Assessment: Tracking Student Work

In a traditional art room, all students are tasked with completing the same project. There are certain benefits to this, such as knowing what every student will learn, knowing what materials they will use, and understanding which techniques they will incorporate.

In a classroom dedicated to the Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) methodology, none of these benefits apply. The focus of the TAB classroom is the art-making process, with students designing their own individual projects. In a TAB class, it’s possible to have thirty students working on thirty different projects, with each student learning different things, using different materials, applying different techniques, and completing their projects at different times.

With so many variables, it may seem impossible to track each student’s process. However, it can be done.

Tracking Students’ Engagement
The teacher first needs to track what students are physically accomplishing in the classroom. This includes understanding the project they are designing, knowing which materials they are using, and recognizing their level of engagement throughout their project.

Understanding the project design helps the teacher make media and composition suggestions. Knowing the materials helps the teacher make technique suggestions. Recognizing the level of engagement helps the teacher determine the student’s work ethic. To record this information, a weekly or daily tracking log can be beneficial.
A binder, organized by classes, containing a page for each student, can be a simple solution. Each student’s page can contain basic demographic information. The rest of the page can provide a space to write the student’s concepts, ideas, and goals.
For tracking engagement, a weekly tracking log, consisting of a column of student names and rows of days of the week, works well. The teacher can track engagement daily by making a mark next to each student’s name, much in the same way the teacher marks attendance.

Tracking Completed Projects
Picture an art teacher’s desk on the day a project is due. There’s a pile of art so large it engulfs the entire table. Imagine the teacher sifting through the pile, sorting and stacking artworks. It can be a daunting task when all the projects are due at the same time.

It can be even more difficult for the TAB teacher whose students all have different deadlines. Trying to collect and track artwork in this situation would require a never-ending pile of art. But tracking art this way is no longer necessary. Instead of collecting physical pieces, art can now be collected digitally using an online app such as Seesaw.
Seesaw allows students to quickly post photos of their art online. Posts appear chronologically, making it easy to scroll down and view students’ work. The teacher can also choose to view work by student name, ensuring a post is never overlooked.

The teacher should require a consistent time for students to post that will work with the class schedule. One suggestion would be for students to post once a week on Fridays. Having students post consistently, even if they have not completed their project, also captures the process.

Tracking What Students Have Learned
When a teacher provides a class project, all students are following the same lesson plan. In the student-directed classroom, students are designing their own individual lessons. To capture what students are learning, a customized lesson plan is needed for each student. One way to accomplish this task is with the Project Matrix, a questionnaire that students complete during the art-making process. The Project Matrix captures information about the four basic phases of the artistic process: Identify, Explore, Apply, and Reflect.

Since the Project Matrix is designed to track the process, students should receive the questionnaire at the beginning of their project. Teachers can review these questionnaires after the completion of the student’s project or collect them weekly.

Here is an overview of the four sections, starting with the questions and followed by a brief description:

Stage 1: Identify
Circle your Learning Target:

I will improve my knowledge of an art medium.
I will incorporate new skills and/or techniques into my work.

Students select a learning target from a list based on the standards. This learning target will guide the student through the art-making process and explain the project’s objective.

Stage 2: Explore
Which materials are you choosing to explore? What skills or techniques are you trying to improve?
Students explore materials and/or techniques to use later in the creation of a final artwork. Some students might choose to experiment or play with a material as a means of learning. Other students might study how other artists have used materials or techniques by watching tutorials.

Stage 3: Apply
Describe what you created.
Students describe what they have created. This section should demonstrate what the student learned in the Explore phase. This also demonstrates how students are meeting their learning target.

Stage 4: Reflect
What went well? What can be improved for future works of art?
Students reflect on what they accomplished during the week.