It’s Day 6 of the AP Physics reading. I’ve been grading physics 1 problem 4 (the
paragraph about projectiles) and physics 1 problem 2 (the experimental circuit
question). Both questions require me to
read through a lot of student writing.
I don’t mind reading paragraphs. How students communicate in words and
sentences says a lot about their physics knowledge. I am more comfortable than ever this year
that we are awarding points for good physics understanding rather than simply
for performing mathematical tasks.
As the reading drags on, though, I’m becoming increasingly
frustrated with walls of text full of sound and fury, yet signifying
nothing. Why would you repeat the
question’s prompt at me four times? Do
you think I’ll give up and award credit the fourth time? Why do you think it’s important to tell me
how carefully you set up your experiment?
Why must you go on and on about the negligibility of air resistance, or
how this experiment isn’t really going to work, actually? Please, please, students, just get to the
point.
But teachers, these long-arse essays devoid of meaning are
our fault, too. Somewhere in their
physics classes, too many students have been earning credit for verbal diarrhea. It’s our job to stop the madness.
Next time you grade a text, just stop reading when it’s
apparent that the student has no clue what he’s talking about, but is hoping to
throw enough words at you to earn a few points.
Then when the student comes to you to indicate the one word that might
possibly have earned a point based on the rubric, be firm. It’s the student’s job to be clear, not your
job to give him the benefit of the doubt.
It’s the student’s burden to show you that he knows the physics, not
your burden to make assumptions. If you
can’t interpret a response clearly on first reading, the student has not been
clear enough – and so should lose credit. No pity, no remorse, no exceptions.
Furthermore, what is the student doing asking you to
re-interpret his test, anyway? Unless
you failed to read a page or something obvious like that, just refuse. I have been grading AP exams for 16 years,
and I have yet to see a student coming to me along with his test to clarify
what he really meant. So if I might have
misinterpreted a student’s test response at the cost of one or two points,
tough. He’ll probably be clearer next
time.
Please, for the sanity of all the 310 AP physics readers,
teach your students to write concisely. I
will be happy to help you out if you need backup in defending your grading to
your students – please email me. Perhaps
I ought to inflict a week of essay grading upon those teachers who still give
credit for baloney…
I'm in complete agreement—I get very tired of students who try to BS their way through engineering design reports. I don't mind length (I like to get lots of details and explanations of design decisions), but I hate it when students try to hide their lack of knowledge behind repetition, mis-used jargon, and general BS. I'd much rather a student said "I didn't know how to calculate X, so I copied the parameter value from student Y, so that I could continue with the rest of the assignment" than throw up walls of BS.
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