I’m not suprised the kids are cheating…
Date posted: 05-02-10
Well I’m not. I’ve thought for too long now that the exams are more a test of memory, than of an understanding of analysing and writing about a text.
My pupils spend a whole year going through the text, often developing good arguments and reaching an impressive level of understanding and analysis in class, only to revise by reciting quotes and hoping for a question on the sysmbolism of Piggy’s glasses or whether Hamlet is a flawed hero. When they get these they merely list the quotes they’ve remembered and rewrite an answer they’ve already practised.
It’s getting harder to justify how English will help them in future life when it is becoming a competition in who has the best ability to remember things; rather than something that encourages them to interrogate something they’ve read, question it, form and argument and use evidence from the text to back up their argument.
But hey, i’m only an English teacher so what do I know?
February 19th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
[...] Despite the changes on the surface of teaching, what we do is still essentially the same as what our own teachers did. We face different challenges but we have more people and machines to help us deal with them. Even though we’re under more and more pressure to hit targets and tick boxes, the best teachers will still do what they have always done – inspiring students to actually become interested in a subject rather than just getting them through exams. [...]