Question 2
Teaching Skills and Assessment

To create a holistic approach to assessment in stage 4 Visual Arts there are a number of basic elements that need to be addressed.
Syllabus and levels of achievement.

The first is a consideration and understanding for the visual arts syllabus, and support documents as these contain the outcomes and content for the lessons and descriptions of the levels of achievement for this stage. Teachers can use the visual arts syllabus and stage outcomes as a tool in planning their teaching and learning programs and for assessing and reporting a students progress.

Assessment
The next stage a teacher needs to consider is planning and implementing strategies to assess a students learning. This means that teachers need to plan for and provide activities to assess student achievement during the classes. This involves teachers deciding on how and when to assess a students work and can be done on an individual basis or a in a normative approach, that is, assessing a students work by a comparison to other students. The students can also be encouraged to take part in their own self assessment and in how their work stands up next to their peers as this creates opportunities for the them to take responsibility of their learning though gaining continual feedback in how they have achieved the given tasks. In preparation for this the teacher can provide the students clear learning goals and the criteria that will be used to judge them.

Reporting
Reporting is mainly a tool for providing feedback to students, parents and other teachers, this can be done in two ways, either verbally with peer involvement or in a written form which could involve the results gathered from previous assessments of learning made at key moments during the learning stages of the lesson; For example an assessment of learning involving the use of line and tone, before another assessment is made of a formal sketch of a class mate. The previous results can inform the overall assessment.
In the visual arts syllabus descriptions have been given for the levels of achievement that provide a useful tool for report making in giving consistent information about student achievement to students, parents and other teachers.
The level of achievement for Stage 4 Visual Arts are as follows:

Level Four: High achievement

Level 2–3: A satisfactory and high level of achievement that is enough to provide for a solid grounding for the next stage of learning.

Level 1: Identifies students progressing towards achieving the outcomes of that stage.
If these levels of achievement are used a common language for reporting is established.

Choosing Assessment Strategies.
Teachers of Visual Arts need to employ a number of assessment strategies to ensure that information is being learnt and understood and that the necessary skills, are being developed. The assessments should be appropriate to the outcomes of the lesson and be supportive of the stages of the learning process.
In planning assessments in the Visual Arts teachers need to think about weather there will be sufficient and appropriate information collected for making an informed judgement of the standard achieved at the end of the stage.
There are three main areas of assessment for the Visual Arts that achieve this.

1.Artmaking: Examples of assessment activities include, individual and group artmaking, range of materials investigated, oral presentations explaining procedures and ideas, an exhibition of the students work.

2.Visual Art Process Diaries: Assessment activities include student research of different techniques, exploration of interests through sketches, notes and other media, explanations of art making procedures.

3.Art Critical and Historical: Possible assessment activities, Explanations of artworks employing one or more of the frames, research tasks investigating artists and their art works, exhibition reports.

Assessment Rubric
An assessment Rubric for evaluating Visual Arts Stage 4 enables the students, parents and teachers to clearly see the criteria or expectation for achievement. This allows for feedback that is more concise and builds a students responsibility in their leaning process.

Here is an example of a rubric that for art making practice in a stage 4 Visual Arts lesson.

Task Elements

1. To produce a portrait
2. Oral presentation
3. Written material

Dimensions

1.
– Knowledge of color theory
– Composition and likeness
– Understanding of light and shade

2.
– Word annunciation
– Articulation of ideas
– Planning

3.
– Evidence of research into elements colors theory
– Research task involving a painter and his use of color

Guidelines for Marking

Level 4.
– Has achieved a high understanding for the use of colors in creating mood, perspective and achieved a good likeness through accuracy or the use of symbolism and the frames
– Has achieved a high level of speaking through well presented ideas and articulated speech
– Has shown how art gains meaning form the world for the artist
Level 2-3.
– Has demonstrated an understanding of complimentary colors and the tonal effects of light and shade.
– Has demonstrated an organized talk
– Has demonstrated research into chiaroscuro and artist biography
Level 1.
– Presents a portrait with flat tone and no color theory
– Present a talk that is not clear and poorly planned
– Presents unorganized research about an artist and artwork

Reference: Visual Arts syllabus