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a) Which of the following are arguments in favour of exams and which arguments are against?
1) It is generally maintained that exams encourage students to try harder.
2) On the other hand, sitting in exam conditions to take written tests in a subject makes children stressed.
3) Furthermore, the teacher’s assessment of the pupil’s performance in a subject (the exam results) might not be objective.
4) What is more, the exam system has also received criticism for failing to distinguish between bright students and the very brightest.
5) Moreover, There are simply too many exams / tasks in the test.
6) One argument against exams is that in recent years, educationalists blame the English exams system for “failing” the many young people who leave school at 16, lacking the qualifications needed for the modern world of work.
b) Replace the phrases in bold with other similar ones from the box of Exercise. Module 1.
c) Match examples / justification a-f to each argument 1-6 above.
a) Exams make everyone try to get the best marks they can. I don’t think I’d bother studying if we didn’t have exams. I use my exam grades to find out whether I am improving in a subject or not.
b) Exam results may depend on how you feel on a particular day. I studied for weeks before my last exam, but on the day itself I was so nervous that I couldn’t remember a thing!/ I wasn’t feeling well on the day of the exam, so I didn’t do well.
c) The boy sitting next to me hadn’t studied at all, but he copied my answers and passed the exam.
d) Universities in particular say it is hard choose high-quality candidates.
e) I write very slowly, so I hardly ever have enough time to finish an exam.
f) SATs, for example, don’t involve a pass or fail. They are just for teachers to complete assessments to provide information about pupils’ progression in the area. Teachers can compare how well each child is doing with their peers, both in their school and across the country. They can also measure how much each child improves from one Key Stage to another. So, it is teachers not children who are more interested in these exams.
b) In pairs discuss the advantages and disadvantages of exams. Use the Essential Strategy Language.
37. Write for and against essay “Is taking exams a good thing?” Write about 200 words.
CHALLENGING STUDENTS TO LEARN
| 38. Listen to the speaker talking aboutcooperative learningand fill in the gaps with no more than three words. |
Cooperative learning gives the children the chance (1) ____.
Alice Miller believes that the teacher’s role has changed and he shouldn’t (2) ___ students with information only. Students can find necessary information in (3) ___, on CD ROMS and on the (4) ___. To Miller’s point of view, cooperative learning is (5) ____ to encourage responsibility, tolerance and helpfulness towards others. In cooperative learning classes teachers require that students should (6) ____ in discussing and shaping their own knowledge.
Arnout Brombacher: Many people are mistaken thinking that cooperative learning is just (7) ____.
Brett Melville: Students are taught (8) ____.
Lynne Gedye, a teacher, started to use cooperative approach (9) ____ ago. Lynne Gedye was amazed by (10) ____.
Read the text about a new teaching method. Seven sentences have been removed from the text. Choose from the sentences A-H the one which fits each gap (1-6). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning (0).
Cooperative kids
A Children do not sit straight rows of desks facing the teacher, but rather face one another to make it easier to share ideas.
B The strong ones coached the weak ones endlessly so that they could participate in the question too.
C However, she believes that this method is not suitable for all pupils.
D Teaching methods have hardly changed in one hundred years.
E She says that good relationships are the key to effective learning.
F Encouraging children to concentrate on getting the best marks destroys motivation and takes the fun out.
G He adds that it might take longer than simply listening to the teacher lecture, but the students remember much more afterwards.
H It recognizes that pupils do not have the skills to work together.
The concept of cooperative learning is aliento all of us who were taught the traditionalway, but it offers our children the adventureof finding their own answers.
If you took a doctor from the 19th century and put her in a modern operating theatre, she would have no idea what to do, but if you put a teacher from the 19th century into a modern classroom she would be able to carry on teaching without pause. D
The idea remains that students are empty containers which the teacher fills with knowledge, and that all students have to do is listen and write.
Education consultant Alice Miller says: "This approach does not work in today’s changing world. We are not teaching creative problem-solving. We encourage competition, believing that this brings out the best in people." But this is not so. (1) _____. She goes on to say that the teacher’s role is no longer to feed students with information. "The facts are available in libraries, on CD ROMS and on the Internet. What students need is the skills to find this information, to use it and to think creatively in order to solve the problems of our world."
Miller believes that cooperative learning is the future of education and thinks of it as the best way to encourage responsibility, tolerance and helpfulness towards others. (2) ____.
In cooperative learning classes, the traditional classroom physical layout is abandoned. (3) ____. Pupils learn to work first in pairs, then in threes, and finally in teams of four. Students are required to participate actively in discussing and shaping their own knowledge. The teacher, who is still very important to the process, becomes the helper rather than the master.
Arnout Brombacher, head of the mathematics department at Westerford High School, says: “The incorrect assumption that many people make about cooperative learning is that it is merely group work. It is much, much more. (4) ____. With this technique, most of the time in the classroom is spent teaching them these skills - life skills.”
Brett Melville, a 17-year-old pupil at the school, agrees. "You learn the same material as you would using the normal method, but this way you learn how to work with others at the same time. In our class, we are given enough time to discuss issues and problems in detail." (5) ____.
One teacher, Lynne Gedye, has been using cooperative learning in her classes for two years. She says, "This year we have several pupils in the class who can hardly speak a word of English. I was tearing my hair out, wondering what to do, but I need not have worried. The children's response was amazing. (6) ____.
All in all, it seems that cooperative learning turns the classroom from a competitive arena into a place where learning facts and life skills are both more fun and more effective for pupils and teachers alike.
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| B) In pairs discuss if you agree with the idea that SATs is a good idea. Use the Essential Strategy Language. | | | B) In the text find four reasons for people taking homeschooling. |