How The Heck Do You Grade Art?
Hi All,
Starting later this week, students will be taking home the first of this year’s art projects. For students in grades 1-3, projects will also be accompanied with Project Evaluations that show the grade for that project. I have had some parents ask me “How the heck do you grade art?” For this reason, I’d like to take this opportunity to explain the grading process for art class.
Let me begin by making clear what the grade does NOT mean. The grade is not an expression of whether the teacher thinks the student is a “good” artist or “bad” artist and it isn’t a judgment of what kind of person the child is (because as far as I’m concerned, I don’t have any “bad” children or “bad” artists :-). The grade that each child receives on a particular project only reflects how well the student did at meeting the objectives of that project.
People have also asked me “How do you decide what to teach?” Each lesson is based on the Illinois Fine Learning Standards. You can view these goals online at http://www.isbe.state.il.us/ils/fine_arts/standards.htm. I base each lesson on one or more of these standards. I make sure to state clearly at the beginning of each lesson what we hope to accomplish (learning how to use markers to draw different types of lines, for example). I also make sure to check in with the students at several points in the lesson, reminding them of their objectives for the lesson. In addition, I show the students examples of projects that meet the objectives for the lesson, projects that exceed the standards, and projects that don’t meet the standards. When the lesson is completed, I use a rubric designed for that particular lesson to assess each student’s performance.
Hopefully, this gives everyone a clearer picture of how the grading process works for art class. If there are any questions about a particular grade on a particular project, please let me know.
-Duone Brown