My friends have told me before that come December, around finals time, they get a bit jealous of me. 'Why's that?' I ask them. And they tell me its because I never have as many finals as them. And its true I usually don't, at least not in the sense they're thinking of. Its because of the studio classes I take. Usually in a studio class like painting or drawing there is no written final test that you have to study intensely for. Instead we have final critiques, final projects, portfolios to turn in, or all three. My friends see this as unfair. But I still have to use everything that I have learned all semester to do well. And often times I spend more time in the studio than they do studying. I won't argue that I'm happy to not be sitting for two hours taking a pencil and paper 'memorize-every-fact-in-this-book' test. But I know I'm still being tested.
Assessment is as important in an art classroom as it is in any other subject. Assessment allows us to gather important information about students' progress and comprehension as well as information about how well our teaching strategies are (or aren't) working. I think alternative assessments are used most in art classrooms. This makes sense to me because alternative assessments, as opposed to a traditional pencil-and-paper item formatted test, allow students to demonstrate their knowledge by doing. And by doing they are more than showing their knowledge, they are still learning too.
During my field experience I've discovered that, when working with younger students, there really is a light bulb moment just like in cartoons. You can see their brains working and making ideas click together. That's what successful learning looks like. Its important to have different assessment strategies because just like each student's light switch is different for how they learn, they also each demonstrate their knowledge well in different ways. When students finally learn something, they are eager to show you.
One strategy for assessment that I've seen in my field and that Dr. Unrath talked to us about is the pre and post test method. I've seen my field teacher use this method informally by asking students questions about what they are about to do and then asking the same questions after the lesson. Dr. Unrath showed us students' before and after figure drawings. I really like this strategy because its clear for you and your students to see the differences between where they were and where they are now. I think I would like to use this strategy for assessment in my unit plan. I haven't made a lot of decisions about my unit plan yet but I think this strategy will work well with whatever I choose to do. I also like the idea of having a portfolio as an assessment for my unit plan. Having students create a portfolio will allow them to think about their work collectively. This could help them develop their own big ideas that they want to explore. And how exciting would that be? A whole class, each student with a portfolio with a different big idea...the possibilities are endless!
