Assessing Art

Mrs. M uses formative assessment in assessing art. She informed me that all art teachers have to attend training for formative assessment, which I did not know. She will walk around the classroom and look to make sure that students are understanding concepts of the lesson. She found that when she does this, she can catch problems earlier on and work with the student to correct the errors and help them understand what they need to do in order to meet expectations. As she walks around the room, she also stops by tables to ask students about their work to ensure that what they are doing in their work meets the objectives set in the lesson plan. She said that she assesses more on the process of creating more than the product. She has a clipboard that has the seating chart on it, and she places a symbol based on who understands the concepts taught and who does not. She prefers not to use rubrics.

I agree with Mrs. M's way of assessing a student's process of creating art rather than the actual product itself. By assessing a student's process, you are able to see whether they are really understanding the material and creating based on what they learned. Also, assessing based on the process essentially assesses their growth as an artist, which I believe is important. Assessing a product alone is not a good indicator as to how a student is growing, or whether they are really understanding the material or if they are just following directions and replicating a project. I would probably use a rubric myself, but I would definitely use formative assessment in my own classroom, and I would walk around as well to make sure to catch mistakes early on and check on student progress.