Assessment Instruments:
Lesson One: Story of a Star.
throughout this lesson, students participated in formative assessments through daily group discussions where students elaborated on struggles, progress and techniques for creative problem solving. This allowed students to collaborate with each other to overcome artistic obstacles and teachers to gauge student's progress and learning. Students mostly discussed topics related to transforming the materials available at the art stations and how they could push that transformation to communicate their intended message. In this way teachers were able to assess whether students were attaining the learning objectives we set forth from the beginning of the lesson. At the end of the lesson we provided students with an activity that allowed them to reflect on the work of their peers and their own work. They completed a "See, Think, Wonder" worksheet about their partner's star. This activity encouraged students to first assess what they were actually seeing, then what the visual information communicated about their peer, and then to elaborate on those thoughts and transfer them to other areas. This allowed students to get feedback from their peers to see if their intended message was communicated and to practice interpreting the art of others.
Lesson One: Story of a Star.
throughout this lesson, students participated in formative assessments through daily group discussions where students elaborated on struggles, progress and techniques for creative problem solving. This allowed students to collaborate with each other to overcome artistic obstacles and teachers to gauge student's progress and learning. Students mostly discussed topics related to transforming the materials available at the art stations and how they could push that transformation to communicate their intended message. In this way teachers were able to assess whether students were attaining the learning objectives we set forth from the beginning of the lesson. At the end of the lesson we provided students with an activity that allowed them to reflect on the work of their peers and their own work. They completed a "See, Think, Wonder" worksheet about their partner's star. This activity encouraged students to first assess what they were actually seeing, then what the visual information communicated about their peer, and then to elaborate on those thoughts and transfer them to other areas. This allowed students to get feedback from their peers to see if their intended message was communicated and to practice interpreting the art of others.
Lesson Two: Spaceship Rescue Mission:
Again, students participated in daily discussions of their progress on their spaceships. Each day, we asked students to rate their progress on a scale of one to ten, (one being, just starting, and ten being totally done) and then asked them what steps still needed to be taken to complete their ships or what creative struggles they were facing. We would then open it up to the class to offer suggestions on how to solve their problems. This type of formative assessment allowed us to gauge if students were understanding why and how students use art to transform materials. It also gave us a notion of whether students were on track with their progress and helped us determine the amount of time we needed to allot them to complete their sculptures. At the end of the lesson, students participated in a gallery walk, group critique where we asked students to present their artwork with a narrative written about the rescue mission they would embark on. Students practiced literacy skills as they created a story to describe their spaceship and the task it had been created to complete. They also drew models of their ships which brought their original plans and drawings full circle. As we participated in the critique, students described the attributes of their spaceships, how they were created (technique and materials), and how they would be important to the rescue mission. Their peers offered up comments about what they thought were the most interesting attributes and why, what they thought could have been improved if the artist had more time, and how effective they thought the artist's transformation of materials was. The artist describing their work fielded questions from their peers and participated in a genuine artistic critique. The student's ability to discuss their work and the work of others using artistic language and to elaborate on the extent of their transformations displayed in their work helped us assess their attainment of the learning targets of this lesson.
Again, students participated in daily discussions of their progress on their spaceships. Each day, we asked students to rate their progress on a scale of one to ten, (one being, just starting, and ten being totally done) and then asked them what steps still needed to be taken to complete their ships or what creative struggles they were facing. We would then open it up to the class to offer suggestions on how to solve their problems. This type of formative assessment allowed us to gauge if students were understanding why and how students use art to transform materials. It also gave us a notion of whether students were on track with their progress and helped us determine the amount of time we needed to allot them to complete their sculptures. At the end of the lesson, students participated in a gallery walk, group critique where we asked students to present their artwork with a narrative written about the rescue mission they would embark on. Students practiced literacy skills as they created a story to describe their spaceship and the task it had been created to complete. They also drew models of their ships which brought their original plans and drawings full circle. As we participated in the critique, students described the attributes of their spaceships, how they were created (technique and materials), and how they would be important to the rescue mission. Their peers offered up comments about what they thought were the most interesting attributes and why, what they thought could have been improved if the artist had more time, and how effective they thought the artist's transformation of materials was. The artist describing their work fielded questions from their peers and participated in a genuine artistic critique. The student's ability to discuss their work and the work of others using artistic language and to elaborate on the extent of their transformations displayed in their work helped us assess their attainment of the learning targets of this lesson.
Documentation of Learning:
Our main learning objectives this semester was for students to create works of art in order to understand and relate to other disciplines and that reflect their personal experience of the Universe and to learn techniques to transform media into expressions of personal importance. We wanted students to learn how artists use art to express their personal stories and how ideas can be expressed through the transformation of materials. We also wanted students to demonstrate the skills of developing a plan two dimensional plan for a three dimensional work of art. Throughout the semester we documented our students attainment of these learning targets.
Our main learning objectives this semester was for students to create works of art in order to understand and relate to other disciplines and that reflect their personal experience of the Universe and to learn techniques to transform media into expressions of personal importance. We wanted students to learn how artists use art to express their personal stories and how ideas can be expressed through the transformation of materials. We also wanted students to demonstrate the skills of developing a plan two dimensional plan for a three dimensional work of art. Throughout the semester we documented our students attainment of these learning targets.
During the story of a Star lesson, one student showed her sketch that was contained within a shape that mimicked the shape of her finished product and we noted that this was a smart way for students to envision their final piece. Her idea was to tell the story of her family within her star by depicting them all at a picnic together in a grassy field. She plans on using fabric to create the picnic blanket and grass as well and drawings for the figures that make up her family. This student’s thoughtful planning gave us a great example to show other students the importance of elaborating on their plans by brainstorming what materials could be used to create tangible objects to represent their ideas.
One student discussed her own work, for which she went through three levels of transformation to create candy representations (her food of choice for her rescue mission). She shared with the class how her and her partner not only cut out bits of foam to represent the actual pieces of candy, but wrapped the individual pieces in tissue paper to imitate a wrapper and then fabricated a box out of an old candy box. Here this student was evaluating her own work to give peers an example of engage and persist; through her transformation process, she produced an object that fully transformed materials to represent her ideas to the viewer
During the Spaceship Rescue Mission, a pair of students had added many details to the inside of their spaceship, but had left the exterior for last. Today they began to transform the outside of the spaceship using paint. The student was using a small paintbrush to paint a mixture of blue and white paint onto the outside. It was taking a long time to apply the paint because the brush was small so she asked if next time I could bring a larger brush or roller so she could apply the paint faster and more efficiently. She asked, “can you see the texture I’m creating with the paint?” To which I replied, “Yes, how are you creating the texture?” She said, “I am painting one layer of blue and then revisiting spots to put more layers of paint.”
This student is working independently and has been creating individual rooms for his spaceship. The room he was working on today was attached to the outside of his spaceship structure and would include grass and trees. He said, “This will be a room that looks like a spot in the world so that while we’re in space, we won’t forget what Earth looks like.”
One student was creating a model of his dog out of clay. His dog had a lot of spots that he wanted to create out of clay, but he was having trouble making the clay spots adhere to the dog’s body. “I figured out the spots! Red clay didn’t work, I’ll try paint,” he exclaimed. The paint created his intended effect and he was happy with his finished product.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Assessment:
Overall I believe we were able to gain information from our assessments that not only enabled us to gauge our student's attainment of the learning targets, but to adapt our curriculum and lesson plans to ensure that students were meeting objectives. Our first "See, Think, Wonder" reflective activity was effective in assessing our student's ability to talk about their own work and the work of their peers and in a very simplistic way assessed their knowledge of how to interpret works of art and their communicated meanings. The main focus of the "Story of a Star" lesson was to teach students how art can be used to tell their stories and the reflective activity was effective in assessing whether that story was understood, but I think it could have benefited from a bit more structure. We had students volunteer to share out about their reflections, so we didn't get a full assessment of every student's interpretation of the artworks. To improve this assessment we could have had every student share out and continue with a group conversation about what story was being told by each star.
As the semester progressed, we began incorporating group discussions about each student's progress, struggles, and intents into the beginning of each class. These formative assessments proved to be very beneficial to the final critique of the student's spaceship sculptures. Many of our group discussions focused around topics of transformation of materials, craftsmanship, and how art can communicate ideas. When students participated in the final critique they thoughtfully responded to their own work and the work of their peers, discussing how they transformed materials to communicate their intended ideas, what struggles they faced in the process, and how successful they considered the final artwork. Students discussed how certain attributes could be improved on or transformed further and attempted to interpret their peers' works of art. It was helpful for them first to write a narrative discussing the attributes of their sculptures, their intended purpose, and the materials and techniques they used. This acted as an informal artist statement and after each student read their statement they fielded questions and comments from the class.
Overall I believe we were able to gain information from our assessments that not only enabled us to gauge our student's attainment of the learning targets, but to adapt our curriculum and lesson plans to ensure that students were meeting objectives. Our first "See, Think, Wonder" reflective activity was effective in assessing our student's ability to talk about their own work and the work of their peers and in a very simplistic way assessed their knowledge of how to interpret works of art and their communicated meanings. The main focus of the "Story of a Star" lesson was to teach students how art can be used to tell their stories and the reflective activity was effective in assessing whether that story was understood, but I think it could have benefited from a bit more structure. We had students volunteer to share out about their reflections, so we didn't get a full assessment of every student's interpretation of the artworks. To improve this assessment we could have had every student share out and continue with a group conversation about what story was being told by each star.
As the semester progressed, we began incorporating group discussions about each student's progress, struggles, and intents into the beginning of each class. These formative assessments proved to be very beneficial to the final critique of the student's spaceship sculptures. Many of our group discussions focused around topics of transformation of materials, craftsmanship, and how art can communicate ideas. When students participated in the final critique they thoughtfully responded to their own work and the work of their peers, discussing how they transformed materials to communicate their intended ideas, what struggles they faced in the process, and how successful they considered the final artwork. Students discussed how certain attributes could be improved on or transformed further and attempted to interpret their peers' works of art. It was helpful for them first to write a narrative discussing the attributes of their sculptures, their intended purpose, and the materials and techniques they used. This acted as an informal artist statement and after each student read their statement they fielded questions and comments from the class.