Integrates variety of different content and skills
Instills confidence in process and product
Teaches students to see the world differently and use brain in abstract way
Teaches collaboration through ideation and creative process
Highest level of thinking with 21st century skills are the focus rather than memorization
Experience a process rather than read or hear about it
Learning how to communicate visually
Experience choice-based learning where student can actively relate and think for themselves
Assessment is constantly informed in the classroom:
Formative Assessment: happens when circulating classroom to see where each student is at and how skills have been utilized or grown throughout process. Examples of formative assessment in the art room is checking overall understanding in ideation, skills during the building process, gallery walk of in-progress works, or checking in at any other time in the process. This helps the teacher react to the progress of the class and the individual allowing for any accommodations to instruction can be made along the way.
Summative Assessment: is done through the final project, critique, and student reflective activity. Summative assessment helps assess the general understanding of the project, construction, and artist intention.
Performance Assessment:could be done through self-reflection and portfolio review is useful in assessing student thinking and breadth of work. This is helpful because it assess the body of work as opposed to one project, thus if a student struggled or did not do well on one thing, they are not graded strictly on that.
Scoring: can utilize the state standards. All four standards are assessed during the final scoring, therefore the entire process (ideation, construction, creativity, culture, transferrable skills) are evaluated as opposed to only the final product. This also ensures that students are doing projects that include knowing, understanding, and doing.
Accommodations in Assessment: is important as all students work differently. Extensions of time, modifications to the general expectations, and modifications on skill-based grading can be used to grade each student on their level of growth rather than on a bell-curve for the class as a whole.
Assessment as Reflection: can be utilized when scoring is broken down. Students are not simply given an overall score, but are able to see if they are struggling in specific areas (ideation, quality of construction, skill building, concept, etc). Thus, they know exactly what to improve and benefit from specific feedback, making grades relevant not only to the teacher, but to the student as well.
Instruction & Management
In an art classroom, who is the artist: the teacher or the student? There are many instances where the instruction and expectations are too narrow and all of the final works end up looking exactly the same, therefore making the teacher the artist.___
Choice is extremely important in an art room. Depending on the class and level of the students, choice can look like many different things. It can mean leaving assignments to be open-ended, allowing individuals to choose what materials they use, what size the final work will be, or how to demonstrate competency in a skill. Providing choices means providing a challenge to think like an artist, to understand that there is not one answer to a question, but many. From choice comes creativity and the ability to creatively problem solve in different situations. Choice is what leaves the student ultimately feeling like the artist and going through a challenging process to get there. Differentiation in instruction is choice and helps to reach every learner. Each student processes information in a different way, therefore information must be provided in a variety of ways.
For students to maintain interest and motivation, the projects must be relevant and personal. Students are more driven to learn lessons that are relevant to their lives. Making lessons that pertain to the students’ interests and needs will help the students take initiative of their education. Art is one of the few areas that teach many transferable skills that are applicable in other content areas as well as the real world.