Assessment Instruments

Throughout our lesson plans, we have used a variety of tools to assess student learning. We mostly used formative assessment to assess students during their art-making process, we also used summative assessment tools to assess student learning after their artwork was completed.

Formative Assessment

Sketchbooks: Students showed learning through their sketchbook planning. The images below show evidence of student learning by participating in the art experience of planning, sketching and revising before creating the final work of art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Experimentation: When introduced a new material, students showed learning through exploration. They were given "practice" materials before creating their final artworks. Through exploration, students learned what they can do with the material to create certain effects to add to their artwork. For example, in the image below, this student experimented with adding a lot of water to clay. After experimenting with this, the student used this effect to make meaning in his story. He made up a story about how he would lose his tooth in art class by tripping on a bucket of paint, and he used the slimy clay to represent the spilled paint. This provides evidence for the enduring understanding in lesson 1: Artists use symbol and form to tell their own stories through three-dimensional design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summative Assessments

Student reflective activities: This instrument helps us to assess if students have grasped the main purpose of the project. For example, in our emotion book lesson, the enduring understanding was: Artists draw inspiration from memories and emotions by letting them influence the colors, shapes, and patterns used in their artwork. We had students discuss finish prints by answering these questions: What emotions do you see being conveyed, how do you know? What do you think is going on in the print? Student reflective responses help us assess their overall understanding of the project.

 

Documentation of Learning

Our blog shows student learning through discoveries that they made about materials used. It also shows thought processes behind ideas. For example in our emotion book lesson, a student wanted to convey an emotion of sadness. I asked this student to describe a time when she felt sad and she responded that she was sad when her cat died. The video shows this student drawing her cat and this expresses her thought process behind creating an artwork to convey sadness. This art learning directly correlates with this outcome: After choosing 5 emotions from the list, students will be able to recall times when they felt each emotion by sketching ideas in their sketchbooks. (Remember; reflect; Visual arts provide opportunities to respond to personal works of art and the art of others; Sketchbook planning, Numeracy: Students have to create a minimum of five pages for their books) because she is recalling a time when she felt sad and drawing it.

 

Strengths and Weaknesses of Assessments

Strengths are shown in our formative assessment strategies. Our blog mostly shows student thinking and discoveries during their art-making process. However, there are weaknesses that need to be addressed. In some of our blog documentation, the videos and pictures don't clearly represent the desired outcomes for the lessons. To improve this, I would use language from our outcomes and provide evidence to show, I would also look for evidence during class to take meaningful videos and photos.

Weaknesses are shown in summative assessment instruments. Our reflective activity didn't always correlate to the outcome written in our lesson plans, this resulted in the achievement of learning not clearly being defined and assessed. For example in our story box lesson, the reflective activity used required students to write one word on a sticky note to describe an artwork. This didn't show learning of the desired outcome which was to understand that artists create stories through visual representation. To improve this I would relate the reflective activity to the desired outcome so that assessing students would be more clear. Through observation, students will be able to make connections to the art created by their classmates by matching the story to the artwork and participating in a reflective activity where they will use one word to describe the art. (Distinguish; Transfer; Visual arts relate experiences to self, family, and friends; Art reflection; Literacy: Students will write one word to describe an artwork made by a classmate). Did students use evidence to interpret the artwork of their peers?