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Post by Otaku on Oct 29, 2008 9:06:41 GMT 8
The following incident kinda grinds on me and I can't figure out why...
Yesterday, was midterms at my school. The students got their tests back today and one 2nd grade student would have gotten 100% on her English mid-term but she made a simple mistake, which in my mind was questionable.
The activity was a listening activity. The students had to listen to a story about a student's homestay in Canada and answer questions about the story. Evidentally, they were supposed to write their one-word answers in Japanese. However, the student chose to write the answers in English. The teacher marked her wrong. Essentially, she was marked wrong because she wrote the answers in English instead of Japanese.
Now, I understand that part of test taking is being able to read and understand the instructions. However, the answers were 'fishing', 'science', and 'English'. I don't even know why they were instructed to write those words in Japanese to begin with. If anything, I think the teacher should have told the students that Japanese or English is okay.
If I was the student I would be confused and disheartened as to why I was marked wrong for writing English on an English test.
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Post by junkdna on Oct 29, 2008 10:51:44 GMT 8
dude, that is wrong beyond words and yet, you have to shrug and say 'well, she WAS told to write in japanese'. =P frankly, as the teacher i would have given the student extra credit. if i were you, i would seek out that student and tell her YOU think she did a GREAT job.
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Post by dickflem on Oct 29, 2008 11:14:54 GMT 8
That does seem unfair to the student. It seems as though it would be more difficult to answer correctly in English, yet they were penalised.
Did you ask the teacher about it?
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Post by Otaku on Oct 29, 2008 11:31:58 GMT 8
No, I didn't ask the teacher about it because I have a lot of problems with her teaching.
1. She uses predominantly Japanese in class. And, she'll turn to me after a long rant in Japanese and ask me a question in Japanese. Every time, I tell her I don't understand Japanese. I having been thinking she would eventually pick up on the subtle hints I'm throwing her but it doesn't seem to be working. She's been teaching for 16 years and I think she's now on auto-pilot.
2. She uses katakana-English, despite her knowing proper English pronunciation.
3. The bi-lingual student in the class got an 87% on the English test. To me, this is a warning sign that something else is amiss.
4. She follows the textbook pretty rigidly. I have a big problem with any teacher who uses the textbook as a bible.
I got many problems with this teacher, so I want to pick my confrontations wisely.
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Post by junkdna on Oct 29, 2008 13:12:44 GMT 8
bummer. sounds like she should be in our camp is she is that relatively young, but you are right, she has probably gone glassy-eyed on teaching.
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Post by jed on Oct 29, 2008 13:42:33 GMT 8
yes, that doesn't sound very good. At least give her half a mark as she was hardly wrong!, she understood the meaning/answer that does seem over the top
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Post by redpanda on Nov 26, 2008 20:59:46 GMT 8
3. The bi-lingual student in the class got an 87% on the English test. To me, this is a warning sign that something else is amiss. I'm from the U.S. and GPA (grade point average) was always a big deal. What about in Japan? Does that 87% mean anything? For example, getting in or not getting into their university of choice?
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Post by junkdna on Nov 28, 2008 8:01:17 GMT 8
In essense, GPAs mean nothing here. They probably have bearing on if you get bumped from the list of candidates who pass the entrance exam, but other than that, grades are a passing thought in Japan. They are more interested in making sure the students' hair isn't blonde than the students' grades.
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Post by Otaku on Nov 28, 2008 9:44:38 GMT 8
I think this thread may be touching on two different topics: JHS grades and university entrance exams and how they correlate with HS GPAs.
I teach in JHS. In JHS, grades don't matter because students are passed to the next grade whether they fail one or all of their subjects. I can't find any motivation for the students to study hard except for the usual mind-numbing: "It is important for me to study."
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Post by junkdna on Nov 28, 2008 12:19:49 GMT 8
BIngooooooooooo!
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Post by rollypop on Dec 1, 2008 13:52:27 GMT 8
JHS grades do have a bearing on whether a student will get into a selective high school. I was told it was based on test, grades, and an interview -- at least for the schools my kids last year were applying to.
When I was writing up grades for a class I was teaching, I was asked by one of the teachers to please not give the kids Cs in the discipline column or in the final grade. Fortunately, it wasn`t a problem, but...
Year by year, no, grades don`t matter. Seriously, what is motivating these kids?
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Post by Otaku on Dec 1, 2008 14:23:11 GMT 8
This is how the system works: (explained to me by a JTE)
Before taking the HS entrance exam, a student must submit to the school of their choice all 3 years of their JHS grades, keeping in mind that the 3rd year is the most important of all three years. If they have good grades, the score on the HS entrance exam is not that important. However, if they have bad JHS grades, the entrance exam score is really important.
Now, how is 'important' defined? ...that's where the bimyoness of the whole situation comes into play that nobody has been able to explain to me.
While JHS grades do factor somewhat, I would dare say they are not the factor that gets you into the HS of your choice; that would be decided upon by the HS entrance exam.
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Post by junkdna on Dec 2, 2008 8:08:16 GMT 8
Well, what is says is this: the system is willing to try to take students in at any cost, because, if they had to rely on real grades, very few would be going to high school.
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