1. The Literature Program 2016

2. Incredible work done by:
Names of the Steering Committee (alphabetical order):
Marsha Hachmon
Dr. Miriam Kluska
Tziona Levy
Dr. Debbie Lifschitz
Dr. Shoshana Plavin
Dr. Judy Steiner
Debby Toperoff
Dr. Avi Tsur
Special Thanks to:
Adele Raemer
Judie Segal

3. The Literature Program
The program is based on innovative Ministry of Education policy to teach and assess higher-order thinking skills (HOTS).
The program is in response to teacher feedback concerning the assessment in the current Bagrut program.

4. The Literature Program
The literature program is school-based assessment.
Students will be assessed via one of three options:
Revised Logs
An internal exam
A school-based initiative
Three-point students will only be assessed via Revised Logs.

5. Rationale for the Literature Program
Allow students to achieve the benchmarks for the domain of Appreciation of Literature and Culture.
Ensure that literature is given due emphasis in the teaching of English.
Promote reading, enjoying, and appreciating literature.
Facilitate the interpretation and analysis of pieces of literature by integrating higher-order thinking skills with the teaching of literature.
Raise students’ awareness of the interrelationship between language, literature, and culture.
Provide opportunities for students to apply higher-order thinking skills in other domains as well as to their own lives.

6. Lower-Order Thinking Skills (LOTS)
Lower-order thinking skills are used to understand the basic story line or literal meaning of a story, play, or poem.
This includes:
-wh questions
teaching relevant lexical items
relating to grammatical structures when relevant

7. Key Words for LOTS Questions
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Do you know…?
Can you identify…?
Name….
List……

8. After the LOTS…….
Once a student has mastered the basic understanding of a text, s/he is ready to move on to the next level which involves using that information in some way.
This entails applying higher-order thinking skills, known as HOTS.

9. Higher-order Thinking Skills (HOTS)
Higher-order thinking requires students to manipulate information and ideas in ways that transform their meaning and implications.

10. HOTS for Analyzing Literary Texts
Predicting
Inferring
Sequencing
Identifying parts and whole
Classifying
Comparing and contrasting
Explaining patterns
Evaluating
Explaining cause and effect
Distinguishing different perspectives
Problem solving
Uncovering motives
Generating possibilities
Synthesizing
Making connections

11. Why Teach HOTS? What does the research say?
These skills are necessary in our rapidly changing, technologically-oriented world.
Although many people once believed that we are born either with or without creative and critical thinking abilities, research has shown that these skills are teachable and learnable.
Many students lack well-developed thinking skills.
Student performance has been shown to improve as a result of both direct teaching and inferential learning of thinking skills.
Training teachers to teach thinking skills is associated with gains in student achievement.

12. Two Facets to the Program
The first facet is the explicit teaching of targeted HOTS and their application to the literary text studied and the students’ lives and other areas of learning.
The second facet is teaching literature according to Key Components, which include tasks that require higher-order thinking.

13. The Key Components Pre-Reading Activity Basic Understanding
Analysis and Interpretation
Bridging Text and Context
Post-Reading Activity
Summative Assessment

14. The Revised Log
The Revised Log provides evidence of students' learning.
The Revised Log enables students to gain insights into the application of diverse strategies that can be used to analyze literature.
The Revised Log also shows how students become increasingly and actively involved in the process of learning both thinking skills and literature.

15. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How can we ensure the reliability of the marking of the Revised Log?
The following can be found on the TLC site:
Rubrics for marking the Post-reading graded component
Rubrics for marking the Bridging Text and Context graded component
Rubrics for marking Summative Assessment
Calculation of the final grade for the literature program

16. FAQs (continued)
What are the differences between the three, four and the five-point literature programs?
Three-Point program
Four-Point Program
Five-Point Program
Number of literary texts studied
3 texts
two short stories
one poem
6 texts
three short stories
three poems
one play or novel
two poems
Assessment Criteria
Content 100%
Content 90%
Language 10%
Content 80%
Language 20%

17. Good teachers see themselves as accountable to transform their students through their learning.

18. For more information…
Subscribe to the English Inspectorate site:
TLC – Thinking Literature and Culture
Be in touch with your regional literature counselor.