Assessing Art in Elementary ClassroomsBased on Parkland’s new report card and the Alberta Elementary Art Curriculum

Can you follow that elementary Art

curriculum?It’s a bit of a sad story. Tell us your woes. Tell us how you have survived in teaching art so far. What resources have you used? Where do you get your ideas? If you don’t have visual arts training…

DISCUSS with an elbow partner, and be prepared to share some laughs (or maybe tears) about this…

Now for an inspirational video…

http://galileonetwork.ca/earlylearning/content/video-collection

Best quotes from the « front matter » of the curriculum

guideArt is visual literacy.

Art is set apart from 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 our own works.

Art education has students think and behave as artists.

Also from the guide: Giving children experiences…

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, universal language)

As an everyday event (design in manmade and natural world is all around us)

Oh, no, but now there are four areas to

evaluate?!The good news? This is a subject area where good assessment will help to strengthen instruction.

Backwards planning…we’ll have a closer look at the curriculum and what it really means for students and teachers - What does the curriculum want our students to achieve? What do we want to accomplish by the end of the year?

Reflection

Depiction

Composition

Expression

REFLECTIONAlso called Art Appreciation…We all know this is important, but are we doing it?

« Aquiring proficiency in art requires systematic instruction in how we see, interpret and make sense of visual stimuli » (p. 1)

« Art is not simply created, it is valued. »

« Art education deals with making and defending qualitative judgments about artworks. »

You should be spending 20% or more of your art time on reflection, but how?

Is this only reflecting on famous artworks like those from Van Gogh or the Group of Seven? No, this is also self-reflection – looking at one’s own art and the art of peers. Is it only man-made art? No, nature is an artist, too. Get outside and look at the shapes and textures of things.

How to we do this? Integrate it throughout all our lessons? Teach as a unit? Visit art galleries? Use the internet? Your choice, but kids need to be given time to OBSERVE and THINK and TALK about art. 

COMPARE THIS TO TEACHING WRITING: This is the  »literature stage ». Before you teach children to write poetry, they must experience poetry. They must see and hear dozens of poems, examine them, talk about form and meaning. Reflection in art is no different – it is the »reading of art ».

BUT, how will you assess ‘appreciation’ or

‘reflection’?LISTEN to them: Conversations, debates, general observation – in small groups, centres, or whole class.

READ: Blogging, or short paragraphs written about a piece

VIEW and READ: Self-assessment in a portfolio

Gr. 1-3: I like this painting because __________. I see ___________ in this drawing. My favourite sculpture is ___________ because ________________. These trees are different because of _______________.

Grade 4-6: Can use sentence starters or create a template paragraph – and expect more open-ended writing or talking.

You must model talking about art, and you must teach the vocabulary

Remember, there are no « right answers » in reflection – each child will have opinions about art. What you are assessing is there ability to ‘be reflective’. Really listen to them talk, look closely at their writing; are they able to use some art language? Do they back up their opinions? Are they seeking to improve their own art, or give constructive feedback to others? Are they able to compare artworks?

http://galileonetwork.ca/earlylearning/content/video-collection

DEPICTIONWe all do this, but do we do it in a systematic way – meaning intentional planning and sequencing of lessons?

Depiction is « the basic skills of image-making ». Are your students gradually improving in their ability to draw and create images?

This is where the basic DESIGN elements are essential:

LINE, COLOUR, SHAPE/FORM, VALUE, TEXTURE, and SPACE

This is where we must include vocabulary, and have some of these words posted for kids to refer to.

They will learn about image-making through your planned mini-lessons, trying out ideas on paper. They will then have the concept and the vocabulary to talk about their art (reflection).

BUT, how will you assess ‘depiction’?

1) Be really CLEAR about your lesson outcomes, know what you want your students to learn.

2) Have samples and teaching tools to show students (Smartboards are great for this)

3) Model the skill that you want to see (yes, even if you’re not an artist – if they don’t see YOU taking risks, why would they?).

4) Allow students to experiment (do not assess yet)

5) Have students create an original piece by the end of class, where they must demonstrate the new skill or technique: PROOF! Now you can assess!

Compare this to introducing a dribbling skill in a PE lesson in soccer – you will observe the use of dribbling in the soccer game later in the lesson.

COMPARE THIS TO TEACHING WRITING: The depiction stage is like teaching specifics about the writing process – how to paragraph, how to add better vocabulary, how to use quotation marks. You teach these concepts in mini-lessons, or in a mini-unit, all in preparation of their application to real writing.

COMPOSITION« The image-making skills developed in Depiction are employed to create integrated artworks »

We all have kids compose their own artworks, but do we allow them enough freedom? Do we model and directly teach compositional techniques? Or are we too concerned with a beautiful finished bulletin board full of similar products?

This is where concepts such as BACKGROUND-FOREGROUND, CONTRAST, FAMILIES OF SHAPES, DETAILS, MOOD may seem too advanced for kids, but if taken one at a time – they get it!

Again, be clear about what you will teach. Pick one outcome, show samples, model by doing a think-aloud, THEN set them free with the materials.

BUT, how will you assess ‘composition’?Basically, you are assessing what you have taught…

Caution: if all your art lessons are crafty, and don’t allow kids to create original pieces, you will not be able to assess this.

This portion of the report card also includes the child’s efforts to complete a piece, demonstrate a pulling together of ideas, add details, and show pride in a completed project.

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 too strict parameters, children are able to ‘craft’ their writing, based on the good learning that came before.

In art learning, this is where the reflection and depiction stages pay off. Can the young artist use that learning to pull together a good piece of art? Have you given them enough time to do this?

Again, can the child talk about their art? Can they demonstrate their learning by pointing to portions of their drawing, and use some good art vocabulary?

EXPRESSION« PURPOSE, THEME, SUBJECT MATTER, MEDIA, TECHNIQUES » Hmmm, pretty complicated! Its about using Reflection, Depiction and Composition to really create something that matters.

Again, these concepts must be communicated to our students. All art has a purpose. Art tends to have a theme or a specific subject matter. Art is made with specific materials (media) through which certain techniques are used.

Typical art project (watercolour ocean scene):

Reflection: Do you get the kids excited about the ocean with a quick video? Many ocean books and images around the room? Looking at a real goldfish – talking about the texture of scales, the shape of the tail, the colour changes, etc? Do you look at some professional art about oceans?

Depiction: Do you model the shaping of a typical fish? Do you provide images to copy? Do you allow them to use their imagination? Do you encourage originality? Do you teach them how to create movement with the lines of the waves? Do you discuss the cool colours of the ocean?

Composition: Do you discuss how to set up an ocean scene? X-ray view through water? From above? One focus creature? Lots of creatures and plants?

Expression: Now do you talk about what they want to say with their art? Do you teach them the specific techniques of watercolour? The equipment needed? The tools: sponges, salt, brushes, etc.

BUT, how will you assess « expression »?

Generally, we tend to choose the purpose, theme, subject matter and materials for our students – so how do we assess it?

Should we always choose? The curriculum asks us to give systematic instruction, but also give students choice, hmmm…

We can assess their awareness of purpose and subject matter, but also, we can assess their developing skill in managing the materials – is the child becoming more proficient in using watercolour to achieve his purpose? His subject?

Is the child developing as an expressive artist? Are they able to present their work as meaningful and show pride in it?

Let’s play…

Get into 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 be prepared to share your ideas orally with the group.

Draw to better understand the elements of art and design.

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 students about 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!

Key Ideas?

What will you take away from today? Write 3 things briefly on a paper…

What I’d like you 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 is tough to interpret, but bit by bit, it can be learned and assessed.

Little artists need modelling (reflection), need instruction and time to practice (depiction), need time to create and experiment (composition) and need access 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 complete process for the child)

Interested in taking an art class yourself? No, then at least further your knowledge about the 6 elements of art and design.