Art education is a crucial part of every students’ education from the elementary to the secondary level. Art classes allow students to utilize a unique set of skills not necessarily addressed in other content areas (ie. creative problem solving). Assessment in art education can be tricky; how do you score something that is so subjective? How can you be fair when you have your own philosophy in art? These are just some of the questions that I have had to tackle in my early career as a teacher. I’ve come to the realization that assessment in art classes should help inform instruction and student learning rather than hinder it. Creating and assessing should go hand in hand, and not disrupt the other. Also, students should have an active role in their assessment. Listed below are some methods in which I have utilized in a K-12 art setting.
Portfolios (Digital)
In the classes that I taught at the high school level, students created a digital portfolio through an online platform called ‘Bulb.’ Students document and upload in-progress work of their current artwork, and any thinking/struggles associated with the project. Each project is turned in via Bulb, and by the end of the term, a digital portfolio will be completed. Every Bulb account includes an author page, project pages where students record their initial thoughts about a project, show their progress and/or changes, reflection about the project, and how they can use what they learned in other learning situations. Towards the end of the semester, students will be asked to write a course reflection addressing how the viewed the class as a whole versus one project.
Sketchbook Journals
Throughout the term, students are asked to draw and do some art studies, writing, and research in their sketchbooks; some small daily art lessons are completed in student sketchbooks. Journals are collected on a semi-regular basis just to check on progress. Subject matter and content is very open so students are able to pick and choose what they create. My experience showed me that this is an effective formative assessment at the secondary levels.
Checklists
This can be a useful tool to consider to help specify behaviors, characteristics, and/or processes. I think that this type of tool will be useful in my photography courses, especially as students are just starting to learn how to process film and print in the darkroom. This can help me assess what steps in a procedure students completed correctly, or did not. Checklists have proven themselves to be useful across K-12 students.
Rating Scales
Similar to a checklist, this tool that can be useful to score processes and/or projects. I feel that this is a tool that will be more summative in nature, since it is a bit more inclusive to the entire artistic process. Again, I see this tool being useful in a traditional photography class where students are being scored on how they use their camera to take pictures, how they process film, how well they create a darkroom print, and how well they mounted (or finished) a photograph. This is another tool that has been effective with a wide age range of students.
Critique (In-progress and final)
Either in small or large group situations, critiques have the ability to give insight into how students understands/accomplishes a performance task. This strategy can give a deeper insight to student strengths and weaknesses at any given time; this is why I am fond of the in-progress critique. If students are able to talk about each others’ artwork, I feel that they will find a deeper value in the given feedback versus teacher given feedback through a rubric or score in the gradebook.
Teacher Interviews
This is something that is done often in my art classes; most of the time this is done on a more informal basis. I have found that the value in interviews is that I am able to have a brief conversation with students and be able to specifically address and answer any questions that they may have; and this helps build relationships with students in my classes. I would use this strategy on a more formal level if there was a larger summative project (final if you will) to touch base and see where my students are at a given time for an art project.
Peer Interviews
This is often used as in a critique setting with students in my art classes. Especially with younger art students, this serves as an excellent starting off point on talking about art. I like using this in classes, because it helps alleviate the ‘fear’ of judgement and/or talking in front of an entire class. In most cases, I provide students with a sheet with three or four different questions to ask each other about the quality of an artwork; the worksheets are filled out and turned in for scoring. Again, I see great value in this strategy as it helps ease students into the world of discussing artwork with larger groups.
Self-Assessment
Along with a teacher-scored rubric, I sometimes want to provide students the opportunity to look at a scoring rubric and judge their own artwork based on the given criterion. From my experiences, student scores and teacher scores are generally pretty close to being the same. I feel that students look at the criterion and their artwork and most of the time are honest about their scores. If an instance comes up where the two scores are vastly different, a one-on-one conversation will be held with that student. Ultimately, I think that this assessment tool gives students ownership of how they did on a given assignment.
Portfolios (Digital)
In the classes that I taught at the high school level, students created a digital portfolio through an online platform called ‘Bulb.’ Students document and upload in-progress work of their current artwork, and any thinking/struggles associated with the project. Each project is turned in via Bulb, and by the end of the term, a digital portfolio will be completed. Every Bulb account includes an author page, project pages where students record their initial thoughts about a project, show their progress and/or changes, reflection about the project, and how they can use what they learned in other learning situations. Towards the end of the semester, students will be asked to write a course reflection addressing how the viewed the class as a whole versus one project.
Sketchbook Journals
Throughout the term, students are asked to draw and do some art studies, writing, and research in their sketchbooks; some small daily art lessons are completed in student sketchbooks. Journals are collected on a semi-regular basis just to check on progress. Subject matter and content is very open so students are able to pick and choose what they create. My experience showed me that this is an effective formative assessment at the secondary levels.
Checklists
This can be a useful tool to consider to help specify behaviors, characteristics, and/or processes. I think that this type of tool will be useful in my photography courses, especially as students are just starting to learn how to process film and print in the darkroom. This can help me assess what steps in a procedure students completed correctly, or did not. Checklists have proven themselves to be useful across K-12 students.
Rating Scales
Similar to a checklist, this tool that can be useful to score processes and/or projects. I feel that this is a tool that will be more summative in nature, since it is a bit more inclusive to the entire artistic process. Again, I see this tool being useful in a traditional photography class where students are being scored on how they use their camera to take pictures, how they process film, how well they create a darkroom print, and how well they mounted (or finished) a photograph. This is another tool that has been effective with a wide age range of students.
Critique (In-progress and final)
Either in small or large group situations, critiques have the ability to give insight into how students understands/accomplishes a performance task. This strategy can give a deeper insight to student strengths and weaknesses at any given time; this is why I am fond of the in-progress critique. If students are able to talk about each others’ artwork, I feel that they will find a deeper value in the given feedback versus teacher given feedback through a rubric or score in the gradebook.
Teacher Interviews
This is something that is done often in my art classes; most of the time this is done on a more informal basis. I have found that the value in interviews is that I am able to have a brief conversation with students and be able to specifically address and answer any questions that they may have; and this helps build relationships with students in my classes. I would use this strategy on a more formal level if there was a larger summative project (final if you will) to touch base and see where my students are at a given time for an art project.
Peer Interviews
This is often used as in a critique setting with students in my art classes. Especially with younger art students, this serves as an excellent starting off point on talking about art. I like using this in classes, because it helps alleviate the ‘fear’ of judgement and/or talking in front of an entire class. In most cases, I provide students with a sheet with three or four different questions to ask each other about the quality of an artwork; the worksheets are filled out and turned in for scoring. Again, I see great value in this strategy as it helps ease students into the world of discussing artwork with larger groups.
Self-Assessment
Along with a teacher-scored rubric, I sometimes want to provide students the opportunity to look at a scoring rubric and judge their own artwork based on the given criterion. From my experiences, student scores and teacher scores are generally pretty close to being the same. I feel that students look at the criterion and their artwork and most of the time are honest about their scores. If an instance comes up where the two scores are vastly different, a one-on-one conversation will be held with that student. Ultimately, I think that this assessment tool gives students ownership of how they did on a given assignment.