Assessments are not just ways to evaluate the progress of our students; they also serve as strategies to evaluate and improve our performance as teachers. Assessments are often simply described as measurements of students’ progress and content understanding, using the systematic collection of data and information. This also includes the opportunity to evaluate the student by judging and assigning value to the data and information collected. Most assessments are formative or summative (or a combination of both), but assessments can also be diagnostic, ipsative, norm-referenced, or criterion-referenced. 

I was very intrigued by the concept of Universal Design Learning (UDL), as this strategy creates a level playing field where all students have an equal chance to succeed. During UDL, barriers and roadblocks are removed in order to guarantee academic success for a broad range of unique learners from varied backgrounds. During our class discussion on UDL, I mentioned how I would incorporate UDL into my art classroom. For example, if we’re talking about “texture” one week in art class, some students might prefer using materials that are more 3-dimensional and traditional (clay and canvas materials), while others might be more inclined to dissect “texture” assignments through Photoshop filters/software, sound-based sculpture, photography, or “found object” media. In my opinion, there really is no right or wrong way for a creative student to demonstrate their comprehension of “texture” in a piece of art, as long as they are meeting the requirements of the rubric. If they can successfully describe their process and knowledge of core concepts through short “artistic statements” for each assignment, I will be assess their understanding every week. 

As a future high school art teacher, assessment will play a crucial role in gauging my students’ progress. It’s very common for art classes to engage in classroom critiques after every assignment, thus, students will consistently be able to gather constructive feedback not only from me but also from observations and feedback that their fellow classmates bring up during these critique sessions. This type of regular weekly formative assessment provides a structured way to evaluate artistic skills we’re learning from texts and assignments, consistently improve our understanding of concepts that build off the previous week’s lessons, further our creative exploration and development, and continue our research into various mediums. Formative assessments can also include sketchbook or portfolio reviews as well, where I offer ongoing feedback, and encourage the students to try out new materials and refine certain art techniques and creative strategies. By the end of a semester, students will feel less anxiety about summative assessments, such as final projects and exhibitions. They will have had many opportunities to “rehearse” being assessed. Through a constant process of editing, revising, and fixing various techniques we’ve covered in class, they will also be more comfortable with the notion that an “art piece is never truly finished”. Any moment of summative assessment will simply measure their overall achievement and artistic growth throughout the class while giving them positive feedback to improve their work going forward. By incorporating rubrics into each art project, every student, no matter what their artistic level resides, will be able to include certain artistic expressions and concepts needed for each assignment, demonstrate their knowledge of artistic terminology, and double-check to make sure they are including knowledge of each visual skill as we progress throughout the term. In the context of the secondary art classroom, well-designed assessments help identify areas that need improvement, while allowing me as the instructor to personalize my instruction for each unique student, depending on where they’re at with their understanding.

This resource offers multiple “fun” ways of assessing students in the art classroom. I appreciated Nando’s Spice Level Evolution, which rates the spice level a student is working at extra hot, hot, medium, mild, or extra mild. At the highest level (extra hot), the art student has “completed all of the work so far to a high standard, and moved onto the challenging task”. A “Head Heart Big Bag” strategy uses emojis for students to reflect on their work. Students either choose “head”, which represents something that made them think, “heart” (something that made them feel, “bin” (something that they did not enjoy, that they would rather trash), or “bag”, which is something they will remember to incorporate in the future while they create.