Assessment Tools
B L O G
The class blog, www.knjteachart.weebly.com, reflects on student learning from each class period. It includes lesson descriptions as well as images and videos of students working. Class times went quickly, so keeping the blog was a way to look back and reflect on the learning that happened in class each week. To capture videos for the blog, we talked with students about what, why, and how they were making. Students had the opportunity to verbally reflect on their process, techniques, and ideas. Revisiting this learning allowed us to reflect on our own teaching to see what students were or were not understanding, as well as if they had met the learning targets for the day.
C R I T I Q U E S
During every project students contributed to in-process critiques. In-process critiques mainly functioned as one-on-one questioning with the teachers. When projects spanned multiple days, at the beginning of class students would discuss the work from the previous lesson. This review examined what students remembered from last time, what they did or did not understand, and where they were headed next. Final critiques occurred at the end of each project and consisted of mini gallery walks, discussions on the rug, and/or video reflections. Students were given opportunities to speak about their work and the work of peers in relation to art techniques and materials, personal choices, titles, and stories contained within.
S K E T C H B O O K S
Students worked regularly in sketchbooks during the semester. Mostly a space to form ideas, sketchbooks provided evidence for student learning, understanding, and idea generation. Sketchbooks were an important tool for understanding how students form ideas and represent them. We learned a lot about how each individual student thinks, processes, and reflects by looking through the sketchbooks. Not only were we able to assess our students' ideas in the sketchbooks, but we were also able to assess levels of development for writing, spelling, and general dexterity.
G A L L E R Y W A L K
At the end of the semester, the class moved through the Lab School art show, participating in reflection activities. Students reflected on their own work by telling stories to other students about what their art was about, why they made it, and how it was created. Students were also interested in examining the work of other classes and asking questions about the art. They mostly related all of the art they were viewing to their own lives in some way. Many students were interested in locating their siblings' art, and many talked about where they had seen that art or image before (e.g. when looking at a cat found object sculpture, "I have a cat at home. He's soft too.")
D I S C O V E R Y B O A R D
The Discovery Board was an important tool for assessing student learning. Each student was highlighted at least once on the board over the semester, for various "discoveries" such as crumpling tin foil to give it texture and telling a story with a picture. The Discovery Board allowed us to follow students' intuition, letting us investigate what they were interested in finding out. Students were encouraged to notify us when they arrived at a discovery, which contributed to our students' assessment of their own learning.