EVALUATION STRATEGIES :ASSESSING THE DIFFERENT FORMS OF ART (UNIT-3)

 

UNIT-3

EVALUATION STRATEGIES :ASSESSING THE DIFFERENT FORMS OF ART

Students' ability to assess and correct their own work, assess the work of their learning partners, and give and receive constructive criticism are important skills to develop in any evaluative process.  The ultimate purpose of assessment and evaluation is to develop students' self-evaluation skills, necessary for life-long learning and success. 

Checklist 

The following is a quick way to check the quality of your approach to assessment, summarized from Assessment in Art Education by Donna Kay Beattie.  For more detailed information on this topic, refer to this excellent publication (details in the Learning Resources section.)

·        is it student-oriented and teacher-directed?

·        does it support instruction and learning objectives?

·        have the criteria for assessment clear to all participants?

·        is it based on the Arts expectations?

·        is it on-going?

·        does it include a balance of formal and informal strategies?·        

·        does it focus on product and process?

·        does it provide opportunities for students to revise or change their work?       is it responsive to different types of knowledge?

·        does it respond to expanded notions of intelligence and creativity?·       

·        does it take into account students’ pre-assessment information?

·        is it equitable for all participants?

·        does it responsive to collaborative and cooperative learning?      

·        does it measure students’ individual growth (rather than comparing them to each other?)

·        are the assessment tools easily understood and well-ordered?

Portfolios

Portfolios are an excellent way of balancing the assessment of both process and product as students can demonstrate their ideas, self-assessment and revisions on projects.  As they can be used to store sketches, working drawings, notes, and final artworks, some refer to them as 'process folios.'  Refer to the sample Portfolio Assessment Review on page - as a means of assessing portfolios.

Sketchbooks/Visual Journals

This is a great way for students to reflect on current projects or collect images for future ones.  Notes or thoughts can be written or drawn; images can be student-created (drawing, photography) or ready-made from magazines, newspapers, packages, etc.  They provide students with a private space to practice drawing/painting/photography skills and to track themes and/or ideas that interest them.  In turn these can then be used as preliminary sketches for other artworks or as elements for collages.  Can be assessed with a tally sheet (recording regularity of entries) or as a means of checking the development of ideas for a project.

 

Students' Demonstrations

Students' acquisition and/or application of skills and techniques can be assessed as they work on projects or when asked to demonstrate for others.  Record your observations using checklists or anecdotal records.  Focus equally on their experience of the process of art-making as on their final product.

 

Integrated Performances

This form of assessment combines new learning on a topic and assessment into one simultaneous experience.  Performances should encourage creative thinking, open-ended responses, and the synthesis of previously learned material. Conducted individually or in groups, these tasks can be plays, simulations, innovative written assignments or projects.  Criteria for assessment must be clearly identified at the outset.

Group Discussion

Group discussions can be useful in assessing oral responses to works of art.  Criteria can include frequency and quality of individual participation as well as quality of interaction with others, and should be clearly identified in advance.  Combining this with a follow-up technique, such as a journal entry, allows an opportunity to assess those not verbally-oriented.

Critiques

Critiques can be done by the student (self-critique), by his/her peers, or by the teacher in written or oral, public or private form.  They can be conducted mid-project or at the end, but should always be positive in tone, noting what was done well and what can be improved on.  Opportunities for revision or re-making a project based on critiques should be offered.

Self-Assessment

Given the subjective nature of art-making, students must be given opportunities to reflect on their own work and assess whether or not it achieved the criteria of the project and/or their own personal goals.  This can be achieved through checklists, written reflections or interviews with the student.

Conferences/Interviews

These can be conducted between student and teacher or may be expanded to include peers or parents.  Students should be encouraged to verbalize their experiences and analyze the results of their work.  They can be centered on one project or a number of works in a portfolio.

Exhibitions and Displays

While these are the traditional way of sharing students' achievements with others, they are not always the best.  If exhibitions are desired (by students, parents or school administrators,) try to include a range of students' work in every display (rather than just those of the 'best' artists) and involve students' whose work is not displayed in other capacities in the exhibit - as curators, label writers or tour guides.

 

 

For More Info:  Read Donna Kay Beattie’s Assessment in Art Education (Davis Publications, 1997) available from Fitzhenry and Whiteside in Toronto.