IPP: Week 2 - Dichotomy of Evidence and Data

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• 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!
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  • 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?
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         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.