Formative Assessment

Today's entry, I am going to three formative assessments that I can use for my Unit in Color Theory. The focus in this unit today will be on the objective created from the standard "Demonstrate openness in trying new ideas, materials, methods, and approaches in making works of art and design." NCCAS: Grade 6 Anchor Standard 2. The Objective is that by the end of the unit, students will be able to create the necessary colors to produce the color schemes Monochromatic, Analogous, Triadic, and Split Complementary. 

First Assessment 

The first Formative Assessment, inspired by The Art of Education, is to have the students T.A.G. one another. T.A.G.-ing is a form of peer critique that looks at if the other students can analyze and evaluate if their peer is remembering, understanding, and applying while they create their project.  Sometimes students get wrapped up in their project they might not remember the objective; this activity gives the student a chance to work with a peer to not just get a compliment but constructive criticism to help them reach the goal and fulfill the standard. Students exchange sketchbooks for writing down their T.A.G. Writing it down is good for the student, because then if they need to, they can go back and re-read the T.A.G. T is for Telling the artist something you like about their artwork. A is for Asking a question concerning a choice they made in their artwork. And G is for Giving a suggestion on how to improve the artwork. To make sure students are accurately T.A.G.ing each other, I will put a vocabulary key on the board to help the students carefully critique eachother. This assessment will not only show me if there is something missing in their work, but it will also show the student the areas they should improve on.

Second Assessment

Another form of Formative Assessment I will be using taken from the book, 60 Formative Assessment Strategies by Natalie Regier,  I will have students list 10 Things that they have learned so far. About halfway through the class, I will have students take out their sketchbook and list ten things they have learned during the unit. I will then have the students raise their hands, and we will create a community list on the board. As the list grows, if a student doesn't have a particular thing they have learned on their list, but it is on the board, I will ask them to write the word or term in their sketchbook continuing down. If they list something that shouldn't be there I will have them mark it out, but not erase it, this will give me and them and understanding of where they are, as well as help me identify any gaps in learning they might have. The goal is to make sure that they have a complete understanding, so to help not have any holes in their knowledge while they try to apply what they know. 

Third Assessment 

The final form of Formative Assessment I plan to do is a self-reflection written in their sketchbooks. This assessment, found in the Ultimate Guide to Assessment in the Art Room, is heavily inspired by Blooms Taxonomy. According to The Art of Ed, "Self-assessment is an important growth concept that should take place on a regular basis in the art room." They suggest that "Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) can provide a hierarchy outline of self-reflection prompts for students to use at any time in the art making process."
The student will use the following prompts to write a reflexion in their sketchbook:
Remembering- Here are the steps I took to complete this work. 
Understanding- Did I achieve my goals for this project? 
Applying- Where could I use these art techniques and process again? 
Analyzing- Do I see any patterns in my work habits? 
Evaluating- What are my thoughts on how my artwork turned out? What needs improvement? 
Creating-  What’s my plan for going forward for this piece of artwork as well as new works?

References

Theartofed.com. Retrieved December 14, 2016, from https://www.theartofed.com/content/uploads/2016/03/Ultimate-Assessment-Guide.pdf?mc_cid=0dee7cc64f&mc_eid=8ba8cffc4aMarzano, Robert J. Designing & Teaching Learning Goals & Objectives. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research Laboratory, 2009. National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (2014) National Core Arts Standards. Rights Administered by the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education. Dover, DE, www.nationalcoreartsstandards.orgRegier, N. 60 Formative Assessments. Retrieved December 14, 2016, from http://www.stma.k12.mn.us/documents/DW/Q_Comp/FormativeAssessStrategies.pdf

Understanding and Applying Standards

As an educator I  need to develop the best lesson for their students; I need to be aware of all the aspects of planning a unit, how the students perceive it. How will students be able to retain the content? Will the lesson be relevant compared to the overall big picture in the curriculum? Teach-Now has been great over the last Unit in preparing me for the future lessons I will teach by helping me understand how to unpack standards, backward planning, and writing objectives.

First thing I learned this week is to figure out what standards I  need to focus. Depending on where you teach standards can change. For the school, I teach at we use the NCCAS standards. Once you have your standard, you choose to focus on you can start your backward planning. Backward planning isn't as strange as it sounds. It makes a lot of sense when it comes planning a lesson or a unit. It's saying to yourself "Once the students have learned essential content, what will they be able to do with it?" To look at what you want the end product to look like and say, "this is where I want my students to be, what path are we going to take to get here?"

Which takes me to objectives, I must say I love using objectives, especially objectives based on smart goals, standards, and with a little blooms taxonomy thrown in there. It's not enough to say "Students will learn" We need to make sure that our students will be able to know what they need to know. And using smart goals to measure out the objectives is just the thing. Smart goals help the student and teacher set goals that are very specific, able to be measured, able to be reached during an allotted amount of time, and re relevant to their future development. It makes me think twice before giving an objective to my student. Will this objective help the student meet the goals outlined in the unit and the standards? No? Then I should probably rewrite the smart goal.

Over the course of this Unit of Standards, I have been challenged to take a second look at the standards in my curriculum. To see if I truly understand the standards and if I am unpacking them in a way where it will benefit the students. My goal is to open up the student's minds to new concepts, new ideas, to help prepare them for the 21st century. And I will use the standards the best that I can to prepare the students for where I want them to be by the end of their time with me.  


Creating. (n.d.). Retrieved December 09, 2016, from http://www.nationalartsstandards.org/

Think Alouds: Unpacking the Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved December 09, 2016, from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/understanding-the-common-core-standards

McTighe, J. (2012). Common Core Big Idea 4: Map Backward From Intended Results. Retrieved December 09, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/common-core-map-backwards-jay-mctighe-grant-wiggins
SWBAT: Communicating Learning Goals. (n.d.). Retrieved December 09, 2016, from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/making-lesson-objectives-clear

Lesson Planning. (n.d.).

Standards and Backwards Mapping

I am currently teaching a 6th-grade art class at an International School in Hong Kong. The curriculum the school uses is based on the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards. These standards are a Nation Wide set of Standards that are used in the United States. The NCCAS focus on four main points that all art subjects use to help guide educators provide unified quality art education for their students. The focus is on creating, performing/presenting/producing, responding, and connecting. The standards are designed to give educators a structure to help scaffold the lessons to build upon each year. They also contain Enduring Understandings as well as Essential Questions. These are helpful to teachers when it comes to backward planning. Backward planning isn't backward at all when you think about it. It focuses on the end goal, what does the educator want the student to accomplish at the end of a unit, what is the objective of the whole unit. Once the instructor has chosen the goals based on the Standard, they can then focus on ways to deliver the content in a way that best suits the student and their needs.

Standard 

The art standard I have chosen to focus on for the Unit is the anchor standard 2:
" Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
The substandard "VA:Cr2.1.6a: Demonstrate openness in trying new ideas, materials, methods, and approaches in making works of art and design."
This standard was chosen for my Introductory Unit in 6th grade, the first unit that they experience as a middle schooler. The goal for the unit is that sets the tone and the standard for the entire Middle School experience. At the school that I teach, the 6th-grade art class is an introductory art course where students are exposed to new ideas and concepts in art. It is also where we set expectations for our students when it comes to the organization and development of these new ideas and approaches. What better standard to focus on than having students focus on the demonstration of openness in trying new ideas, materials, methods, and approaches in making works of art and design. Up until now, students have not been given a chance to branch out to contemporary art or use complicated mediums such as Acrylic. To figure out how to structure the instruction and learning, I first look at the enduring understanding statements and essential questions for the standard. The enduring understanding is Artists and designers balance experimentation and safety, freedom and responsibility while developing and creating artworks. And the Essential Questions are How do artists work? How do artists and designers determine whether a particular direction in their work is effective? How do artists and designers learn from trial and error? This information helps me better plan my lesson. It gives me a "take away" for the unit.

So what are the new ideas, new materials, and methods as well as approaches will I be focusing on for this unit? The new ideas will be based on the color wheel that they had already learned in grade four, only taken to the next level where they will learn aboutAnalogus, Triadic, and Split complimentary color schemes, how to identify the color schemes and why artists decide to use those schemes in their work. The new materials and methods will be acrylic painting, a more difficult medium for students to use, especially when it comes to mixing color. The new approaches will be graffiti art; students have never been taught about modern or contemporary art before 6th grade, and this will be the unit that helps get their toes wet in deeper thinking when it comes to art.

Focus 

I will be focusing on three proficiencies that what students will be able to do once the unit is completed.
1. By the end of the unit, the students will be expected to identify and create Analogous, Triadic, and Split complimentary color schemes.
2. Students will explore and apply a range of acrylic paint techniques and brushwork.
3. Students will have an increased awareness of contemporary art forms such as graffiti and street art.

Instructional Strategies 

Three instructional plans I intend on using to help the students learn the concepts are:
1. To help the students understand the more complex color schemes, I plan on playing a Color Theory Card game. The game requires a deck of color theory cards that contain the colors of a color wheel. Students will be delt a card and then stand in the circle. I will call out different color terminologies starting from the basics such as primary and secondary color to the most challenging concepts such as split complementary. As the students try to pair or trio up, this gives them a chance to make mistakes to help them learn without the fear of failing and without over lecturing.
2. Paint by dice game - To help the students practice their painting techniques in a structured yet fun way the students will be playing a paint by dice game. Each table will have paints, brushes, paper as well as a game sheet. The game sheet is a guide sheet where you can try different techniques based on what number your role; the students also roll the dice to determine the color they will use. The aim of the game is to roll until your page is filled up and all the techniques have been tried. The game creates a broad range of different style paintings, but the end goal is to get the student to attempt to try all the different techniques while having fun.
3. Virtual Field Trip- The school I currently teach at has a one to one program for computers, and thanks to Google Earth and culture I can take the students on guided field trips around the world. To expose the students to a wide range of art, I will select a field trip of an appropriate context for the students to attend. The great part about Google Art and Culture is a lot of specific excursions already exist. The one I will take them on is one around London where a famous graffiti artist uses his name to tag buildings. A guided visual experience helps increase their awareness of different art styles and opens the class up to discussions such as "How do artists and designers determine whether a particular direction in their work is effective?" as well as some other Essential Questions for the standard.

Assessment 

I will be using three ways to assess the students to help me and them know if they are learning the concepts. The assessments are a tool to help me measure if the students are learning and if not, how I can adjust the lesson to help them learn.
1. First assessment the students will be given is a Color Theory Quiz. It is a simple formative quiz that goes over the vocabulary and the color theory to show if a student has absorbed the new information or not. If they did? Celebrations all around! If not? Let's dust us off, and I will find a more suitable way of instructing the content.
2.   Another assessment is the final project. This project is a summative assessment that uses a rubric to give students guidance on the project. The students choose a color scheme that they would like to use based on triadic, split complementary, or analogous. The student then designs their name using graffiti, inspired by their field-trip to England. And finally, the student demonstrates their brush skills that they have been learning in applying the paint that they have mixed from only primary colors into the color scheme they have chosen. This final project shows the teacher and the students what information in the end made it and what didn't. I use the rubric given to them at the beginning of the project to grade them. If they don't do well, I give them feedback and a chance to make adjustments on their project. The object isn't if the student gets it right the first time, it's if the student learns the required content.
3. The third assessment that I will use will be an artist statement. An artist statement is a piece of written work that helps students reflect on the objectives and goals. I give students a flow chart, taken from The Art of Education assessment tools.Students must follow for writing their artist statement at the end of the unit. They start with 1. Describe your artwork. 2. How did you create your art? 3. What is the big idea behind your artwork? 4. What were your goals for this artwork? 5. What are your overall thoughts of your artwork? Each of these questions has some questions to consider to guide the students. This helps the students to become aware of their choices as an artist and communicate their learning process and production of creative works effectively.

Conclusion 

In conclusion my goal was to create a unit that was focused on a standard and used backward planning, to give students an achievable target that students will be able to attain in their pursuit of education.



References:
Creating. (n.d.). Retrieved December 09, 2016, from http://www.nationalartsstandards.org/

Recent Articles - The Art of Ed. (n.d.). Retrieved December 09, 2016, from https://www.theartofed.com/recent-articles/page/10/

Sign In - Rubicon International. (n.d.). Retrieved December 09, 2016, from https://ics-hk.rubiconatlas.org/Atlas/Portal/View/Default