T3W5: Feedback in graph drawing

While I was co-teaching with a colleague during a Practical Session, I was not very satisfied with the way the students were drawing their graphs. Although they have been reminded before to draw graphs 'which occupy more than half of the graph paper', many were still drawing small graphs which will definitely not meet the O-Levels standards.

After consulting with my colleague, we decided to do another session on graph drawing. I was determined that that will be the last session that I will spend on graphs with the class and they must draw 'acceptable graphs' from that point onwards. I was aware that perhaps, I was not being very clear during the previous lessons that I spent on graph-drawing. I look through their previous work and came up with a list on the 'possible crimes' that are committed in graph-drawing.

Common mistakes in graph-drawing:
1) AXES: incorrect labeling of physical quantity and unit, labeling of the wrong axes (students labeled the vertical axes as the horizontal axes and vice versa).

2) SCALE: not labeling the scale for every 2 cm on the scale, using inappropriate scale, vertical distance from maximum to minumum y-coordinate not occupying at least 12 cm, horizontal distance from maximum to minimum x-coordinate not occupying at least 10 cm.

3) POINTS: points incorrectly plotted, not using crosses while plotting points.

4) LINE: not drawing of best fit line

During the lesson, a worksheet was given which highlighted the common mistakes made. Special attention was given as to how to use an appropriate scale, how to measure the vetial and horizontal distances from the maximum to the minimum point and what it means by a best fit line. Samples of students work was shown to highlight the common mistakes made so students are aware of them all.

At the end of the lesson, the students were tasked to draw a graph, given the data points. Their work was collected and marked. To ensure that there is a progress in their learning, verbal feedback was given during the lesson and written feedback was given in the marked assignments. The following shows the samples of 3 different students work and the feedback that was given in each piece of assignment.

The first on the right shows a 'Good' piece of work. Marks are given based on 4 points: A (Axis), S (Scale), P (points) and L (line).

The second and third below shows an 'Aceptable' in which the student scores 2 out of 4. The third piece of work shows one which requires 'improvement.' In this case, the student scores 1 out of 4 marks. The mistakes for the second and the third case is shown in the paper as a form of writen feedback for students.