IPP: Week 2 - Dichotomy of Evidence and Data

• 
  
• The Dichotomy of Evidence and Data
  
  
  
  
  • Read Beatty – Intro, Chapters 1 and 2
  • Create one Artist’s Journal Page that illuminates your thinking and learning from this reading, both visually and verbally, take pictures of it and Upload the Image. (If you chose to create a “digital” artist’s journal, or if you would like to create an analog and digital hybrid of your pages, please feel free to do so!
  • 
    
  
  
  
  
  • Read Reeves- Chapter 1
  • Create one Artist’s Journal Page that illuminates your thinking and learning from this reading, both visually and verbally, take pictures of it and Upload the Image. (If you chose to create a “digital” artist’s journal, or if you would like to create an analog and digital hybrid of your pages, please feel free to do so!
  
  • Please post a picture of your artist's journal page that illustrates your interaction with Chapter 4 in "Ahead of the Curve".  While you read the text, write down some reactions that you have.  Then, use image, text, drawing, etc., to illustrate what you were thinking.  When you post the image of the page, please write some supporting narration to help us understand. 
    While reading, I couldn't help but to think about how, in the name of equality, teachers in my building are asked to do the same as everyone else in terms of assessment. Two common formatives an a common summative each semester. And how that has proven to be a challenge for the area of art because we struggle against having to do the same thing at the same time as other art teachers (we have 6 in my building alone.) And I wonder, Why? I mean really, why? I know the theory behind it, and it sounds good. But we don't have a state test. We don't have benchmarks. Priority standards are a matter of opinion. So, really, why so much sterness and seriousness to do the same thing just so we can compare results?  Major work to do to make all this theory fit our discipline...and it is not going to look the same as everyone else. Ainsworth speaks about it in terms of the other subjects and I want to speak to some one just as knowledgeable about art ed as well. Someone who can straddle both worlds and help me with my questions. 
  
  
  • Discussion Questions on Blackboard:
  • What is your most preferred method of collecting on-going information about your student’s performance? Is this data that you can give to someone outside of our field? Why or Why Not?
  • 
    
         My most preferred method of collecting on-going information about my students' performance is first and foremost the art work they create. However, even though for years, I have said that projects are both the way students learn and are also assessed (what I think of as an integrated assessment after reading the Beattie book), I still don't think I really ever thought about them in the same terms as other assessments. The creating is the heart and soul of what it means to be an artist, so in truth, I never really looked at it in the same way I would other assessments. This may also be a result of the curriculum too, where one project related very little to the next. There was no real opportunity to demonstrate growth. We didn't work consistently in one medium to demonstrate developed skills. We flitted from one element/principle to the next. We were asked to create formative and summative assessments that were strictly selected responses that could be entered into our Mastery Manager test program that could generate reports about student performance in relation to our standards. I used formative assessments constantly to assess the foundations of student understanding. I would assess vocabulary comprehension, basic skill techniques, aesthetic opinions, etc. In truth, what told me the most about what my students were taking in (learning - not regurgitating or winging on instinct) were exit slips. Whenever I needed to know where my students were at in order to prepare an experience for the next day, I would give an index card, post-it or other small paper and ask anywhere from 1 - 3 questions or give them a small creation task. These told me so much more about what my students got out of class that day. Best formatives. As far as summatives, I hated giving the multiple choice final exams, but loved the "performance events" where I had students reflect on what they created over the course of the semester. They would select a piece to tell about their successes and challenges, what they felt they learned over the semester, and what they still needed to learn to get better. Hearing in their own words what they learned was so much more meaningful and helpful as I designed learning events for them. 
         No, I probably could not give this type of data to someone outside our field. Maybe not even someone in my department, truthfully. It is hard to relate what they were saying if you did not experience the class. In countless conversations about common assessments, and therefore common lessons (kinda hate that idea, but understand the theory behind it. still it just makes me feel icky), people outside art can not understand why we can't teach concepts the exact same in the same order. Why sometimes some standards will align with others, but don't have to. They can not comprehend why we might not want to match these up the exact same between the 6 teachers who teach in my building let alone district wide between the 15 art teachers. It is incredibly frustrating to be asked to do everything the same so that we can compare data in a subject that isn't tested for EOC, or MAP, or any other state wide test. We don't have the same investment in the results. (Over the years, there have been multiple advocacy groups that have fallen on both sides of the 'Art needs to have a state test' debate and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Does it legitimize what we do? Or does it mean we go through that many more meaningless hoops in order to prove our students learn in a way that isn't very authentic to our discipline?)
  
  
  • Discussion Questions on Blackboard:
  • In your Artist’s Journal, create a list of the characteristics and qualities of art making and art education, then decided whether or not it can be measured.
  For some reason, comprehending what this list was asking for was difficult for me. In general, I think what I value about making art may be different than what I think an art student learning to make art should be assessed on.
  
  
  • Expression & Communication
  • Confidence
  • - in mark making
  • - in skill
  • - in voice
  • - in self
  • Originality
  • - fresh voice
  • - new perspective
  • Inquisitivity & Curiosity
  • A "Stick-with-it-ness" 
  • - tenacity
  I think all of these are difficult to assess externally unless you ask students to reflect on these things and write a statement that you can assess.
  
  

IPP: Week 1 - Introductions

Illuminating Process and Progress:

Making Learning Visible

Week One Assignments:

• Artist’s Journal introductory experience

   

My AJ and I first met on a very special day back in 2012, but before I tell you how we met, let me tell you how we came together. It was back in the Spring of 2012 or maybe even 2011, when destiny started to pull our threads together. A pixie-like woman was presenting at an art conference on the magic of sketchbooks and art journals in the art class. Her enthusiasm for the transformative and inspirational nature of the sketchbook couldn't help but be contagious and it consumed me with AJ fever. That very next week I ordered sketchbooks from the Blick spring sale catalog in hopes of spreading the contagion to next year's art students.  I excitedly dreamt of all the possibilities and potential these blank books held inside. The next school year rolled around and a new set of future artists came through the door, taking their place in the studio and settling in. As we got to know each other, they realized I was...let's say, "enthusiastic" about lighting a creative fire in them and I wasn't above using dramatics as kindling. One day as they entered, I announced it was a very special day. A day that would be the beginning of a transformative journey in the studio. And just like the woman bouncing all over the conference room, I, too, was bubbling over with excitement. I rolled out a draped cart and donned my official artist's beret. Twirling my invisible artist's moustache I called each student up and "knighted" them with their artist names and bestowed upon them their own sketchbook with a deep bow. Each AJ was now property of the student artist and they could use it as they saw fit. Sometimes I would give them investigations (assignments) and sometimes I would just tell them to do something - anything - in the book -- To Be Brave. it was theirs to do with as they wanted. If they filled it, I gave them another one. This was their textbook and the expectation was to have it with them always. As we started to work in the AJ's, I realized I needed one too. I needed to be brave and I needed to reawaken my artist's habits. This is the book I ended with last year and the one I plan on using as we work on Illuminating Process & Progress. Perfect size to carry anywhere and take notes or do a little sketching. 

• Aesthetic Inventory
• Create an aesthetic inventory uncover and make real, your Aesthetic.  If you would like a challenge, try to create an anti-aesthetic inventory. 

Having the most problems with blackboard this week! Sheesh.

Well, this assignment was both fun and infuriating all at the same time. I realized that a lot of what I find beautiful and what I want to emulate is hard for my hard to create. Interesting to feel that same sensation I felt as a beginning artist of frustration and disconnect between head (mind's eye) and hand. I also find that I have an eclectic aesthetic and it was difficult to record so many images in one limited defined space. ( I think that is why I am sooo addicted to and attracted to Pinterest. Infinite gigabytes!)

So, what I ended up doing as I was stumped about where to begin and pondering how to fill the blank whiteness that was glaring at me from my aj, was do what I always tell my students. just do something so that the white is no longer white. So that you have created something to alter, to change, to cover, -- just begin. So I started collecting images that speak to my three general rules about what I like. It has to connect and speak to the hand, the heart, and the mind. (And I totally stole that from another artist, Shea Hembrey, who broke down my thoughts so well.) 

What you will see in my AJ is what I see as a starting point. I plan on going back into these images and finishing them up with some layering of drawing, colors, and text. What a fun place to begin!

     

I'm attracted to:

• color
• rawness
• a sense of time
• nostalgia
• layers
• cheeky defiance
• edginess
• delicateness without being fluffy or weak
• whimsy
• playfulness
• boldness
• subtleties
• mystery
• unusualness

And that is probably just the beginning of a very long list, but where I'm at now! 

• Discussion Question:
  • Tell about an assessment that you have encountered, either good or bad, and discuss what it is about the experience that makes it a “bookmark” moment.

1. Why were you assessed?

2. Was the experience positive or negative?

3. To what degree did that assessment help you? And if it did, how did it help?

I subjected myself to the National Board Certification process. Honestly, some of the best professional development I've done. Got me to focus and reflect on what makes a good art teacher and how my actions effect the learning of my students. But it was hard, stressful, and a little bit unnerving. So, both a positive and negative experience. It is a serious of 4 intensive portfolios that have you documenting and reflecting on certain parts of your teaching process and then taking a series of tests (10 I think) covering the content you should know. The one that has stuck with me the most was the performance test where they send you a bag of materials and you have to create with just what they give you. And the rules for this are SO specific and meticulous and there is zero room for a mistake or you fail. Point blank. So it was really unnerving to have to create to such specifications without them aligning to the natural way I create. There wasn't a pencil listed on the supplies, and I normally have to sketch something out before I begin, and I couldn't do that! It definitely made me think about the feelings I create in my students when I set up certain parameters to my projects. The whole process made me think about how I structure my assignments and whether they relate or build off of each other, or if students see relevance in them, and if they are worthwhile in the big picture of life. Art can be so much and I want my students to experience that and feel the power of art in themselves. I thought that before I went through this assessment, but feel I have a much better idea of how to execute my vision now.

Reply Quote Edit Delete