The PSD School District enforces an important assessment tool to measure the 4 levels of accomplishment (Standards: Comprehend, Reflect, Transfer & Create), which they refer to as the PSD Growth Assessment for Elementary Art. This assessment is organized to evaluate students at a Pre and Post level, in which it will then reflect their growth in Art over the course of the semester.
The assessment is used to measure students’ learning on a basis of: Plan, Create, and Reflect. Within Plan, the district measures how students formulate their ideation process, ability and sufficiency in documenting and exploring materials, and communication/expression of intended meaning. Within Create, the assessment measures the students engagement and perseverance in the creative process and how they demonstrate sophisticated use of materials. Lastly, within Reflect, the assessment evaluates how a student reflects and creates connections with works of art, including their use of artistic vocabulary.
The assessment is used to measure students’ learning on a basis of: Plan, Create, and Reflect. Within Plan, the district measures how students formulate their ideation process, ability and sufficiency in documenting and exploring materials, and communication/expression of intended meaning. Within Create, the assessment measures the students engagement and perseverance in the creative process and how they demonstrate sophisticated use of materials. Lastly, within Reflect, the assessment evaluates how a student reflects and creates connections with works of art, including their use of artistic vocabulary.
Other Pre and Post-Assessment Instruments
Introduced Throughout the Unit (per lesson):
Lesson 1: “Gettin’ Sketchy”
Pre-Assessment:
For this, we were influenced by the learning methodology, Choice-Based Learning, which includes using “stations” available for students to work at, and allows students the choice of which station they would like to work at to better suit their learning. For the exploration day, we set up three different stations with three different prompts for students to participate in: Painting Center, Drawing Center, and a Mixed Media Center. The prompts were presented on posters near each station, which prompted the students to participate in a certain task at each station, as well as included any important terms/materials involved in each art medium. Here is a photograph of the prompts:
Introduced Throughout the Unit (per lesson):
Lesson 1: “Gettin’ Sketchy”
Pre-Assessment:
- Sketchbooks
- RAFT Worksheet Activity – “Moviemaker”
- Role: Moviemaker
- Audience: Viewers
- Format: Drawing
- Topic: Symbolic story of self
- “Mixed Media Exploration Day”
For this, we were influenced by the learning methodology, Choice-Based Learning, which includes using “stations” available for students to work at, and allows students the choice of which station they would like to work at to better suit their learning. For the exploration day, we set up three different stations with three different prompts for students to participate in: Painting Center, Drawing Center, and a Mixed Media Center. The prompts were presented on posters near each station, which prompted the students to participate in a certain task at each station, as well as included any important terms/materials involved in each art medium. Here is a photograph of the prompts:
With this activity, it was a great pre-assessment tool to see where students were as far as experience with certain materials, as well as comfort in combining materials in unique ways. Many were more experimental than others, however the day allowed for students to all get a feeling for each material and medium. This was also a great pre-assessment tool for our second lesson, “Mix It Up!,” which focused on creating mixed media artwork.
Post-Assessment:
Objective Alignment:
Post-Assessment:
- Mini-Critique:
Objective Alignment:
Lesson 2: “Mix It Up!”
Pre-Assessment:
Pre-Assessment:
- PowerPoint Presentation
During the classroom discussion, students pointed out some of the concepts that were were hoping students would notice: theme, symbolism, assemblage, pattern, and the idea of using multiple medias within one artwork. The presentation was a great pre-assessment instrument in examining if students understood what a mixed media collage is and if they recognized many of the concepts/components to a mixed media collage. When looking at some of the images, we asked students if they could guess what the themes were, and many students were able to recognize the overall themes (nature, technology, dance, etc.) We asked students what led them to understand the themes depicted in the images and many students responded with the materials being related, the colors, and also the composition of certain images.
Post-Assessment:
- Cooperative Brainstorming Example:
Post-Assessment:
- Daily Routine of Stations (Drawing, Painting, & Mixed Media):
- “Gallery Walk” Critique:
After students completed their mixed media collages, my teaching partner and I created tools out of foamcore that would serve as backstands to prop their pieces up. We arranged the work around the room in groups of two and prompted the students to work in pairs, participating in two “rounds” of the critique. The first round consisted of the partners discussing their ideas/work/symbolism to their partners and the materials they used to best express these ideas. The second round was more of a class discussion, where as a class we looked at each groups work and discussed it all. During the discussion, we had the opposite partner describe and discuss the work to the class and talk about where they think they were successful. Having the opposite partner allowed for students to practice talking about artwork (others artwork) as well as allowed for the artist to not speak in defense of their work. This opened up the classroom to great discussion where other students would then have room to leave comments and suggestions.
Objective Alignment (Same objectives as Lesson 1)
Objective Alignment (Same objectives as Lesson 1)
Lesson 3: “Building It Up!”
Pre-Assessment:
Pre-Assessment:
- Introductory PowerPoint Presentation: “Found Object Sculpture”
- “The MAD SCIENTIST” Activity:
In this third lesson, we introduced the RAFT activity as a “Mad Scientist” worksheet. Within the worksheet, students were required to take on the role of a “Mad Scientist” and in the first step, list some symbols that they incorporated into their mixed media collage. The second step required them to list/draw three objects that could be used in place of those symbols. The third step required them to arrange those objects into a 3D creature, in which many students did a phenomenal job of, identifying the specific objects they would use to assemble the creature.
Here is an example of a student’s work:
Here is an example of a student’s work:
Post-Assessment:
Here is a picture of the prompt, as well as photos of words chosen for certain art pieces:
- “Best Words” Critique Activity:
Here is a picture of the prompt, as well as photos of words chosen for certain art pieces: