Consider the benefits of art portfolios so you can intentionally integrate portfolios into your teaching practice.

Portfolios help students in K-12 and beyond.

Students of all ages benefit from building their own portfolios. Younger learners gain confidence by witnessing their progress and revisiting past lessons. It’s a fun way to make them feel like an artist! As students advance, portfolios become essential tools for high school courses like AP Art and Design or IB Visual Art where they demonstrate skill development and conceptual exploration. For all students, portfolios can serve as an inventory of their artwork and ideas over time. 

Furthermore, portfolios cultivate essential reflection and presentation skills relevant to all aspects of life. Whether applying for jobs, pitching ideas to clients, preparing for college or competitions, or even crafting a compelling social media presence, the ability to effectively showcase one’s accomplishments is crucial. Introducing portfolio development early helps students cultivate these skills incrementally, avoiding the last-minute scramble.

Portfolios reveal effective teaching.

Portfolio reviews offer a valuable opportunity for assessment and reflection, allowing you to evaluate your own teaching practice. By examining your students’ collected works, you gain insight into how your curriculum shapes their artistic development and reflects your own artistic viewpoint. Consider getting a fresh perspective by doing a portfolio swap with a colleague. Seeing work collected in another art teacher’s classroom can help you discover concepts, techniques, or approaches to explore in the future.

Portfolios reflect a strong curriculum.

Starting with a robust K-12 curriculum like FLEX Curriculum will make it easier to develop strong portfolios students will be proud of! A strong curriculum will meet your students’ needs and your state and district standards. It can be time-consuming to make or find resources to meet the varying levels of your students. FLEX helps you differentiate support for students with organized, sequenced content and filters to find instructional materials that meet state and district standards. The FLEX library is always growing so you can continue to add and change materials based on your students’ needs.

A solid curriculum will keep you and your students’ artwork focused because you’ll have clear concepts, terminology, techniques, mediums, and standards to follow. FLEX has well-composed learning objectives ready to copy and paste into any document or presentation. There are several options for each lesson for you to pick and choose from and then customize as needed. Additionally, FLEX has grade-level and media-based curricula to ensure your students are learning at a steady pace with a logical progression of skills. This directly translates into consistent growth which in turn results in more compelling portfolios!

Portfolios are a great advocacy tool for your art program.

Anything that art teachers are already doing in their art room that can promote their program and the visual arts is a win-win! Administrators love to see art portfolios because they capture the vibrant learning that happens in your art program. When tied to objectives and standards already provided in FLEX, it shows relevance. Because they capture growth over time, it can be a great way to demonstrate student learning objectives.

For secondary students who submit their portfolios for outside evaluation, the scores can highlight the strengths and successes of your program, school, and district. Leverage high scores to showcase the power of the visual arts and advocate for more funding for your program.

Gain resources to build better art portfolios so you can level up your students’ artmaking practice.

Set goals for a focused portfolio. 

A portfolio is not everything an artist created. Instead, it is a showcase of an artist’s best work. To determine what belongs in a portfolio, start by thinking about the goal. Are you trying to showcase expertise across a variety of media and subject matter or focus on mastery of a particular skill? Is it about the student’s personal growth and self-expression or the curricular standards? Do you want pieces that show a deep exploration of a concept or pieces that show technical proficiency? 

A strong collection will have a balance of commonality and variety. What unifies the collection will depend on your students’ age and your curriculum. Younger students’ portfolios tend to be more about exploring a variety of materials and methods. Older students’ portfolios are usually more conceptually driven.

Choose a route to success.

As creative professionals, we know there is no single solution to fit all learners and all circumstances. The same is true for portfolios! There are many formats to choose from, depending on your goals, student needs, and resources. In addition to the suggestions below, watch the Student Portfolio Basics Pack in PRO Learning for even more portfolio options!

Traditional Portfolio

Students fold a large sheet of construction paper and then glue or tape the sides to build a pocket to hold their collection of masterpieces. Check out the Personal Portfolios Lesson in FLEX for a simple plan to help students make beautiful custom portfolios tied to objectives and standards. If your budget allows, upgrade the paper portfolio by investing in hanging file folders.

Student Curated Exhibition Portfolio

Give students a large poster-sized sheet of paper or a yard of bulletin board paper to affix their best pieces on. Write brief artist statements using FLEX’s ready-made student-facing guides about why they are proud of these particular works to prompt reflection. This method gets pieces ready to hang for your art show ahead of time—all you need to do is hang one large sheet per student instead of thousands of artworks. 

DIY Photobook Portfolio

Fold and cut a large sheet of paper to make a small booklet. Students select their most prized artworks from the year. Take photos of students holding each artwork. Print the photographs for students to glue in their booklet, along with short artist statements about why they are proud of each work. Don’t forget to check FLEX for student-facing resources to guide students as they write about their work.

Process Journal Portfolio

Document the creative process with sketches, experimentation, and reflection. Journals provide valuable insight into artistic development and showcase problem-solving skills and a growth mindset. This is a more informal way to capture the “behind-the-scenes” work over a long period of time. The Reflect and Select Growth Portfolio Lesson in FLEX gives a step-by-step plan to build a portfolio documenting processes with artifacts.

Interactive Hyperdoc Portfolio

Slides are great for portfolios because students can embed more than just photographs. Students can include audio recordings of artist statements, as well as video or animation work. Students can also link to other resources such as artists who inspired them!

Career Portfolio

Challenge students to think about an art-related career that interests them. Brainstorm a list of skills that their career requires. Put together a portfolio of their artwork that demonstrates those skills. This method also points out any gaps in their skill set, which can direct future work. 

Continue developing portfolios.

A portfolio is a living document. As lifelong learners, students will grow and their portfolios should grow along with them. Encourage students to continue developing their portfolios beyond the classroom. They can add new pieces, reflect on their growth, and explore different mediums and styles. This ongoing process fosters a lifelong love of art and provides a valuable tool to highlight their skills and accomplishments in future endeavors.

Portfolios offer tremendous benefits to both you and your students. They help everyone reflect on the artwork and process and pinpoint strengths and areas of improvement. Strong student portfolios are indicative of a strong art curriculum and can be an invaluable advocacy tool for your art program. There are many portfolio options so choose one that meets your classroom needs. Support your students now with FLEX Curriculum’s download-ready portfolio resources so you can build better portfolios and watch your students’ artistic growth and your art program thrive!

How do you use portfolios in your classroom and beyond?

What is one thing you will implement this year to level up your portfolio practice?

To continue the conversation, join us in The Art of Ed Community!

The post How to Build a Better Art Portfolio with Your Students appeared first on The Art of Education University.

What’s the difference between assessing and grading?

Both assessment and grading gather information about students’ knowledge and progress. Assessment provides insight into the skills, understanding, and creativity students demonstrate. Grading assigns a simplified score to complex learning. Both are extremely important in the art room for your students’ growth as artists and your growth as an art teacher. 

What are your goals?

The first step in solid assessment practices is to determine your goals. What do you want your students to learn? Oftentimes, these goals are predetermined by national or state standards or district scope and sequences. You may also have your own goals you want students to achieve while they’re in your class. Whatever your goals are, ensure they are clear and specific. The goals should be about the skills and concepts students will learn and not just the finished product or how students behave.

For example, in a clay unit, your learning goals may include:

1. Understand the importance of planning before creating.
2. Demonstrate the coil technique and use the slip-and-score method to build structurally sound pieces.
3. Explore 3D design principles through hands-on creation.

What is the evidence of learning?

Now that you have your goals, it’s time to make them measurable. For each goal, think about the evidence you’d need to see to know the students’ learned and achieved mastery. Students may need to turn in a final artwork, show their process, or articulate their choices.

Let’s tie the same clay goals to evidence of learning:

1. Understand the importance of planning before creating.
   Sketchbook pages with three brainstorm thumbnail sketches, one detailed final sketch from three different angles, and a timeline of due dates for each clay stage.
2. Demonstrate the coil technique and use the slip-and-score method to build structurally sound pieces.
   8-inch sturdy ceramic coil vase with decorative coils and smooth areas.
3. Explore 3D design principles through hands-on creation.
   6×6 inch ceramic tile with a surface design that emphasizes one element and one principle of art.

How will you let students respond?

Student learning and assessment are not “one size fits all.” Each student artist is unique, with different learning styles and preferences. There are multiple ways to assess students and gather feedback and data on their learning. Offer students multiple ways to show their learning. Flexibility in assessment can make a massive difference in student engagement, communication, and final work.

Here are some ways to offer varied responses for a finished artwork:

• Verbal Sharing
  Present their work to the class (or the teacher in a one-on-one conference), explaining their process and reflecting on their challenges and successes.
• Written Reflections
  Offer the option of writing about their work, including explanations about their decisions and reflections on the artmaking process.
• Project Displays
  Display the final artwork and consider how the viewer will interact with their piece. Accompany the artwork with a curatorial rationale explaining the exhibit choices and how those choices support the artwork.

Do you need to rethink the grade book?

Number or letter grades are a way to systematize the abstract concept and process of learning. Grades are also helpful to provide measurable data over time for individual students or a class as a whole. For some families and students, grades can be a very motivational factor in learning and pursuing post-secondary education.

Specific feedback can be just as helpful as a number or letter grade. Meaningful feedback provides concrete takeaways for students to apply to future learning. It can also be more encouraging and gentler when a student is feeling discouraged or anxious.

Try pairing grades with feedback for a balanced approach. For example, jot down notes on a project rubric for areas the student excelled at and a skill they can refine. They’ll end up with a final rubric grade plus examples from the artwork that exemplify their score.

Whatever form of assessment you implement, remember to make it regular, timely, and relevant. When you give feedback on a consistent basis, it encourages students to get into a reflective habit and gives them many chances to practice receiving constructive criticism. When grades and feedback are immediate and relevant, it provides students with an opportunity to make changes before the next assignment or project is due. When grading and assessment are a two-way open conversation, students are more likely to be honest and ask for help as well as more motivated to apply themselves to their work.

Do we really need to grade everything?

After this dive into assessment versus grades, the new question is, Do we need to assess everything? At the end of the day, you probably don’t need to grade every single assignment. However, your district or school policy may indicate how many grades you are required to enter per week. As far as assessing, art teachers naturally assess everything! We are continually observing, providing feedback, reflecting on how a demonstration or assignment went, and having chats with students to check in. We have a good handle on where learning is in the art room—including ours!

If you want to grow in your assessment practices or you’re just an art teacher who geeks out about assessment, check out the following resources:

• How to Take Letter Grades Out of Your Art Room to Refocus on Learning
• How to Motivate Your Students Beyond Grades
• Designing Effective Assessment Practices Pack in PRO Learning
• Assessment in Art Education Graduate Course

Whatever your district or school grading policies are, you have the power to make a culture shift in your art studio that prioritizes artistic growth. Actively assess your students and their work by setting clear, measurable goals tied to standards and evidence of learning. Provide multiple ways for students to demonstrate their learning so you get their best work. Consider how you can pair customizable feedback with grades to spur motivation and improvement. With these methods, your students will not only produce beautiful artwork but will also blossom into strong artists who value reflection and constructive criticism.

Do you grade everything in your art room? 

How do you provide regular, timely, and relevant feedback to each of your students?

To continue the conversation, join us in The Art of Ed Community!

The post Back to Basics: Do We Need to Grade Everything in the Art Room? appeared first on The Art of Education University.

Leverage rubrics in 11 unexpected ways to enhance student learning, foster meaningful dialogue, and refine your teaching practice.

There are many ways to use rubrics but where do you start if you don’t know how to write a solid rubric? The first resource you won’t want to miss is the Plug n’ Play Rubric from FLEX Curriculum. This rubric is customizable to any art project and will create consistency in your curriculum. Save more time with the many other rubrics and assessments in FLEX—simply select the Assessment tab and filter by grade level and medium to find what you need.

1. Guide parent-teacher conferences.

A rubric provides a clear framework for discussing student progress with parents. It moves conversations beyond letter grades and highlights specific areas of strength and growth tied to learning objectives. This shared understanding helps you collaborate effectively with parents to support students’ artistic development.

2. Support reflection, self-assessment, and artist statements.

Rubrics provide a structured format for students to reflect on their creative process and articulate their artistic goals. Turn the rubric criteria into prompts to kickstart reflection. This will result in more thoughtful self-assessments and more insightful artist statements.

3. Focus critiques.

Similarly, structure critiques around the rubric to provide students with focused feedback. Tying feedback to the rubric criteria helps students provide constructive comments based on the artwork. It pulls the attention off the artist and onto the work. This approach also encourages students to more deeply analyze artwork and develop their critical thinking skills in a supportive environment.

4. Check in with students.

Integrate rubrics into student check-ins to foster a sense of ownership and encourage self-reflection. Students can use the rubric to monitor their own progress and identify areas where they excel or need additional support. This process promotes self-awareness and empowers students to take an active role in their learning. Using rubrics in this way also guides the feedback conversation in a way that feels predictable and comfortable for students.

5. Plan future projects.

Analyze rubric data to identify trends in student performance and areas where students consistently succeed or struggle. This information informs future lesson planning and helps you tailor instruction to meet the specific needs of your students. By using rubrics to identify knowledge gaps, you can differentiate instruction more effectively.

6. Build research skills.

Provide students with rubrics designed to evaluate the credibility and relevance of research sources. Students will gain critical research skills as they identify reliable websites, videos, and other resources. It will help them to assess the accuracy, authority, and objectivity of information, which is crucial in an age of digital media.

7. Decrease student questions.

We’ve all heard the question a thousand times—”Am I done yet?” Create a rubric for students to reference to determine if their work is complete. List hallmarks of completion, such as filling in negative space and putting their name on the work. Laminate the rubric and hang it where students put their completed work. This way, they can check it before turning their project in.

8. Monitor studio habits.

Establish clear expectations for studio habits and encourage responsible behavior with a studio rubric. Be sure to outline specific criteria for maintaining a clean and organized workspace. This promotes a productive learning environment and instills ownership in the art room. It develops organizational skills, attention to detail, time management strategies, and respect for shared resources.

9. Evaluate your lessons.

A rubric can also assist you with assessing your teaching strategies and identifying areas for improvement. This reflective practice encourages continuous growth and helps you refine your instructional approach to better meet the needs of your students. The specificity of a rubric will clearly tell you if it’s the clarity of learning objectives, the engagement of activities, or the overall impact of your lessons. You can even give your students a rubric for scoring your lessons to tell you which are the most interesting and impactful!

10. Encourage engagement.

Rubrics can assess how students work and conduct themselves in the classroom. Think about the skills you want students to demonstrate, such as listening quietly when others speak, asking good questions, sharing relevant connections, revising work, and seeking feedback for improvement. Make a rubric with examples to define these soft skills.

11. Prompt deeper discussions.

Rubrics equip students with a shared vocabulary and a common framework for discussing art. This shared understanding facilitates more meaningful conversations about artistic choices, techniques, and the creative process. Using a rubric, students can engage in more focused and productive critiques of their work and the work of others.

Ultimately, rubrics empower both teachers and students beyond grading art projects. Clear and specific rubrics foster transparency, encourage self-reflection, maintain an orderly classroom, and promote meaningful dialogue about art. By embracing these unexpected rubric applications, you can cultivate a more engaging and enriching learning environment. Watch teaching and learning flourish and students develop a deeper understanding of their artistic potential!

How else do you use rubrics in your classroom?

What other tools are helpful for student feedback?

To continue the conversation, join us in The Art of Ed Community!

The post Beyond Grading: 11 Unexpected Ways Art Teachers Can Use Rubrics appeared first on The Art of Education University.

Grading practices vary widely across states, districts, and schools. It often sparks debate among teachers, parents, and students because grades can carry a lot of weight. The impact of grades can extend beyond report cards and influence student motivation, teacher effectiveness, and parental perceptions of education. Traditional approaches to grading have long-standing roots in educational systems. However, there is growing interest in finding new methods that better reflect student learning and foster equity and consistency. This is especially true in the art room where assessing artistic growth can sometimes be challenging to capture with a numeric grade or through an established grading ritual.

Let’s investigate common grading scenarios to refine our assessment practice in the art room.

Extra Credit: Boost Engagement or Inflate Grades?

Benefits

Extra credit can motivate students to engage more deeply with the material, offering them a chance to go beyond basic requirements and improve their grades. For students who struggle with formal tests or assignments, extra credit can provide an opportunity to recover and demonstrate their learning. If you’re collecting supplies or need tasks completed, it can be a huge help to your budget and classroom and build ownership in the art room.

Considerations

Extra credit may also pose equity concerns, as students with more resources, such as time or finances, are better positioned to complete extra assignments. It can also be tricky to be consistent across classes and grade levels, creating possible misunderstandings. There’s a risk of artificially inflating grades and potentially masking the true level of student understanding.

Further Investigation

Align extra credit with meaningful enrichment activities connected to learning objectives to keep grades more reflective of content proficiency. Also, remember that extra credit should not be extra work for you, the art teacher! Challenge your students to take ownership of their learning and come up with their own extra credit assignments.

Open-Note Tests: Promote Real Understanding or Encourage Laziness?

Benefits

Open-note tests can mirror real-world scenarios where individuals use resources to solve problems. It can shift the focus from rote memorization to the application of knowledge. Open-note tests reduce test anxiety, allowing students to demonstrate understanding without the pressure of cramming.

Considerations

Open-note tests may lead students to rely too much on their notes, neglecting thorough preparation. In subjects where critical thinking and recall are essential, open-note assessments may not fully capture students’ mastery of content.

Further Investigation

Combine open-note questions with analytical tasks that require deeper engagement. Let’s say you just finished a unit on the elements and principles of art and guided your students through art analysis. It’s their turn to show what they’ve learned! Give students an artwork they’ve never seen before. Allow them to use their notes to reference the definitions of each element and principle. Ask them to apply the information to identify examples in the artwork.

Pop Quizzes: Grow Consistent Study Habits or Cause Unnecessary Stress?

Benefits

Pop quizzes can motivate students to stay up-to-date with the material and learning objectives. It can encourage regular review and preparation and keep students on their toes. Pop quizzes provide teachers with immediate feedback, allowing for adjustments in instruction.

Considerations

The unpredictability of pop quizzes can cause significant stress, especially for students who already experience test anxiety. There is also the potential to penalize students who may have valid reasons for being unprepared on a given day, such as an excused absence.

Further Investigation

A more low pressure way to capture real-time feedback is to build a habit of doing exit tickets before students leave. Students will appreciate the consistency in routine and the accountability in learning that period. Switch up the activity by doing questions, games, drawings, or tasks!

Participation Grades: Foster Engagement or Penalize Introverts?

Benefits

Grading participation is often used to encourage active engagement in class. Participation can take many forms, such as attending classes, contributing to discussions, being on time, and demonstrating attentiveness. It aims to foster a dynamic learning environment and build communication skills.

Considerations

However, grading participation can be subjective and favor more visible contributions over substantial ones. It may disadvantage introverted students, absent students, or those with anxiety. If participation is not explicitly linked to a learning objective, it may not accurately reflect a student’s understanding. 

Further Investigation

Offer multiple ways students can participate. Students can write or type responses and submit them for you to read aloud anonymously. Break the class into smaller groups or pairs with guiding prompts for more comfortable discussions. If you do have a required whole class discussion or large presentation, give students advance notice so they can prepare and ask questions ahead of time.

Homework: Reinforce Learning or Burden Students?

Benefits

Homework provides an opportunity for students to practice and reinforce skills learned in class. It also teaches life skills like time management and responsibility. Depending on the assignment, it can invite families to participate in their student’s learning. It can also provide a way for students to catch up if they don’t have enough time during class. 

Considerations

Homework can present equity issues, as not all students have access to resources like a quiet workspace or internet at home. Many students may not have the time, energy, or attention to adequately focus on homework at home due to other responsibilities. Excessive homework can lead to burnout and take away from quality family time.

Further Investigation

Use homework as a formative tool for practice and offer flexible completion options. Adjust deadlines or try a “ketchup” day in class for students to catch up on any assignment. Additionally, try optional assignments to do at home that are fun and foster a love for creativity!

Curved Grading: Level the Playing Field or Mask Performance Gaps?

Benefits

Curved grading can be helpful for adjusting scores on challenging tests, ensuring fairness in assessment. It may also create a sense of competition that motivates students to perform well. 

Considerations

It can foster an unfair comparison among students, where one student’s performance impacts another’s grade. Curving may also obscure gaps in understanding and give a false sense of achievement.

Further Investigation

Try curved grading if you give an assessment that ends up being more difficult than expected for your students. Alternatively, focus on creating fair assessments that measure learning objectives. If you’re looking to level up your assessment practice, enroll in Assessment in Art Education or watch the Designing Effective Assessment Practices Pack in PRO Learning.

Grading practices are essential to the educational system but come with inherent challenges. There may be many common grading rituals that we’ve done for years without thinking much about them. It’s important to keep evaluating why we do things and refining how we do them so we will continue to grow as art educators. From pop quizzes to curved grading, each practice has benefits and considerations for our students. With the guidance of your district and school administration, investigate your grading practices and take steps to find a solid balance between tradition and innovation in your art room. 

Which grading practice are you investigating further in your art room?

Is there a common grading practice you’d add to this list?

To continue the conversation, join us in The Art of Ed Community!

The post Balance Tradition & Innovation: A Deeper Look at Common Grading Practices appeared first on The Art of Education University.

Shift your mindset from grading to assessment and tackle how to use assessments as a tool for artistic growth.

What are the different types of assessment?

Assessments generally fall into two categories: formative and summative. A formative assessment gathers data to determine current skill levels. Use it to help you gauge where students are at and when they’re ready to move on. Formative assessments tend to be lower stakes and are often carried out during a lesson. For example, while your students are studying value, a formative assessment would be a bellringer requiring students to create a value scale or shade a sphere. Their level of success in these quick drawing activities will indicate whether they are ready to tackle more complex forms or if they need some guided practice to review the basics.

Summative assessments come at the conclusion of a lesson or unit. The purpose of the summative assessment is to determine the student’s level of mastery. Summative assessments can take many forms, including tests, artist’s statements, and portfolio reviews. Summative assessments can often feel higher stakes as they are often more heavily weighted in the grade book. 

What should I put in my rubric?

Rubrics aren’t just for art projects! You can use rubrics to evaluate any objective or standard, including activities like bellringers, drawing exercises, small group discussions, or presentations of artwork. Whatever the purpose, a good rubric provides clear and specific criteria for success. Focus on observable skills aligned to your curriculum and state or national standards. 

Rubrics can take a good amount of time to make if you’re starting from scratch. Save time and mental energy by using any of the numerous assessment tools in FLEX Curriculum. FLEX offers hundreds of student-facing resources including checklists, compare and contrast graphic organizers, reflections, project rubrics, and feedback sentence stems. One of the most flexible and customizable rubrics is the Plug n’ Play rubric. Click the Assessment tab on the lefthand navigation bar and filter by Grade Level, Medium, or Assessment Type—it’s seriously that simple!

How can I keep my assessment data organized?

There are a lot of ways to track student progress. Many districts provide an online grade book which may have features to track data and grades. For those without a digital grade book platform, digital spreadsheets can work just as well. Still, the most valuable data is the evidence you observe in student artwork, reflections, and skill demonstrations—not just the number from a rubric. 

Consider photographing student projects in a digital portfolio or virtual gallery. It may sound time consuming, but even elementary students can handle it by themselves. A class gallery is a wonderful tool to see learning trends across the board and provide you with insights about your teaching. 

Creating digital portfolios and virtual galleries is simple. For a class-wide gallery, create a slide deck and number each slide. Share the slide deck with your students. They will snap a photo of their artwork and post it to their numbered slide. Individual portfolios allow for student privacy and show students their growth over time. Similarly, create a slide deck to use as a template. Notate spots on each slide for their artwork and artist statement. Share the slides using a forced copy link. Encourage students to have fun customizing their slide decks and share them with you! Consider linking each student’s deck in one spot so it’s easier to access.

What do I do with the assessments?

If the goal of assessment is to help students grow, you must share the assessment data with your students. This will look different depending on your grade level. Young students won’t benefit from looking at a bunch of numbers on a rubric, but they will learn a lot if you give them each a one-minute “glow and grow” mini-conference. The important thing is that you provide students with timely feedback in words and a format they can understand.

What is my students’ experience with assessment? 

Sometimes assessments can create pressure and anxiety for students. Many students get nervous thinking about everyone looking at and judging their work! Give students a voice in the assessment process to reduce anxiety. Talk to them about your goals as a teacher and ask them about their goals as artists and learners. When you are assessing students or discussing your observations with them, give students the opportunity to self-assess first with a rubric, artist statement, or conversation prompts. Often, they will be harder on themselves than you and it will provide space to give plenty of encouragement. 

Assessment has a negative reputation but it can be a helpful tool for artistic growth and student connection. It’s important to assess students regularly to check for understanding of current concepts, determine what students are ready to learn next, and pinpoint areas of mastery. Shift the culture from grades to open feedback to relieve pressure and anxiety and promote excitement around discovery and development. Use ready-made resources from FLEX Curriculum to keep your rubrics clear, observable, and objective, while saving so much time. Embrace your newfound view on assessment to create a supportive learning environment that celebrates each stage in the artmaking process!

How do you track your students’ artistic growth?

What’s a successful way you share feedback with your students?

To continue the conversation, join us in The Art of Ed Community!

The post How to Assess for Growth and Transform Your Art Classroom appeared first on The Art of Education University.

Unlock WIDA levels to support ELL students, build language skills, and communicate complex ideas through powerful artist statements.

There are six categories of skill levels for English Language Learners. Educating yourself on the skills expected for each level can help you tailor your support for students when they read and write in your art room. WIDA is a consortium of state education departments that provide research-based tools and resources for K-12 multilingual learners. WIDA provides standardized frameworks so learning outcomes are consistent across adopting states, districts, and schools. Ask your administrator, mentor teacher, or professional counselor to show you where to access your students’ levels.

Understand the six levels below to unlock key strategies for helping your ELL students:

• Level 1: Entering
  Students at this level are beginning to use English in very basic ways. They may understand and use a few common words and phrases. They often rely on visual aids and gestures for comprehension. Focus on building foundational vocabulary and simple sentence structures.
• Level 2: Emerging
  Students in this category are starting to form simple sentences and understand basic English. They still struggle with complex language structures and vocabulary. They can participate in conversations but may need additional support to grasp content.
• Level 3: Developing
  These students can create more complex sentences and understand basic English. They may still struggle with academic language and more abstract concepts. They can engage in discussions and express ideas, but they may make errors when it comes to more sophisticated language.
• Level 4: Expanding
  Students at this level demonstrate a good command of English and can use it in various contexts. They may still need support with specialized academic language and idiomatic expressions. They can engage in detailed discussions and write more complex texts.
• Level 5/6: Bridging/Reaching
  These students are nearly proficient in English. They can perform most tasks and understand most content in English. They may still need occasional support with very specialized or advanced language but can function effectively in an English-speaking environment.

Even if you don’t know the specific levels of each of your students, knowing different ways to scaffold reading and writing is helpful. Plus, it can be beneficial for all students—even those who know English but struggle with literacy. We’ll look at some prompts and activities below and break them down by level with examples.

Another helpful tip when assessing reading and writing is to remember what’s most important. Are you assessing reading and writing, such as pronunciation, grammar, spelling, and sentence structure? Or, are you assessing the art content they are trying to communicate, such as vocabulary terms, art materials, techniques, processes, and ideas? Prioritize your learning objectives and ensure they match your assessment outcomes.

Focus on these five areas with your ELL students to write artist statements with ease!

1. Home Language Expression

You are most comfortable when you’re in your own home—and so are your students! Make your classroom feel like their “home away from home” by allowing them to speak in their home language. This can be a great first step in writing an artist statement. Much like a “brain dump,” it provides a crucial foundation for processing and articulating their raw, honest thoughts. From here, students can take key information and incorporate it into their final statement, either in their home language or in English.

Prompt: I made… 

• Level 1: Entering
  Students use simple phrases or words in their home language. For example, they may say, “I made a house” in their home language while pointing to their drawing.
• Level 2: Emerging
  Students compose 1-2 basic sentences in their home language. They may share, “I made a tree because I like nature.”
• Level 3: Developing
  Students write a few basic sentences in their home language. For instance, “I made a painting of a sunset. I used bright colors to show how happy I feel when the sun sets.”
• Level 4: Expanding
  Students provide a short paragraph in their home language and emerging English. They may write, “I made different shades of blue and orange to represent the transition from day to night.”
• Level 5/6: Bridging/Reaching
  Students compare and contrast their artwork with other works in their home language and in English. They may share, “I made abstract shapes like Picasso but I used a different color palette of blue and orange.”

2. Vocabulary

Vocabulary acquisition is an important building block in forming and comprehending sentences. Just like with all of your students, it is your job to teach key art vocabulary, like the Elements and Principles. In addition, students will need to learn other art terms most students already know, such as pencil, scissors, fold, and sculpture. Introduce vocabulary and repeatedly reinforce it with a variety of visual aids.

Activity: Show me an example of…

• Level 1: Entering
  Use labeled pictures with key vocabulary words, such as the colors yellow, orange, and red with the text “warm colors.” Students match a label to the correct corresponding spot on their artwork and practice saying the words aloud.
• Level 2: Emerging
  Provide cards with images, vocabulary words, and simple definitions. Students match cards to the correct corresponding spot on their artwork and practice reading the cards aloud.
• Level 3: Developing
  Introduce vocabulary with a word bank and encourage students to use them in sentences. For example, for Show me an example of warm colors, the student may write, “My clothes are warm colors to match the sun.”
  
• Level 4: Expanding
  Continue to provide a word bank with more complex terms and descriptive language. They may write, “I used warm colors for my outfit to match the sun. It contrasts with the cool colors in the background. It helps me stand out!”
  
• Level 5/6: Bridging/Reaching
  Students use advanced vocabulary and art terminology in their statements. For example, “I used warm colors on the subject matter to contrast with the cool, dark background. I wanted the person to stand out and look like they were running away from the background which is eerie and moody.”

3. Sentence Structure

Take the bulk of the guesswork out of writing so students can focus on the content. Set up sentence stems and prompts so all students have to do is fill in the blank. These also help students organize their thoughts and provide immediate structure for final artist statements.

Activity: Pick a prompt and fill in the blank.

• Level 1: Entering
  I drew a… or This is a…
• Level 2: Emerging
  I used… colors to show…
• Level 3: Developing
  The… in my artwork represents… because…
• Level 4: Expanding
  In my artwork, I used… materials to illustrate… or I used… technique to create…
  
• Level 5/6: Bridging/Reaching
  In this piece, I used… technique because… and It supports my concept of… by… 
  

4. Sharing & Labels

Sharing artwork is scary, especially in front of the whole class and especially when you aren’t confident with speaking the same language as everyone else. Build up to sharing in front of the whole class by starting small. Allow students to select their partner or assign partners based on who you see students comfortable with. Provide labels with key vocabulary words and blank sticky notes to support communication.

Activity: Select a partner and share your artwork with them using labels.

• Level 1: Entering
  Students share their artwork with a partner using gestures and simple words. They can label their artwork with sticky notes that have pictures and basic words.
• Level 2: Emerging
  Students can share their artwork with a partner using short sentences. They label their work with sticky notes that include pictures, vocabulary words, and simple phrases.
• Level 3: Developing
  Students describe their artwork to a partner using complete sentences and labels. Encourage them to write a few sentences on sticky notes about specific elements of their work.
• Level 4: Expanding
  Students provide detailed explanations to their peers and use sticky notes to label their artwork with more complex terms and descriptions.
• Level 5/6: Bridging/Reaching
  Encourage students to engage in in-depth discussions about their artwork with peers, using sticky notes for detailed labels and explanations that reflect their advanced understanding.

5. Scaffolding

You can also scaffold support by breaking down the artist statement structure. Take sections of the artist statement and do each of them together as a class or group. Within each of the five steps below, provide prompts based on each skill level for students to expand on. Feel free to tie in other previously mentioned tips, such as word banks, labels, and sticky notes, to maximize student success.

Activity: Write an artist statement step-by-step.

1. Identify the subject matter.

• Level 1: Students match images with words.
• Level 2: My art is…
• Level 3: My artwork is about…
• Level 4: My painting captures…
• Level 5/6: The… represents…
  

2. Describe the inspiration.

• Level 1: Students select and name picture cards that illustrate their sources of inspiration. 
• Level 2: My idea is from… 
• Level 3: I was inspired by… 
• Level 4: The… inspired me because…
• Level 5/6: The… inspired me and it evokes… 
  

3. Explain the meaning.

• Level 1: My art is about…
• Level 2: My art means…
• Level 3: The… in my artwork shows…
• Level 4: The use of… in my artwork symbolizes…
• Level 5/6: The… in this piece represents… 

4. Discuss art techniques.

• Level 1: Students point to or name materials, techniques, or processes used.
• Level 2: I used… 
• Level 3: I used… to make…
• Level 4: I used… to create…
• Level 5: The use of… emphasizes…

5. Reflect on the artistic process.

• Level 1: It was easy/hard to…
• Level 2: I learned…
• Level 3: It was hard to… but I learned…
  
• Level 4: When making my artwork, I struggled with… but I learned…
• Level 5/6: Through this process, I faced challenges such as… and successes such as…

Tackling reading and writing in the art room with English Language Learners doesn’t have to be scary for anyone! Use this toolkit of strategies and prompts to best support your students at any level of language acquisition. Understanding what to expect from each WIDA level will help you manage your expectations for learning so all students can succeed. Plus, having a repertoire of ways to break down the artist statement process will benefit all budding artists. Before you know it, students will feel safe and confident to discuss, read, and write about their artwork in no time!

Discover more resources to support your English Language Learners in the art room:

1. How to Support ELL Students to Thrive in the Classroom
2. 5 Strategies to Help Your English Langauge Learners
3. Strategies to Help ELL Students (Ep. 234)
4. What You Need to Know About ELLs in the Art Room

How do you support ELL students with writing artist statements?

What are some challenges you’ve faced when helping ELL students articulate their artistic ideas?

The post How to Support English Language Learners In Writing Powerful Artist Statements appeared first on The Art of Education University.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming education, and the art classroom is no exception. From generating creative prompts to assisting with lesson planning and assessments, AI offers a wealth of potential to streamline tasks and enhance the learning experience. However, like any powerful tool, wield AI with careful consideration. As art educators, it’s crucial to strike a balance between embracing AI’s benefits and ensuring responsible use of this technology. Responsible use means safeguarding student data, adhering to district and school policies, and keeping your brain and skills sharp. If you’re new to AI, start by learning what it is with an overview of its benefits and challenges. 

Learn about the transformative power of AI tools for planning and assessment and their potential to both enhance the art experience and hinder artistic growth.

Program AI to answer tedious student questions.

We all want to give our students individualized instruction but sometimes we’re short on time. AI can assist and act as a tutor for your students. Questions about foundational art skills and techniques are easy for AI to take care of. Set up AI with an automated prompt sequence! After AI answers a student’s question, it will ask the student if they have any further questions. It will repeat until the student says they are finished. You can basically program a color mixing tool without having to learn code!

Try a prompt like this: 

Create a color mixing tutorial. You will ask what color the user wants to make. Then, tell the user how to mix that color using only turquoise, magenta, yellow, black, and white paint. Use terms that an elementary student can read and understand. Tell the user color ratios indicating how many units of each color to use. Then, give the user a bit of advice on how to apply liquid tempera paint well. Finally, ask if there is another color you can help them create. Repeat this until the user indicates they are finished.

What should you consider when AI answers student questions?

AI tools are becoming increasingly reliable at generating factually correct information. However, the answer you get will only be as good as the instructions you give and the information it’s pulling from. As the expert, always check for accuracy. Let AI help students with simple tasks related to foundational art skills and techniques. Save deeper and more conceptual processes like analyzing and evaluating artwork for your nuanced facilitation. For example, you may try the color mixing prompt above while students are painting, but go back to more traditional forms of checking understanding at the end of a color theory unit.

Create tools for assessment.

For many teachers, creating objective assessments in a highly subjective content area can be a daunting task. Once you have determined your success criteria, use AI tools to aid in formulating the rubric or an assessment checklist. You can also generate questions and writing prompts for additional activities like quizzes or review games. AI can phrase things as a story problem, riddle, multiple choice, or fill-in-the-blank. AI can generate text at any grade level to adjust the same assignment for any class. Whatever you’d like AI to do, describe your goal as clearly as possible with any components you want included.

Here is a sample prompt you can modify to align with your goals:

Create a rubric for assessing student artwork. Assess the following categories: planning and preparation, appropriate use and care for tools, neatness of the final product, and innovation. Grade each of these criteria on a four-point scale, with 1 being beginning, 2 being approaching, 3 being secure, and 4 being exemplary. For each of these four categories, write a description that includes artwork characteristics. Lay out the rubric as a table with the numbers in the top row and each of the categories in the first column.

What should you consider with AI assessments?

AI-generated rubrics and checklists may give you a starting point, but AI tools are not experts when it comes to your curriculum. AI does not have the insights into your students that you do. You know best the areas in which you are looking to see student growth. Review and edit all AI-generated documents to make sure they align with your curriculum and are appropriate for your students. Of course, there are many customizable resources to streamline assessment that do not involve AI. Try the Plug n’ Play Rubric or one of the many student-facing assessments in FLEX Curriculum. 

Make your documents more accessible.

Art teachers are responsible for teaching hundreds of students with a variety of needs, levels, and backgrounds. AI tools can help you quickly and easily modify text to make it more accessible. Try translating instructions into a different language, converting text to speech, and generating summaries of articles at different reading levels. Save yourself the time of manually pulling these resources yourself and put AI to work to help meet all of your students where they are. Remember to review and edit all AI-generated documents to ensure they are appropriate for your students. 

What should you consider when using AI for accessibility?

Double-checking a translation to ensure it is faithful to the original text can be difficult. When using AI to translate text into a language you do not speak, consider running the translated text through a different chatbot asking it to translate the text back to English. Review both versions to check for accuracy.

Discover artists to diversify instruction.

All art teachers have favorite artists they keep going back to. Add a fresh twist to your lessons and use AI to help you discover new artists and artworks! Tell your favorite chatbot the core concept and grade level for the lesson. Then, instruct it to give you 10 diverse artists and artworks to show as examples. 

What should you consider when using AI to discover diverse artists?

AI models rely on data collected from the internet. It is important to be mindful of the perspectives, power structures, biases, and limitations inherent in that model. Remember that AI is a generative tool, which means it can also make up people, artworks, and other bits of information. This is why it’s imperative to double-check any results before bringing them to your students.

Get suggestions to liven up your lessons.

Many art teachers are the only art specialists in their buildings. Being the entire art department can be liberating when you have autonomy! On the other hand, it can also mean you’re missing out on valuable collaboration. Everyone benefits from getting other perspectives to refine ideas and solutions. AI tools can serve as a non-judgemental brainstorming buddy. Use it to help you consider different approaches and input lesson plans that are starting to feel stale. Give AI the learning targets and ask it to give you five new lesson ideas based on those objectives.

What should you consider when using AI tools to plan a lesson?

Just like when you write your own lesson or use one from another art teacher, it’s good practice to test the lesson before trying it with students. There are wild stories out there of AI-generated plans with incredible errors, like when AI told a user to put glue on pizza! Plus, only you know your students, art room, and teaching style best. Use your experience and knowledge to take what you need and toss what you don’t from an AI-generated lesson. 

What else should you consider as you integrate AI into your practice?

AI can provide powerful tools to make many aspects of your job easier, but too much of even a good thing can be harmful. Teaching is an art form and it is important for every artist to develop and maintain the skills of their craft. As such, use AI tools to supplement your repertoire and streamline routine tasks. Continue to rely on your wit, wisdom, experience, and expertise! 

If you’re intrigued about integrating AI and want to learn more, check out AI in Art Education. This graduate course provides practical strategies to develop communication, creativity, and critical thinking in a tech-evolving landscape.

Note data and privacy concerns.

Also, when using AI tools with and for students, there are concerns regarding data security and privacy. AI tools harvest massive amounts of data online. It generates responses based on probabilities modeled using that data. The models also “learn” from user input, meaning that the AI tool records the information you type. Never input any potentially sensitive information. Do not use student names, identifying details, or images of students in any of your AI prompts.

Keep up-to-date on laws regarding AI.

AI tools are rapidly evolving. School administrators will update policies to help educators navigate the new tools as they arise. Lawmakers are also working to craft legislation to address potential AI concerns. As of the time of this writing, 17 states have already enacted 29 laws regarding AI, and more are sure to come. It is your responsibility to take initiative. Stay up-to-date on current trends and updated policies in both your district and school, and globally, nationally, and statewide.

Harness the power of AI tools to not only make your job teaching art easier and more efficient, but also more creative and inclusive. Approach AI with a critical and discerning eye to prioritize student data privacy, adhere to ethical guidelines, and maintain a strong foundation in traditional artistic skills. Ultimately, AI should serve as an empowering ally, augmenting the human touch that lies at the heart of art education. 

What instructional tasks would you like to try passing along to AI?

What concerns do you have about the use of AI?

The post Ways AI Can Make Your Art Teacher Job Easier for Planning and Assessment appeared first on The Art of Education University.

Try these 11 fun and educational games to keep your students engaged up to the final bell of the year.

Games provide closure to a unit or year without the challenge of rushing to finish projects on the way out of the door. The games below will keep students focused and enthusiastic while reviewing information in a fun way. Plus, they can be customized for any grade level or course!

1. Where’s Whaledo?

Narwhals are the unicorns of the sea and there is nothing better than bringing magic to a careful examination of artworks. Use our bespectacled narwhal friend, Whaledo, in the perfect hidden picture art room game. Use your favorite image editing software to drop Whaledo into famous artwork. Print the images and laminate them for students to circle Whaledo with dry-erase markers or simply project the images on the board. After students find Whaledo, ask them what other interesting details they discovered. Download Whaledo and the corresponding instructional guide today!

Download Now!

2. Trivia Challenge

There is a reason games like Jeopardy and Around the World are still popular decades later. Everyone loves the opportunity to show what they know. All you need is a slide deck with questions from your curriculum. Additionally, try the Art Trivia Take-Away Lesson and Game Guide in FLEX Curriculum for an activity where students reflect on art concepts and art history.

Here are three tips to keep your students on their A-game:

1. Allow students to work in teams to keep it low-pressure.
2. Include bonus questions of silly personal trivia to make it more fun!
3. Add in challenges to get students moving. For example, Race to assemble a color wheel from found objects in the classroom!

3. Picture Puzzle

Puzzles are a relaxing way to review prior learning. Print pictures of the artworks your students learned about this year. Cut them into pieces considering appropriate sizes and shapes for your students’ levels. Make it a race to not only assemble the picture puzzle but also identify the artist, artwork title, and big ideas students recall from the lesson.

4. Mystery Drawing

Students are often mentally exhausted when they complete testing, portfolio submissions, and final exams. Many students will find comfort in directed drawings or other guided practice activities. Keep things simple but introduce a little bit of intrigue!

Here are three ways to keep students guessing the entire time:

1. Guide students through an activity step-by-step without telling them what the end result will be.
2. Facilitate a drawing upside-down and don’t tell students to flip their papers right-side up until the end.
3. Try an exquisite corpse drawing and watch the delight when students unfold their papers.

5. Art Room Scavenger Hunt

A scavenger hunt is fun at any age. To make a scavenger hunt more educational, give students clues that pose a problem and challenge them to find the correct tool. For example, instead of telling students to find a brayer, a clue might read, “I want to make a print. I have a printing plate, a piece of paper, a tube of ink, and an ink plate. What else do I need?” This approach requires students to think through the process. You can also challenge your students to find examples of artworks that show a particular mood or have a specific subject matter, or search their portfolio for a project that demonstrates a certain technique.

6. Quick Draw

Use individual dry-erase boards, take turns in front of the class at the main board, or use scrap paper. Give students a drawing prompt with a list of criteria and watch them race to sketch it all. Ensure students demonstrate craftsmanship by including Elements and Principles as criteria. For example, a prompt could be, “Draw a person using geometric shapes and hatched lines.“

This can be a quick five-minute game or you can extend it by adding multiple rounds. Additionally, turn it into a tournament or a team relay to keep the fun going. Another alternative is to put drawing prompts at different stations around the room to get students moving.

7. Virtual Escape Room

Identify key concepts by looking at objectives, assessments, and vocabulary lists from the year. Use this information to generate questions you want students to answer. Add the questions to a Google Form and use the response validation tool to let students advance only once they’ve completed a question or task correctly. Include riddles and hidden codes to keep students on their toes!

8. Custom Board Games

Let your students take the lead by designing their own board games, either in pairs or small groups. Creating a game requires students to ideate, problem-solve, draw, sculpt, write, and present ideas. Depending on your schedule and requirements, creating a game can take students anywhere from a week to a month. As a culminating activity, host a Game Day and allow students to play one another’s games to give constructive feedback. Hopefully, they’ll remember their favorite art teacher when their games become a hit outside of the classroom!

9. Art on Trial

This game will motivate your students to examine and think critically about art. It will push students to get beyond the default responses like, “It looks cool” or “I like the colors.” Put a famous work of art up on the board and announce the work stands accused of being awful. Divide the class into three groups. One group will serve as the prosecution. One group will be the defense team, and the third group has jury duty. Allow a period of discovery for the prosecution and defense teams to discuss the evidence for their sides. Then, allow each side to present their case and give one minute for a closing statement. Finally, the jury will deliberate. Each juror will share the point they found most persuasive as they vote for either the prosecution or the defense.

10. Art Heist Challenge

You may recall hearing about this game on Art Ed Radio. The premise of the game is simple: Your nemesis, Dr. Meaniebadguy, stole some of the greatest artworks from museums around the world! Students must figure out which works he stole and recover them. Print pictures of a variety of artworks along with clues describing the pieces. Set up an obstacle course between the students and the artworks and hide the clues along the way. For instance, you can use yarn to make a maze of “lasers.” Students must avoid touching the “lasers” to prevent the alarm system from sounding. Try neon yarn and black lights to create a special effect! Students love this game which engages them both mentally and physically.

11. Fact or Fake

Share odd and interesting bits of trivia about an artist or artwork. In teams, challenge students to spot which is fact and which is fake. Once the team decides, they write fact or fake on a dry-erase board and hold it up. Provide points to the teams who write the correct response and keep score.

Transform the end of the school year from a time of restlessness and boredom to joyful artistic engagement. Turn looking at and reviewing art into a magical experience by searching for Whaledo. Bring in trivia to challenge your students through collaboration and friendly competition. Incorporate the element of mystery with an escape room, quick draw activity, or art heist challenge. All of these games are great ways to keep students invested in your class, reviewing content from the year, and making art right up until the last bell.

For more art room games, check out the following:

• 6 Games Perfect for the Art Room
• Games in the Art Room Pack in PRO Learning
• Ideas for Art Room Games (Ep. 331)
• 3 Super Fun Art History Games

How do you make time for joy and fun in your art room?

Share your student-favorite art games!

The post Level Up the Fun! 11 Awesome Art Games to End the Year appeared first on The Art of Education University.

Thinking back on where you started and where you are now can build your reflective teaching practice. It can also increase adaptability, problem-solving skills, self-efficacy, confidence, and more. Tap into the benefits of reflection with some help from these famous artworks. Answer these questions to begin processing the year you’ve had.

The questions inspired by these artworks will help you reflect on the challenges you’ve overcome, the connections you’ve made, and the ways you’ve grown this year.

Note: Be sure to review all resources and preview all artists to determine if they are appropriate to share with your students.

Challenges You’ve Overcome

1. What have you found particularly frustrating? How did you deal with it?

Maybe your art room always looked like Jackson Pollock’s One: Number 31, 1950, pictured below. Or, you just couldn’t get your students to store their brushes with the bristles up, no matter how hard you tried. Whatever inevitable frustration you faced this year, developing a little resilience will go a long way in helping you keep your cool when you reencounter it.

2. What caused you the most stress? What did you do to manage it?

Some days it may have felt like you had a full-on Kara Walker scene in your art room like the one in Darkytown Rebellion. On other days, it may have been the struggle to juggle too many responsibilities at once that got to you. So many stresses, large and small, routinely afflict your professional and personal life. Consider reappraising some of this stress to improve your mental health and prevent burnout.

Here are some more resources to help you manage stress:

• Reduce Art Room Stress by Taking These 8 Things off Your Plate
• How to Effectively Save Mental Time and Energy Using Circles of Control
• Curbing Art Teacher Burnout Pack in PRO Learning

3. What was one of the biggest mistakes you made? What did you learn from it?

The list of everything you could have done better may be running through your mind’s eye. If so, you probably wish you had a Claus Oldenberg-size broom like the one in Big Sweep to brush all of your mistakes under the rug. However, you are better for what you have been through. So, instead of beating yourself up, use your growth mindset to view every “mistake” as an opportunity to learn!

Relationships You’ve Built

4. How did you connect with your most challenging students?

Do you remember Jean-Michel Basquiat, the rebellious, high-school dropout turned artistic prodigy? Reframe how you think about the students who try your patience every art class. If Basquiat managed to create Untilted (1982), one of the most expensive paintings ever sold (ringing in at over $110 million), there’s no telling what your students may do one day!

Here are some resources to help with more challenging students:

• 6 Ways to Build Great Relationships With Students in the Art Room
• “Strategies for Defusing and De-escalating Behaviors (Ep. 288)”
• Motivating Reluctant Learners Pack in PRO Learning

5. How did you and your colleagues have each other’s backs?

You may have given the yearbook team some design inspiration and class time. Your colleagues may have advocated for your behavior management initiative. Maybe it was as simple as being a sounding board to share all of the classroom “tea,” like in Mary Cassatt’s The Tea, pictured below. Now that you are rock stars at supporting each other, consider taking your skills into the classroom with some interdisciplinary collaboration!

6. How did your students inspire you and bring you joy?

The young artists you work with consistently make the top of the list when you consider your “why.” Their discovery, inquiry, imagination, and creativity motivate you to show up daily. Moment by moment, you can amass the joy your students bring you into a bouquet bigger than Diego Rivera’s Vendedora de Flores. Choosing joy in this way prepares you to face any future inevitable challenges!

Ways You’ve Grown

7. What are some things you accomplished that you are proud of?

Though you may not have created an artwork as iconic as Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, you have done some fantastic things this year! You inspired astounding creativity, corralled out-of-control art enthusiasts, cut thousands of pieces of paper, and so much more. So give yourself a little recognition for how hard you’ve worked. Then, when you finish, consider who else might need a pat on the back and give it to them.

Here are some resources to help you recognize what to be proud of:

• What We Love About Art Teachers, Why They Are Important, and Why Art Matters
• 6 Reasons Why Being an Art Teacher Post-Pandemic Is Still the Best Job Ever
• 10 Strange, Amazing Skills You Will Develop as an Art Teacher

8. What did you try that went better than you thought it would?

Taking risks can contribute to a positive mindset shift in your art room. As an art teacher, you’re no stranger to the thrill of trying something new. Sometimes, you fail epically. Other times, you are pleasantly surprised. You know embracing the unknown is part of the process. After all, Bisa Butler probably didn’t know what to expect when she first started making bold, colorful quilts like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. And look how it turned out for her!

9. How are you different now than at the beginning of the year?

If only your beginning-of-the-year self could see you now! Despite knowing time and circumstance have a natural effect on you, somehow, it’s still mind-boggling to confront this reality. You have blossomed this year, just like Van Gogh’s Irises pictured below, and you are more spectacular than ever!

Wow—you’ve been through a lot this year! You faced stressors and frustrations, connected with your students and colleagues, and accomplished much more than you realized. So sit back and let your growth sink in. You have a lot to be proud of! Before taking on the end-of-year craziness, there‘s just one final question for you to answer: How will you celebrate a job well done?

How did your reflection on these questions surprise you?

What self-reflection questions would you add to this list?

How will you celebrate a job well done?

The post 9 Self-Reflection Questions From Famous Artworks to End Your Year With Intention appeared first on The Art of Education University.

Take a look at these seven ways to make giving and receiving student feedback fun!

1. Classroom Design Project

Consider giving students a say in how the art room looks. After all, some students will spend hours every week in your classroom. We want them to feel safe and comfortable. Have them show you what their ideal classroom environment would be. They may come up with ideas you like even better than your current setup!

Here are two ways students can give feedback on the classroom design:

1. Classroom Mood Board
   Students curate classroom decor ideas from the internet and compile them into a mood board. Students can present their mood board to the class. This will allow you to gauge how excited the other students are about the new decor ideas.
2. Classroom Layout Design
   Those who have a knack for organization draw a reimagined art room layout. Students envision different furniture arrangements and locations for supplies based on their experience in the art room.

2. Design a Project

What would your students’ dream projects look like? You designed projects for them all year, so let your students have a turn! Students draw a picture of the result of their dream project and then present their idea to the class. As they present, ponder how their projects reflect your curriculum. What mediums do they wish they could use? What themes are present in their dream projects? Their dream projects may not be feasible, but they will give you insight into their interests. Pay attention to their ideas to inform and inspire themes and project ideas for next year’s curriculum.

3. Favorite Project Awards

Teachers often award prizes to students. But what about letting students award prizes for project assignments? Students pick their favorite projects in various categories, such as most entertaining, favorite drawing project, or favorite 3D project. Then, roll out the red carpet (either metaphorically or with butcher paper), and host a project awards show. Students can take turns “hosting” the awards show by announcing the winning projects. Make it a real party by having snacks and a video montage of students’ finished artworks from the year! It’s a fun way to reminisce and see the projects students enjoyed most.

4. Video Tips for Next Year’s Students

Note: Follow district and school policies regarding recording students.

Students give advice to future students. Write letters or record videos to address provided prompts. Students are more likely to open up when giving peer advice than if they think they are addressing their teacher. Plus, you’ll get a sense of how your students view your classroom management and their classroom experiences. You can use this information to create better systems for next year.

Here are some prompts to start with:

• To be successful in this class, you need to…
• The top three things I learned this year are…
• The most important policies and procedures to follow in this class are…

5. Interviews

Conduct individual interviews to reinforce the relationships you built. Sit across from each student and ask them questions about their art room experience while the rest of the class works on a project. This shows students you value their opinions. You can set up a camera in the corner of your classroom to record the interviews or jot down notes with paper and a pen. You can even create a fake microphone and a fun backdrop to make it a special experience for your students.

6. Voting

Ask students to vote on which projects you should keep for next year and which ones you should nix. Be open and honest with students, telling them how you will use the results of the voting process. Knowing their input will hold sway in future classes will make your students feel like their opinions matter. You can even ask them to vote for or against projects they haven’t done but want to try. Take a look at FLEX Curriculum to get new project ideas for next year and add them to the vote!

These four voting methods allow students to express their opinions on projects:

1. Thumbs-Up or Thumbs-Down
   Students give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down.
2. Paddles
   Design two-sided paddles for students to use to cast their votes.
3. Ballots
   Fill out physical slips of paper anonymously and place them in a box.
4. Polls
   Post or send out digital polls.

7. Surveys

Fill out a survey for a straightforward and effective way to receive feedback. It’s also one of the most efficient ways to analyze data since many survey platforms will condense data into graphs or charts. Ensure that your survey is well-rounded and covers various topics and classroom components. For instance, ask about projects, the classroom environment, and ways to increase engagement. Leave space for students to write open-ended feedback on any subject they feel strongly about. You’ll have useful qualitative and quantitative data to inform future instruction.

Tips for Gathering Honest Feedback

While gathering feedback from students is valuable, it’s important to ensure that students are being open and honest with their feedback. Otherwise, students may tell you what they think you want to hear.

Here are three tips for encouraging honest responses:

1. Be upfront with students about your intentions.
   Tell them you are trying to figure out what to change for the next school year. Believing their input will facilitate change is empowering!
2. Tell your students it does not affect their grades.
   If students think they have to give positive feedback in order to get a good grade, they’re less likely to be honest.
3. Ask for ways to improve.
   Share that you strive to be a good teacher, and that means you need their help to look for ways to grow.

Student feedback is invaluable to creating a welcoming environment and student-centered curriculum. Gather feedback from this year’s students so you can reflect on their input and implement some of their suggestions next year. Ask for their opinion on everything from classroom design to policies and procedures. Students’ viewpoints on classroom design and organization shine through when they design mood boards and compose layout designs. Their interests and perspectives on projects become evident when they design their own, host a project awards ceremony, or vote on projects to keep or nix. Get a sense of how students feel about your classroom policies and procedures by hosting interviews or recording student reflections. When all else fails, ask students to fill out a simple survey. Whichever way you choose to collect feedback from your students, let their input guide you in making next year even more successful than this one!

In what ways do you collect student feedback?

How have you and your curriculum changed based on student feedback?

The post 7 Fun Ways to Get Student Feedback at the End of the Year appeared first on The Art of Education University.

Processing your students’ artistic growth with them is essential in building up their growth mindset. Students need to see that their brains can learn from failure and change accordingly. The belief in failure as a necessary component for learning is foundational to a growth mindset, and art class is the perfect place to cement this. You can instill a growth mindset in your students and make their learning evident by reviewing their artistic journeys from the beginning of the year until now.

Art is particularly helpful in developing a growth mindset because failure riddles the artistic process. Your students have been building their growth mindset without even knowing it! Elementary students need a little extra help to see it, though. Incorporating visual and discussion-based strategies with written activities helps your artists, from shortest to tallest, see where they started and how it’s going now.

If you are struggling to connect artmaking and a growth mindset for your students, here are some resources:

• Growth Mindset in the Art Room Pack from PRO Learning
• How a Growth Mindset Can Affect Your Teaching Career
• The Enormous Effect Language Has on Growth Mindset

Engage in these seven activities to help your elementary students recognize how much they have grown as artists and humans this year!

1. Repeat a project from the beginning of the year.

Repeating a project is a great way to visualize growth without relying on language. Choose a project you can effortlessly build into your curriculum. Self-portraits make great comparisons and offer the chance to incorporate various skills. Simply have your students create a portrait at the beginning of the year and recreate it at the end. Display the two side by side to show how much growth has occurred!

2. Assemble a growth portfolio of student work.

A growth portfolio highlights the artistic process over the product. This portfolio differs from a traditional one in that it consists of more than just the finished artwork. Include sketches, peer critiques, midpoint reviews, and other foundational documentation that brought about the finished product. Give a complete picture of how much work went into the art!

Start assembling digital growth portfolios today with these resources:

• “Utilizing Digital Portfolios (Ep. 325)”
• How to Use End-of-Semester Online Portfolios to Measure Growth
• “Digital Portfolios and So Much More… (Ep. 112)”

3. Collect formative assessments into an illustrated work log.

Consider interspersing written formative assessments with live and in-the-moment learning checks so that students can track with you. For example, assign exit tickets, sticky note reflections, or peer critiques, and have your students save these until the end of the year. Then, students create an illustration to accompany each one. For example, their drawings can show them learning the lesson, demonstrate their learned technique, or symbolize their learning.

4. Select a “Show and Tell” piece as the subject for reflection.

Encourage students to consider a piece of art they are proud of. Ask students to think about the process of making the work, the challenges they faced along the way, and why the artwork is successful in their eyes. Adjust the reflection format for the grade level. Try a Think-Pair-Share for younger students and a written reflection for older students. Then, have each student show their artwork and share insight from their reflection.

Help your students think about their art with these reflective strategies:

• “Encouraging Risk-Taking and Reflection (Ep. 094)”
• How to Reveal the Creative Process Through Reflection
• Use the Studio Habits as a Guide for Reflective Self-Assessment

5. Host a “Biggest Failure” award ceremony with prizes.

Time to celebrate those mistakes! Instead of choosing their most successful artwork, have your students determine one that was an epic failure. Ask your students to write about or discuss what they were trying to accomplish, where they went wrong, and what they will do differently next time. Each student then presents the artwork and failure takeaways. Vote as a community on the “Biggest Failure” and award simple prizes for first, second, and third place.

6. Curate a sketchbook gallery walk with your class.

What better way for students to see how they navigated their artistic journey than a look in their sketchbooks? Prepare for the gallery walk by having students tag three to five pages representing essential learning from the year or showing incremental skills growth. Then, set out the tagged sketchbooks and tour them as a class. Ask students to leave encouraging notes, observations, or comments as they go.

Make sketchbooks foundational in your art room with these resources:

• Making Elementary Sketchbooks Meaningful Pack from PRO Learning
• 5 Simple Ways to Use Sketchbooks in the Elementary Art Room
• How to Make Sketchbooks a Vital Part of Your Classroom

7. Connect growth beyond the walls of the art room.

You are not the only one seeing your students’ minds evolve and change. Your students have picked up new skills in all of their classes. Their character has also developed along the way. Collaborate with other teachers to celebrate all of the transformations you’ve seen. Incorporate work from other classes into these activities to provide a more holistic picture of your students’ growth!

You put in the hard work all year to provide your students with opportunities to fail and learn from their “mistakes” safely. In turn, they have taken what you have given them and run with it, developing their artistic skills and growth mindsets. The final step is to show your elementary students how much they have grown. Taking the time to process growth cements knowledge and learning in your students’ developing brains.

There are many creative ways to tailor growth processing to your students’ grade level. Try a visual method with your younger students, like comparing artworks from the beginning and end of the year. Integrate more written components, like sketchbook gallery walk feedback, as your students get older. Expand your reflection beyond the walls of your art class for a more holistic look. Whatever the activity, make it fun and really celebrate how far you’ve come together!

For even more ways to celebrate artistic growth with your students, try one of these additional strategies:

• 10 Trusted Rules to Promote Artistic Growth in Your Classroom
• 3 Practical Ways to Assess Student Growth
• An Authentic Way to Show Student Growth in the Art Room

How do you process student growth with your elementary students?

Which activity are you excited to try in your elementary art room?

The post 7 Ways to Process Artistic Growth With Your Elementary Students appeared first on The Art of Education University.

There are several ways to assess portfolios. You can determine if they fulfill AP art requirements, demonstrate growth, or meet college application requirements. Portfolios can have more potential than these traditional uses, though! Once the portfolio is complete, use one of the artworks to create a keepsake item, or have students make a unique year-end art project showing their growth. It will help students assign greater value to their artwork and end the school year on a positive note!

Make these three keepsake items from portfolio artworks or create summative assessments using these seven projects.

For the purpose of this article, “portfolios” indicate the entire collection of artworks students made throughout the school year. For more on Student Portfolio Basics, check out the Pack in PRO Learning.

These three year-end project ideas transform portfolio artworks into keepsakes.

One way to remind students of their artwork’s value is to transform it into a keepsake. Students reflect on their growth throughout the school year as they create their keepsakes. Whenever they see the keepsake in the future, it will remind them of their positive experiences in art class.

1. Create jewelry or keychains.

Use pictures of artwork to create jewelry pieces. Print small images of students’ favorite artworks. Supply a couple of different jewelry or keychain molds for students to choose from. Students put their images in the molds. Then, pour clear epoxy resin over them. Turn artwork into earrings, necklaces, or keychains by adding jewelry hooks or chains. Students can keep them for themselves or give them to friends or family! Check out the article A Step-by-Step Guide to Resin Jewelry in the Classroom for more.

2. Compose a unique digital collage. 

Students work in groups to digitally combine images of their artwork from the year. This project is even easier if your students already take pictures of their artwork throughout the year for digital portfolios. Challenge students to create a form using the shades within the artwork instead of just randomly arranging the pictures. Their collage of pictures can make the school mascot, a symbol, or even a portrait! If you have the budget for it, print the collages and give them to students or post them around the school or classroom. It also allows you to focus on resetting and cleaning out your art room for next year since students only need electronic devices to do this project.

3. Sew a blanket or pillow. 

Memorialize your students’ portfolio pieces into artwork that remains at the school for future students to see. If you have an inkjet printer, print photos of your students’ favorite art directly onto fabric. Several companies will print photos onto fabric for you. Students sew the pieces together to create a class quilt or pillows. Put them in the “chill zone” in your classroom next year to inspire your new students.

These seven year-end projects serve as summative assessments.

Instead of creating a keepsake from portfolio artworks, consider designing a project around portfolios to serve as a summative assessment. Summative assessments for student portfolios show how much students have grown in their artistic skills throughout the year.

1. Use a “failure” project to create a new project.

Students often have least-favorite pieces in their portfolio or pieces they wish they could change. Let students reimagine those pieces for the last project of the year. Being able to persist, salvage, and transform is a wonderful way for students to show their artistic growth. It’s also a way to demonstrate how they have developed a growth mindset around their art.

Here are five ways your students can revise a “failure” project: 

1. Tear or pull the piece apart and use the fragments to create a new artwork.
2. Take a 2D artwork and make it into a sculpture, or take apart a sculpture and turn it into a 2D art piece.
3. Create a collaborative multimedia piece using the entire class’s art pieces.
4. Take the main concept of the piece and create a new one.
5. Rework the piece’s unsuccessful areas.
6. Manipulate the artwork digitally, as shown in 5 New Ways to Revise Old Artwork.

2. Market for next year’s class.

You spent an entire year helping students create diverse, polished artwork. Capitalize on that by having students create flyers or posters showing their portfolio pieces. Your students can make these digitally and print them as flyers, or they can use traditional drawing or painting materials to create posters. If you haven’t introduced them to digital art or taught them graphic design skills, use this as an opportunity to present it. You’ll end the year with advertisements for your program, which is a convenient strategy if you’re struggling with low enrollment numbers.

3. Donate to the community.

Not all students are emotionally attached to their art. Ask students to donate their unwanted art to local community centers or assisted living facilities. Present the art to a community facility and allow them to curate the pieces they want to display. Go a step further and plan a trip to the facility to show students how their community proudly displayed their art. Students can also transform their art into cards with handwritten notes to local nursing homes or hospitals. Whether students take your class again or not, it ends the year with them knowing they created something of value.

4. Create an exhibit. 

Ask the class to create an art exhibit in the hallways. To start, students lay out all the artwork from the year and look for connections between the artworks. As they find connections and pick artwork, they learn how to act like curators. Read How to Help Students Curate Exhibitions to Promote Ownership and Lessen the Load for advice on student-led exhibitions. If time allows, ask students to invite guests to the exhibit. Extend the project so the students can act as museum workers, such as museum educators, preservationists, and art handlers.

5. Apply for a solo exhibition.

If your students made portfolios as part of an AP art course or submitted their artwork to competitions, they’ve already taken the brave step of asking their artwork to be judged. However, your students may wonder if their portfolios serve a purpose beyond college applications, AP course credit, or competitions. Why not enter their portfolio for a chance to have a solo exhibition? Even if their application isn’t accepted, you’ve still walked them through a daunting process and prepared them to try again.

6. Make money.

The idea of the “starving artist” is a pervasive misconception and one your students may also hold. If your district and school policy allow, give your students the opportunity to experience earning money with their art. Students set up booths and put on an art fair or host an art auction. Ask students to create a marketing campaign to get people to show up. They can invite administrators, teachers, families, and community members to show off all their hard work from the year and make some money while they’re at it! Who knows, someone may fall in love with their portfolio and buy the whole collection!

7. Write a portfolio artist statement.

Ask students to reflect on their growth, process, and learning throughout the year by composing an artist statement for their entire body of work. Provide prompts to help students think deeply about their artwork. Then, give students leeway to present their artist statements creatively. They can make a video, slideshow, or skit to demonstrate their journey.

Students often need guidance to recognize the value of their portfolios beyond their traditional uses. Let them finish the year strong by applying their portfolio in a unique way, like incorporating their art in jewelry or a digital collage. Have students show off their work by curating an exhibit, applying for a solo exhibition, selling their artwork, or donating it to the community. Or transform artworks into something new or use their hard work to market for next year’s art program. However you choose to use portfolios, show your students how much they have grown this school year!

How do you assess student growth at the end of the year?

What do you think is the most important use for student portfolios?

The post 10 Unique End-of-Year Portfolio Assessments for Secondary Art Students appeared first on The Art of Education University.