written by Amy Courtney and Sarah Zbornik PRIORITY STANDARDS With the new National Core Arts Standards and its emphasis on creating, performing, responding, and connecting, there has been much discussion to how we will now assess our students. In the arts, we say that creativity is the most important aspect, but in the past it we have rarely assessed it, primarily because of the difficulty in doing so. Thus, questions emerge. How does one assess creativity? Can a letter grade be attached to it? Is this type of assessment possible with standards-based grading? For Amy Courtney, addressing these issues, and at the same time allowing for improvement and student reflection, is now essential to her pedagogy. Amy’s greatest challenge is changing perceptions and perspectives, especially with parents and teachers whose art experience is focused around technical skills. She focuses her attention on showing a student that he/she can be successful in the art room even when a student doesn’t have the highest level of technical skills. For her, art isn’t about being able to draw perfect still life photo; art is about changing the world around you. Throughout her career, Amy has sought to educate students, families, community members, and fellow educators of the positive impact that artistic development can have. She hopes for people to understand that artistry is a learned skill that anyone can enjoy rather than something that is simply innate. Ultimately, she strives to make her classroom a safe and supportive space where artists of any skill level can learn and grow. ASSESSMENT This shift in focus also impacts the way Amy assesses students. Previously, her priority has been on craft, technique, and the end product. But, if creativity is the most important element, how can this be reflected in assessment? As Amy reflects, she realizes the process is important, if not more so than the end product. Now, she focuses her attention on “What do I want the kids to understand?” instead of “What do I want the final product to look like?” To get to this point, she built the assessments from the ground up. To assist in the process, she utilized the book Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe. For each grade, she broke down the four separate standards: Creating, Presenting, Responding, and Connecting. Then, she determined the most important strands for each area. From here she developed the questions and built rubrics. Here is one section of her rubric for her unit on Power and Privilege: To view the complete rubric , please see Grade 7 Rubric - Power & Privilege.
Even though she still struggles with putting a grade on the process, this rubric helps the students see that work is always in progress. Students can see that creativity is a learned skill and can be improved upon. In an area where innate talent is often assumed to be critical, everybody can now show growth.
4 Comments
Steve Peterson
10/8/2016 09:59:52 am
This seems like a crucial thing to think about Amy and Sarah. Creativity is central to both the 21st century skills and what it means to live in the "knowledge economy."
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Amy
10/9/2016 01:32:27 pm
You have shared great insight for this topic as well as how rubrics fit into standards based grading. I use these rubrics as a checklist through the duration of the unit. I collect them at various times and meet with students individually to "rewrite" portions of their self-assessment. At the end of the project they do receive points/grades for all the parts of each unit, however, these rubrics are generally used as a tool for formative assessment. They open the door for students to remake, revise, reassemble, and critique their work as it progresses. These rubrics also allow me to assess my own teaching strategies and they clarify the elements that need greater emphasis during each unit.
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Amy
10/9/2016 05:17:21 pm
I loved the article you shared by the way!! It becomes such an important balance in what we do. Students need genuine feedback that is specific to their particular goals and they need to know we view them as a unique individual.
Steve Peterson
10/18/2016 01:42:07 pm
Thanks so much for responding! I just found out that you had done that. (Must have forgotten to check the little box down at the bottom.) Leave a Reply. |
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