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Sami Auster
Art Educator/Artist/ Student
Assessment, Instruction, and Learning
This page provides information on our assessment results, tools, and how they were used within our unit.
Assessment Instruments
Formative Assessments:
Sketchbooks
Student utilized sketchbooks in the art making process at several points during this unit of study. In some cases, students used their sketchbooks to experiment and practice techniques when we introduced them to a new art media. Sometimes the students would use their sketchbooks to plan out their ideas for their projects. These explorations provided each student with an opportunity to make observations and to develop an understanding of the new media. It was a useful tool to assess their understandings of the materials and determine if more instruction or help was needed before the students began to work on their finished art project.
Blog
The blog was another useful tool for assessments. Each lesson we used the blog to show students documentation of the discoveries they made last class. We had the students view the blog and reflect upon what new understandings they had based on the learning that took place the week before.
Checking For Understanding
We checked our students understanding consistently throughout each lesson. After a demonstration or giving instructions we would ask students to give a thumbs up or thumbs down if they understood the directions. Then gauging their responses we would determine whether or not further clarification was needed.
Summative Assessments:
Reflective Activities
At the end of each lesson we had the students participate in a reflective activity based on the project they had just completed. These activities reviewed key points from the lesson and gauged students understanding.
Group Critiques
After each lesson our students also participated in a group critique. During these critiques students would share their artwork and talk about the discoveries they made during the process and how they utilized the materials. The class would respond by explaining what they saw in their classmates artwork and would ask
questions about the art.
As another form of assessment, the newsletter below provided "parent friendly" explanations of lesson concepts and outcomes, standards alignment, information about learning (website), and announcements about resources and the art exhibition.
Documentation of Learning
Throughout this semester I have documented evidence of my students learning on my Polaris blog. Each blog entry showcases how the students are understanding the concepts, skills, outcomes and objectives of each lesson plan.
For lesson 1, the students demonstrated their understanding of how artists use symbol and forms to tell their own stories through the use of 3 dimensional design. Their knowledge was demonstrated by their use of clay forms and symbolism to create aspects of their own personal story.
For lesson 2, the students demonstrated their understanding of how artists can create a two-dimensional composition with three-dimensional elements through the use of shapes and patterns. This was demonstrated by their ability to combine a two-dimensional composition with a three-dimensional pirate ship composed of shapes and patterns to create their final work of art.
For lesson 3, the students demonstrated their understandings of how artists draw inspiration from their culture to influence the space and shapes in their artwork by using inspiration from the book read in class as well as their own culture to create a house that was composed of shapes.
For lesson 4, the students demonstrated their knowledge of how artists draw inspiration from memories and emotions by letting them influence the colors, shapes, and patterns used in their artwork. They demonstrated this by utilizing personal memories of a time they experienced a specific emotion to inspire the color, shapes and patterns they used in their prints.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Assessments
Strengths:
One of the strengths of the assessments used throughout this unit was in our use of the blog. The blog provided students a chance to reflect and recall their past learning discoveries from the previous class. This helped students engage in conversation about the learning that took place last class because they had a visual reminder of what had occurred. Another strength was in our reflective activities, during the activities students often had "ah ha" moments as they discussed how they came up with their ideas and used the materials to illustrate them.
Weaknesses:
Thumbs up or thumbs down is not the best way to check for understanding, although it does give a general outline of who still needs help it doesn't clarify how much help students need or what specific area of instruction they are confused about. Using sketchbooks also had some negative attributes. Although most students used the sketchbook effectively to plan projects and experiment with materials, some students simply used sketchbook time to get off task and create doodles instead of planning. Another weakness was that during group critiques students did not always know how to participate in engaging conversations about the artwork.
Modifications:
For the future I think my students could have benefited from more information on how to participate in a critique. Another aspect I would modify would be sketchbook time, I may consider giving some students the option to make their planned sketches on a worksheet that has specific spaces for different design ideas. By utilizing a worksheet with designated spaces students may be less likely to "free sketch" during this time. Also in the future I will take the thumbs up/thumbs down activity a step further by having the students who show thumbs down verbally articulate what they are specifically confused about so that I can provide better clarification.
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