Assessing Art in Elementary Classrooms

1. Assessing Art in ElementaryClassrooms Based on Parkland’s new report card and the Alberta Elementary Art Curriculum

2. Can youfollowthatelementary Art curriculum? • It’s a bit of a sad story. Tell us yourwoes. Tell us how you have survived in teaching art so far. Whatresources have youused? Where do yougetyourideas? If youdon’t have visual arts training… • DISCUSS with an elbowpartner, and beprepared to sharesomelaughs (or maybetears) about this…

3. Now for an inspirationalvideo… • http://galileonetwork.ca/earlylearning/content/video-collection

4. Best quotesfrom the « front matter » of the curriculum guide • Art isvisualliteracy. • Art is set apartfrom the other fine arts (the performing arts). • Art is accessible to all. • Learning to SEE gives us the means to view the work of others and perhaps to relate that to ourownworks. • Art education has studentsthink and behave as artists.

5. Alsofrom the guide: Givingchildrenexperiences… • As an individual (pride in achievement, creativity, self-awareness) • As a learner (vocabulary, skills, techniques, self-expression) • As a communicator/creator (interpret, express, reflect) • As a citizen in a cultural world (heritage, history, universallanguage) • As an everydayevent (design in manmade and natural world is all around us)

6. Oh, no, but nowthere are four areas to evaluate?! • The good news? This is a subject area wheregood assessmentwill help to strengthen instruction. • Backwards planning…we’ll have a closer look at the curriculum and whatitreallymeans for students and teachers - Whatdoes the curriculum wantourstudents to achieve? What do wewant to accomplish by the end of the year? • Reflection • Depiction • Composition • Expression

7. REFLECTION • Alsocalled Art Appreciation…We all know thisis important, but are wedoingit? • « Aquiringproficiency in art requiressystematic instruction in how wesee, interpret and makesense of visual stimuli » (p. 1) • « Art is not simplycreated, itisvalued. » • « Art education deals withmaking and defending qualitative judgments about artworks. » • You shouldbespending 20% or more of your art time on reflection, but how? • Is thisonlyreflecting on famousartworkslikethosefrom Van Gogh or the Group of Seven? No, thisisalso self-reflection – lookingatone’sown art and the art of peers. Is itonly man-made art? No, nature is an artist, too. Getoutside and look at the shapes and textures of things. • How to we do this? Integrateitthroughout all ourlessons? Teach as a unit? Visit art galleries? Use the internet? Yourchoice, but kids need to begiven time to OBSERVE and THINK and TALK about art.  • COMPARE THIS TO TEACHING WRITING: This is the  »literature stage ». Beforeyouteachchildren to writepoetry, they must experiencepoetry. They must see and heardozens of poems, examine them, talk about form and meaning. Reflection in art is no different – itis the »reading of art ».

8. BUT, how willyouassess ‘appreciation’ or ‘reflection’? • LISTEN to them: Conversations, debates, general observation – in small groups, centres, or whole class. • READ: Blogging, or short paragraphswritten about a piece • VIEW and READ: Self-assessment in a portfolio • Gr. 1-3: I likethis painting because __________. I see ___________ in thisdrawing. Myfavourite sculpture is ___________ because ________________. Thesetrees are differentbecause of _______________. • Grade 4-6: Can use sentence starters or create a templateparagraph – and expect more open-endedwriting or talking. • You must model talking about art, and you must teach the vocabulary • Remember, there are no « right answers » in reflection – eachchildwill have opinions about art. Whatyou are assessingisthereability to ‘bereflective’. Reallylisten to them talk, look closelyattheirwriting; are they able to use some art language? Do they back up their opinions? Are theyseeking to improvetheirown art, or give constructive feedback to others? Are they able to compare artworks? • http://galileonetwork.ca/earlylearning/content/video-collection

9. DEPICTION • We all do this, but do we do it in a systematicway – meaningintentional planning and sequencing of lessons? • Depictionis « the basic skills of image-making ». Are yourstudentsgraduallyimproving in theirability to draw and create images? • This iswhere the basic DESIGN elements are essential: LINE, COLOUR, SHAPE/FORM, VALUE, TEXTURE, and SPACE • This iswherewe must includevocabulary, and have some of thesewordsposted for kids to refer to. • Theywilllearn about image-makingthroughyourplanned mini-lessons, trying out ideas on paper. Theywillthen have the concept and the vocabulary to talk about their art (reflection).

10. BUT, how willyouassess‘depiction’? • 1) Be really CLEAR about yourlessonoutcomes, know whatyouwantyourstudents to learn. • 2) Have samples and teachingtools to show students(Smartboards are great for this) • 3) Model the skillthatyouwant to see (yes, even if you’re not an artist – if theydon’tsee YOU takingrisks, whywouldthey?). • 4) Allowstudents to experiment (do not assessyet) • 5) Have studentscreate an original piece by the end of class, wherethey must demonstrate the new skill or technique: PROOF! Nowyoucanassess! • Compare this to introducing a dribbling skill in a PE lesson in soccer – youwill observe the use of dribbling in the soccer gamelater in the lesson. • COMPARE THIS TO TEACHING WRITING: The depiction stage isliketeachingspecifics about the writingprocess – how to paragraph, how to addbettervocabulary, how to use quotation marks. You teachthese concepts in mini-lessons, or in a mini-unit, all in preparation of their application to real writing.

11. COMPOSITION • « The image-makingskillsdeveloped in Depiction are employed to createintegratedartworks » • We all have kids compose theirownartworks, but do weallowthemenoughfreedom? Do we model and directlyteachcompositional techniques? Or are wetooconcernedwith a beautifulfinished bulletin board full of similarproducts? • This iswhere concepts such as BACKGROUND-FOREGROUND, CONTRAST, FAMILIES OF SHAPES, DETAILS, MOOD mayseemtooadvanced for kids, but if taken one at a time – theygetit! • Again, beclear about whatyouwillteach. Pick one outcome, show samples, model by doing a think-aloud, THEN set them free with the materials.

12. BUT, how willyouassess‘composition’? • Basically, you are assessingwhatyou have taught… • Caution: if all your art lessons are crafty, and don’tallow kids to create original pieces, youwill not be able to assessthis. • This portion of the report cardalsoincludes the child’s efforts to complete a piece, demonstrate a pullingtogether of ideas, adddetails, and show pride in a completedproject. • COMPARE THIS TO TEACHING WRITING: This is the real writing stage, where a child tries out a poem. Again, if the teacher has created structure, but toostrict parameters, children are able to ‘craft’ theirwriting, based on the good learningthatcame before. • In art learning, thisiswhere the reflection and depiction stages pay off. Can the youngartist use thatlearning to pull together a good piece of art? Have yougiventhemenough time to do this? • Again, can the child talk about their art? Can theydemonstratetheirlearning by pointing to portions of theirdrawing, and use some good art vocabulary?

13. EXPRESSION • « PURPOSE, THEME, SUBJECT MATTER, MEDIA, TECHNIQUES » Hmmm, prettycomplicated! Its about usingReflection, Depiction and Composition to reallycreatesomethingthatmatters. • Again, these concepts must becommunicated to ourstudents. All art has a purpose. Art tends to have a themeor a specificsubjectmatter. Art is made withspecificmaterials (media) throughwhich certain techniques are used. Typical art project (watercolouroceanscene): • Reflection: Do youget the kids excited about the oceanwith a quick video? Manyocean books and images around the room? Lookingat a real goldfish – talking about the texture of scales, the shape of the tail, the colour changes, etc? Do you look atsomeprofessional art about oceans? • Depiction: Do youmodel the shaping of a typicalfish? Do youprovide images to copy? Do youallowthem to use their imagination? Do you encourage originality? Do youteachthem how to createmovementwith the lines of the waves? Do youdiscuss the cool colours of the ocean? • Composition: Do youdiscuss how to set up an oceanscene? X-ray viewthrough water? Fromabove? One focus creature? Lots of creatures and plants? • Expression: Now do you talk about whattheywant to saywiththeir art? Do youteachthem the specific techniques of watercolour? The equipmentneeded? The tools: sponges, salt, brushes, etc.

14. BUT, how willyouassess « expression »? • Generally, we tend to choose the purpose, theme, subjectmatter and materials for ourstudents – so how do weassessit? • Shouldwealwayschoose? The curriculum asks us to givesystematic instruction, but alsogivestudentschoice, hmmm… • Wecanassesstheirawareness of purposeand subjectmatter, but also, wecanassesstheirdevelopingskill in managing the materials – is the childbecoming more proficient in usingwatercolour to achievehispurpose? Hissubject? • Is the childdeveloping as an expressive artist? Are they able to presenttheirwork as meaningful and show pride in it?

15. Let’splay… • Getinto groups of 3. Take the outcomes on the pieces of paper, and create a lesson plan for Grade 3 or 4 that has Reflection, Depiction, Composition and Expression. Be beprepared to shareyourideasorallywith the group. • Draw to betterunderstand the elements of art and design.

16. Good online videos/websites for your own knowledge and for teaching art: • http://video.about.com/arthistory/What-Are-the-Elements-of-Art-.htm • a short video explaining why we want to learn about the elements • http://www.buzzle.com/articles/formal-elements-of-art.html • a website with definitions about the elements • http://www.scotthutchison.com/artleague/elements_of_art.pdf • a one-pager to give to studentsabout the elements • http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/elements/ • Wow! A unit made up with samples of world art to teach the elements with Reflection • http://www.frontiernet.net/~tlsh78/elements_of_art_and_principl.htm • An online art course for you!

17. Key Ideas? • Whatwillyoutakeawayfromtoday? Write 3 thingsbriefly on a paper…

18. WhatI’dlikeyou to remember… • You do not have to have visual arts training to be a good art teacher. (remember the self-portrait teacher?) • The art curriculum istough to interpret, but bit by bit, itcanbelearned and assessed. • Littleartistsneedmodelling (reflection), need instruction and time to practice (depiction), need time to create and experiment (composition) and needaccess to many art mediums and ideas (expression). • Your best tool for assessing art is OBSERVATION. (not just observation of the art itself, but of the completeprocess for the child) • Interested in taking an art class yourself? No, thenat least furtheryourknowledge about the 6 elements of art and design.