslexic at one of my
seminars who is looking at a sample sheet that I provide will read, reread
and rescan a single line or word until they have read it all. They can use
this skill of rereading to parse and review the text because they have a
printed page. With a printed page each rereading will look the same for
them. This can make it fairly easy and fast to figure the text out. But this
aspect of the experience of reading is dynamically different than that
experienced by visual dyslexics.
When a visual dyslexic reads a text, the way a word appears will be shaped
by the context.
The length of the “saccade” (jump that the eye makes across the page) and
where it lands will affect the way a word looks. Depending on where the word
appears along the course of a saccade, a short word may be “erased” or a
longer word might “collapse,” losing the suffixes that indicate number
inflection, verb tense inflection, and grammatical form (noun, verb, adverb,
etc.)
Of course, if we isolate a word or a short phrase (on a flash card for
example, or in a word list with space between lines on the list), the
saccade will start and end in more or less the exact same place and so we
will end up with that type looking the same each time if we reread the
single word in isolation. This is why flash cards can be very useful in
building up knowledge of the word form the learner is REACHING for and
trying to decipher when they see that same word or phrase in a more jumbled
way within a line of text. This is analogous to having a general category
of “table” in your head. When you see something that is a surface with legs
and space under it where a person’s legs could go, you might recognize it as
a table, although at first, a little child might not recognize a round table
with a single leg to the degree that they would recognize a square or
rectangular table and see it as a table. What would happen, however, if the
object appeared as a disk suspended from the ceiling? Or if that disk had
Lucite legs that were invisible at first glance? It is conceivable to
construct a “table” of this kind. If it could be seen in context (with
people sitting around it, perhaps with plates and silverware set out upon
it, etc.) then even that trendy object could be understood as fulfilling the
functions of “a table.” So when we are teaching visual dyslexics, we are
teaching them to hunt out elements within the word and to recognize that
word in context
A visual dyslexic has to be aware that what they will actually see will be
optically distorted by the general context (where it falls in the saccade)
and yet may be recognized for all its parts when it is recognized as that
word within the meaning of its context.
As a visual dyslexic scans a page, the type moves and distorts in the way
that particular reader’s brain distorts the two-dimensional input.
Visual dyslexics vary in the kinds of distortions their brains do to two
dimensional visual input.
The samples I produce are a limited vision into what I see, not what “the”
dyslexic experience would be.
Anyone who is passing around samples mine, or any others, and claiming that
these are demonstrating what “the dyslexic experience is” is about as
accurate as if they gave a blurry text and said that all people with ocular
problems of any kind always see “like this”.
Dyslexics do not have problems with their eyes. The problems of reading
behavior lies somewhere in their brains or in the nerve connections between
eyes or ears and the brain, etc. This already opens up a range of
variations. On top of this, brains are complicated things with a range of
neurological areas that deal with the processing and production of object
representation, symbolic meaning, listening, reading, writing, and speech.
While the range of distortions that manifest as reading problems can be
categorized, they cannot be reduced to a sample.
The use of a sample can only be to help develop some appreciation of the
kinds of difficulties a visual dyslexic undergoes. But the uses of such
samples are extremely limited and should not become emblematic. Moreover, I
would hesitate for a non-dyslexic to create such samples without having the
input of some dyslexic readers. This is, unfortunately, what is sometimes
done in some programs and this may be another cause for such
over-generalizations.
Different fonts, and font sizes and space between lines as I demonstrate in
my presentations, can also aid or hinder reading.
Although a lot of readers “enjoy” sans-serif fonts (like Futura, Arial,
Helvetica), my own experiments with dyslexic readers have shown me that the
majority of them (but again, not all of them) can differentiate letters more
accurately in a serif face. Those little lines on the ends of the letters
help them to differentiate between different letters. (This is, by the way,
why real published books meant for reading use serif faces like Times
Roman.) Serif faces may not be as “fun” as other fonts,
we might see them as mundane and as everyday as newspaper print and
typewriter type. But they are less ambiguous than sans-serif typefaces.
Certain type sizes in certain fonts can usually enhance the reading of a
text while others that are inordinately large or small can make parsing that
much more difficult.
Moreover, reading black or dark blue type on a white or light cream
background is much easier to parse than trying to read white type on a dark
background, or than type cut into bits scattered like confetti pieces across
a page or than type that is run on top of photographs and drawings where
different visual input elements merge with one another.
This is why putting text up on a computer screen can be helpful particularly
if the learner can change the text size, font, color, background to make it
easier for them to disambiguate what it there.
At this point, and with the current budgets we face, the likelihood of all
our learners having access to computers and computer generated type, is NOT
very high.
This is a major factor in our more economically depressed areas because
while there is not a correlation between economics and inherited forms of
dyslexia,
there does exist a correlation between acquired developmental dyslexia and
poverty. The chances for minor forms of brain damage occurring are greater
when the mother does not get proper nutrition and health care, and when
babies are born with low birth weight or do not receive proper health care
during the first months of development. These mild forms of brain damage may
be otherwise unnoticeable in infant behavior until language development
problems become apparent. They may not become apparent until the parts of
brain and connections to the brain that are anywhere involved in the very
complex process of symbol decoding in reading and writing are suddenly
demanded to take up these tasks. They may not even become apparent until the
learner finds that they can no longer compensate with their oral knowledge
of their L1 to handle problems they have in perceiving, translating, and
producing signs when they are confronted with these tasks under the
constraints of learning a foreign language.
Because there are too few schools with sufficient computer based
technologies available for the general mass of the population, (and anyone
who dares to challenge this is simply not in step with the sometimes
appallingly impoverished conditions of many of our schools) we end up
returning to the more easily acquired and
produced textbooks.
So we would think that awareness of font, font size, layout, and other
factors would be readily applied to printed textbooks.
Nevertheless. there is a strange insistence on the use of round, sans-serif
fonts in many printed EFL textbooks. These may look more “fun” and
“friendly” or give a “designer feel.” But because the letters look so much
like one another (all circles or ovals and sticks), it is that much harder
for a visual dyslexic to differentiate what the letter is supposed to be -
particularly if their visual dyslexia involves the inversion of individual
letter forms (such that what looks like a “p” might be a “b” or a “d” or a
“q”). In a sans-serif type, more confusion arises because the thing that
looks like a “p” might also really be an “a”, for example, or perhaps even a
“g” or an “h”.
And so “the dyslexic experience” of reading the same text when it is typed
in different fonts and font sizes and backgrounds would be different even if
the same readers were involved. Reading the same text with different fonts
to check for readability would yield prejudiced results because of the
difference of what I call
“local accumulated background knowledge.” Try reading a text in a language
that is a foreign language for you three times. Even if the three samples
were typed in different typefonts, after you have already parsed it or most
of it in the previous two readings, you would find that you are predicting
the upcoming words because you are, at least temporarily, memorizing the
text through “rehearsal” in short term memory.
Repeated readings do not necessary make reading more accurate, since if a
foreign language learner, (and particularly a dyslexic foreign language
learner) is not trained to monitor his or her own reading, that learner
might simply impose the first mistaken interpretation upon each subsequent
reading, overlooking available clues existing out there in the text because
of an unconscious desire to escape difficulty by simply using what they
think is useful “local accumulated background knowledge.”
Having said all of that, it is important to remember that most dyslexics
whom we encounter in our classrooms are NOT visual dyslexics but audio
dyslexics.
Audio dyslexics are people who have trouble remembering sounds in sequence.
This manifests in what seems like a similar reading problems to visual
dyslexics, when they read out loud and also in silent reading where they
must differentiate between words that are similar in form but which have
different phonetic meanings (ie: pin and pen, ship and sheep, sheep and
sheet, sheep and sleet, sleet and slate, pin and bin, etc. ).
The problem for audio dyslexics is different because, unlike visual
dyslexics, the problem is NOT due to a learner’s brain causing that learner
to SEE things in a distorted way. Rather, it is hard for them to remember
what SOUNDS GO WITH what letter or letter combination. If phonetics and
rule governed spelling are not very explicitly taught or when engagement
with phonetics and rule-governed spelling is abandoned after the first year
or few years of language learning, these audio-dyslexics never really grasp
sound correspondence with single letters, blends (like the “th” in “thigh”
and the “th” in “the”) or combinations (like “ight” or the variations of
“ough”).
How could we demonstrate the experience of the majority of dyslexics, who
are audio dyslexics, by creating a print out of visually distorted text?
How could we even create a sample showing visual distortions and claim this
is the experience of all visual dyslexics?
Barry, help me on this one. I know that you are a very dedicated educator
yourself and I’d like to help you. Perhaps you can clarify the purpose of
why you are looking for such a font. Maybe this purpose can be fulfilled in
another methodological way?
My very best regards to you,
: )
jade
Barry wrote:
| | You have probably seen articles or workshops on dyslexia where you get a
|
passage in mixed up writing.
| | Does anyone know how to get a font that produces writing like this?
|
------------------------------
From: "Ask Etni" <as-@etni.org>
Subject: [etni] new ETNI poll
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 16:50:13 +0200
Hi All,
We have set up a new poll format on ETNI.
Each poll will now consist of a poll tool and a bulletin board where you can
write your comments about the poll topic.
The links to the poll and bulletin board are on the ETNI front page:
www.etni.org.il or www.etni.org
When you vote on the poll, you are also asked to choose a grouping,
according to the number of years of teaching experience you have. The poll
results are then listed collectively and according to each grouping.
The present poll is -
- Should we do away with testing "Extensive Reading" in the EFL classrom
( i.e. - no more book reports) -
------------------------------
From: "Ask Etni" <as-@etni.org>
Subject: [etni] Fw: Hanuukah activities
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 18:41:38 +0200
----- Original Message -----
From: "Liya Barak" <lia-@netvision.net.il>
Subject: Re: Hanuukah activities
I would appreciate your help in finding materials for non-readers on
Hannukah.
Thanks, LIYA
------------------------------
From: "Abigail&Ynon" <abiga-@bezeqint.net>
Subject: [etni] S-O-S teacher needed
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 17:25:43 +0200
Hashmonaim High-School is looking for an english teacher to teach 9th-12th
grade for a period of 3 months (january-march).
The kids are great, the school is very nice and the staff is extremely
friendly.
If you're interested, please call 052-625474 (Abigail) or 03-5061222 (the
school).
All the best, Abigail.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 19:06:36 +0200
From: Steiner Family <stei-@netvision.net.il>
Subject: [etni] Re: this winter's 4 points
Noel asked:
Does a "nivchan mishne" student who retakes the bagrut after the army,
have to do the oral exam ?
Judy answers: nivchan mishne" does NOT take the oral exam.
And just to make sure, he would take the old format, right ?
Judy answers: If he is being tested this summer, the YES.
thanks,
Noel
##### To send a message to the ETNI list email: et-@freelists.org
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##### Send queries and questions to: as-@etni.org #####
------------------------------
From: "Ask Etni" <as-@etni.org>
Subject: [etni] Fw: re: How many modules?
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 19:28:46 +0200
----- Original Message -----
From: Steiner Family stei-@netvision.net.il
To: as-@etni.org
Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 7:10 PM
Subject: Re: How many modules?
Oded asked:
How many modules can an examinee take in one day?
Judy' answer:
Please read the NBA Handbook!
Thanks,
Oded- Bosmat High School.
------------------------------
From: "Ask Etni" <as-@etni.org>
Subject: [etni] Fw: Are Projects a prerequisite
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 19:51:47 +0200
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ahmad Amer" <say-@bezeqint.net>
To: <as-@etni.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 7:28 PM
Subject: Are Projects a prerequisite
Shalom,
Can pupils sit for module C (or D, E ,F) before submitting his/her project?
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 07:30:25 +0200
From: Linda Levy <lind-@netvision.net.il>
Subject: [etni] Looking for a teacher
Mevuot Iron High School near Hadera is looking for a teacher for 9 hours
from Hannuka until the end of the year.If you are interested
Please phone: School: 04 - 6377720 or Linda Levy (co-ordinator) 04-6372091
Thanks.
Linda
------------------------------
From: "Ask Etni" <as-@etni.org>
Subject: [etni] Trilingual program opens doors to Bedouin youth
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 08:36:33 +0200
Trilingual program 'opens doors' to Bedouin youth
Haaretz - Dec. 12, 2003
(The following are excerpts from the article. To read the whole article, go
to www.etni.org.il/news/bedouinyouth.htm or
www.etni.org/news/bedouinyouth.htm )
Classrooms full of 10th-grade Bedouin students in the Negev have begun
reading advertisements, writing jokes and analyzing their horoscopes - in
Arabic, Hebrew and English. This unusual phenomenon is the result of a new
literacy program that aims to bridge the educational gap between Bedouin
high-school students and their Jewish peers.
"This program can improve the level of Bedouin literacy and that can only
benefit Bedouin society and Israeli society in the long run," says South
African-born Caroline Goldfus, who specializes in language acquisition and
learning disabilities, and helped launch the program a year ago . . . . . .
. . . . . .
The literacy program was also initiated by Rachel Tal, inspector for
English-language education in the Amal technical school network; Sara
Hauptman, chair of the Department of Hebrew Literature in Achva College; and
Fuaz Mansour, a lecturer in Arabic at Tel Aviv University. The team's goal:
to develop a comprehensive educational model that involves teaching three
languages simultaneously . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Goldfus urges the Bedouin educators that she teaches once a week to find
common strategies when teaching the three languages, because "the thought
pattern is the same, only the language root changes." . . . . . . . . . . .
. . .
As part of the literacy program, 10th-grade Bedouin - who lag about three
years behind their Jewish peers in language skills - read identical passages
in three languages, each with a different level of sophistication. In the
horoscope lesson, for example, each paragraph is almost identical in
content, but the Arabic is at a more advanced level than the English.
Goldfus: "If you learn one language at a time, then your brain processes one
language. But if you learn three languages at a time, you train your thought
and cognitive processes to become familiar with elements common to all
languages."
------------------------------
End of etni Digest V1 #129
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