Art

Unlike tested subjects, and even physical education, progress in art class is tracked and assessed differently. This is because art is subjective at times. I could potentially give more writing assignments, tests, and quizzes, but this too me would solely to produce more easily tracked data. I have tried this style teaching, it just is not fun for the scholars, or me! It takes away from what art is meant to be, art is meant to be an act of communication with the world around us. Each artist has the control to create whatever they want and have it mean whatever they want, artists do this by manipulating spaces, materials, and elements to create and communicate feelings to the viewer. So my data tracking is very different. But because of this, it is hard to prove at times. I have worked hard to figure out ways to document student progress in art. Here are a few ways that I track my scholars progress through visual data and informal assessments and evaluation. 

• Group Discussion -  I LOVE introducing my scholars to a new artist they have never heard of before. I love to tell stories about their lives and see the kids light up with curiosity and intrigue. I usually start off with artists who have a clear path in their artistic life, something predictable and understandable, yet GRIPPING. This allows me to tell an interesting story, create that interest, then explain why art was important to them and what they did with their love of art. For example I use Vincent Van Gogh every year for my first introduction to art history. His story is familiar, relatable, and tragic. I can get the kids invested with the funny stories and beautiful (and recognizable) works of art. Then I go on to describe his struggles, personally and artistically, now my kids are invested, they feel sorry for Vincent. Then I show how he triumphed and overcame. This give my kids a "win." Now they are bought in when it comes to artists and their introductions. I carry on introducing artist (and planning fun art projects around them), slowly building the types of critical questions I ask them during the discussions, I slowly stop explaining what the artist intended with their work, and allow the students to make observations. The Know/Need to Know board comes in extremely handy in these situations, this is how our discussions are usually guided. Then, I start introducing multiple artists, I start comparing and contrasting for the class. I demo how to compare and contrast by natural questions and observations in the conversation. I can see progress in the ability of each student in asking questions or making observations. At the beginning of the year I would ask what they saw and would be met with blank stares. If I asked why an artist would have made some work, same thing. I slowly started getting small observations like "they used lots of colors" or "I like that painting." Now I am hearing questions and observations like" 

1. J. Greer 1st Grade: "Oh I see! This artist (Wassily Kandinsky) uses bright colors like Andy Warhol!"

2. M. Kennedy 4th Grade: "It isn't fair that [Frida] Khalo was not able to learn art and take normal classes just because she was a woman. I'm so glad things have changed. "It's also crazy that she still chose to paint, no one was helping her."

3. T. Simmons Kindergarten: "OH! So he really liked drawing stars at night. But they don't look like normal stars.. they're all swirly." (Vincent Van Gogh)

4. D. Christopher 2nd Grade: "Mrs. McCullin!! I made you this, it is a drawing of myself like that Jean guy made!" (Jean-Michel Basquait)

5. L. Uriteta 1st Grade: "I like these statues, they are silly. They do not really look like the people though. Their eyes are too big." (Discussing Mesopotamian Votive statues.) 

6. G. Martinez 4th Grade: "Why were they mean to him? He was just trying to paint!" (I asked him why he thought Van Gogh was still willing to paint even though people didn't like his art and were mean to him) "Oh that's easy, he loves art. He is gonna make it no matter what."

7.  C. Salizar 2nd Grade: "This artist uses lots of shapes, like squares and stuff, and this artist uses more wavy lines, like this *wiggles hand through the air.*" (I say "Yes! Geometric verses organic shapes. What is something they have in common though?") "Oh well, they both have really bright colors, there are lots of yellows and pinks and stuff!" 

8. V. Ibrahim 4th Grade: "Soooooo people think she is crazy? (Yayoi Kusama) (I answer "yes, because she is very vocal about her mental health struggles" - I allow her to finish her thought) "Well I kinda like that she is different, she makes really cool stuff... I haven't seen anything this before, I want to go see this sometime." 

These are just observations made during conversations and discussions that we have in class that I recorded. Many more conversations happen like this. It has taken a lot of time and modeling to get our class to this point. I am hoping by starting stuff like this while they are young, they will be able to have deeper discussions as they grow older in art and other subjects,

Side note: I have had several parents stop me and tell me that their scholar has surprised them with some random art fact or knowledge and was impressed with them being able to name an artist or process we learned in class! This absolutely makes my day.

• Baseline -  At the beginning of the year I do an introductory project that allows me to get to know each scholar on a personal level, it usually involves their name and favorite things, but it also allows me to see their raw, natural artistic talent. It helps me know where their 100% is. There is not right or wrong answer when it comes to art, so to be able to track art progress there are no numbers. I do however get to see progress within their visual aesthetics. I can also see if they are using the materials the right way and/or improving with the materials. Check out visual student progress here.  Please refer to my My Management Skills page to read more about my "baseline."

• Visual Aesthetic Comparison - there are times I can visually see a difference in student growth. This is also really fun for the scholars. They can see their improvement, which boost confidence! I will usually pick a famous work of art, I like to use Vincent Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles because its colorful, and the images is very painterly, so they do not stress as much if it isn't *exactly* like his. Then we learn some techniques, discuss how to use materials, and then redraw it. They get so excited every time they see the difference.  Another one I really like to do is a drawing of an eye, I let them draw an eye for the first time on their own. Then I teach them the "tips and tricks" and then we redraw the eye. They are blown away usually at the results. You can see this exercise here on my Impact on Student Learning page. 

Physical Education

Physical Education can be tricky as well when it come to tracking data for growth when it comes to improving game play or strategy skills, but unlike art P.E. does have numbers! We are able to track our progress by documenting our "baseline" for several activities, such as push ups, sit ups, or mile time. Then we work on different exercises to strengthen some different areas then we revisit our initial baseline activity and redo it closer to the end of the year and we can easily see our growth! Also, a really big thing within my P.E. class is goal setting! Goal setting allows the students to take their own progress into their own hands and have control over their outcomes.  Below you will see some examples of the goal setting that the scholars have done, along with some data that we have tracked over the years. 

Below, see each grade level and the artifacts of learning that have been produced over the years.  Some are divided into grade levels and some are just show as proejcts spanning over several different classes. 

Most artifacts will be products of our art and art history lessons.