It's been said that George Lucas is a not an "actor's director". His only directions during the filming of Star Wars were allegedly "Faster" and "With more intensity". He has been accused of "making" his movies in the editing room by cutting together miles of footage to get a franken-movie.
My long-term sub AP students took a test last week Tuesday. I returned the tests today, explained my procedure for grading the essay, and was met with pleas to allow them to "argue" the multiple-choice questions.
I don't get this arguing a question thing.
I mean I know what's going on, and what the students' hope for, but why would a teacher do this? Besides trying to draft the good arguers for debate, of course.
Multiple choice questions have very simple directions "Choose the best answer." It's not too hard. It means only one answer (absent the A and B, but not C type) is correct.
I allowed two girls to stick around to look over their tests after school and the result bordered on the surreal.
One question:
After the 1850s, women and men were able to work together in
A. factories
B. the sweated industry (think small-scale, "cottage industry" here)
C. mines
D. small-retail shops
E. white-collar jobs
Women, children, fathers (whole families really) had previously worked in the factory-mills, but due to various factors did not after the 1850s. Poor rural families, men included, had once worked together in the sweated industry, but men had ceased to do so once factory jobs became available. And women had, to my knowledge, never worked in mines. Women most certainly did not work white-collar jobs in the 19th century.
The only viable option was D.
One girl tried to argue that men were "able" to work in the sweated industry (whether they actually did or did not during the time in question was apparently irrelevant) and I should accept that option as well. I responded that since she was going to hinge her answer on "ability" then technically all should apply since the theoretical ability for men and women to do all exists.
She didn't seem to realize that she was departing objective, verifiable fact for what "could be".
Citing the textbook and the directions to "choose the best answer" were fruitless. Eventually, I said I could only accept D.
She then argued that the question was poorly phrased.
She also tried to argue that I should accept "developed social conscience" as the correct answer to the statement "During the Industrial Revolution, the upper middle class..." (correct answer: merged with the old aristocracy).
She had assumed it was "social consciousness" and hadn't bothered to seek clarification.
"Social consciousness" may have been an acceptable answer, but then that's making some assumptions (projecting if you will) how upper-middle class people felt about their new-found wealth. And anyway - it wasn't an option.
As we were wrapping up, I mentioned that the College Board is not going to invite her in to explain the reasoning behind her answers on the multiple-choice portion of the A.P. European History test.
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Wondering about the tie-in to the George Lucas intro? The girl had an ok score, but was trying to "make her A" in the cutting room.
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