With assessing art in a classroom setting comes a challenge posed by talent. Students create artworks at many diverse levels of mastery, yet, this does not mean they did not grasp techniques or meet the set expectations. I have found that sorting out those students who gave minimal effort and those who have to work harder to create artwork comes down to getting to know my students and how their best work looks. It all comes down to relationships and community building in my classroom. Individually understanding my students allows me to assess them equally and by their abilities.

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          I have found success by evaluating my students through formative assessments such as questioning, discussion, and written reflective statements at the end of class. For example, I taught a technical lesson on making functional jewelry findings, and students were to use trial and error to learn from technical mistakes they faced. During the class, I walked around and questioned students to initiate some active reflection, and I commenced class discussions to allow students to dive deeper into the topic. Students were requested to write a few sentences that stated a mistake they made and what they learned from it to support my findings from questioning and discussion. Through this formative assessment, I can deduce where I need to support my students and where they are succeeding. I can determine if I should bring in more visuals and resources, such as demo videos and listed steps, or even restate expectations in a new way.

       

          Summative assessment in the art class is typically project-based. Did students create artwork that meets the set expectations? Beyond the project requirements, I generally look for technical skill, craftsmanship, and originality/creativity to fairly "judge" an artwork. This way, strong technical artwork is acknowledged, but so are the works of art that demonstrate creativeness despite lacking some experience or "natural talent." Of course, during this time, I will take account of the information I had gathered during the Formative span of the project. Therefore, students who are trying their best to create their best artwork will receive more points in the technical skill category despite the art not always physically demonstrating their effort. This assessment type can also help me deduce whether I should change some expectations to support student success. At this point, I know that if the majority of my students are not succeeding, there is something I must improve in my instruction next time I teach the project, or even if I should scrap it.

 

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