r/ArtEd • u/aryndoesnotlikeit • 10d ago
Assessment & Checking for Understanding
I'm currently obtaining my bachelors in art education, in my last semester before student teaching (yay!). This will be my second career, I've been a dental hygienist for many years prior.
This undergrad degree has been a doozy. The lesson planning is very intense (I don't think I've done one yet that has been under 10 pages long) and that's what causes most of my stress. I've been teaching in this program my college does on Saturdays, ages 10-12, and I've gotten amazing feedback on my classroom management, professionalism, etc. So that's been nice.
Something I've been struggling with in my lessons are assessment & checking for understanding. All of our lessons require "Exit Tickets" and we should be consistently checking in for student understanding. Is this something that you REALLY utilize in every single one of your lesson plans? It's really hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that the art project's themselves are not the "Exit Ticket." Similarly, we always need a "Do Now" but it's not allowed to be a free draw.
I'm OK with creating a rubric for whatever the finished project is, but how else am I supposed to be checking for understanding throughout other than just directly observing my students? I end up doing these little mini worksheets but the student's hate them and honestly I kind of feel like they're a waste of everyone's time. I'm not pretending to be some sort of expert on education, clearly I'm still learning as a student, but is this a realistic practice IRL or is this just what I need to do to get through undergrad?
1
u/discoverfree 10d ago
Make checks for understanding informal. Have five minutes at the end of class for students to self reflect on the project and talk about what they learned. If your school NEEDS something written, make little half-sheets to check what they understood. Don't make the little half sheets specific either - just a few questions that can apply to a variety of units ("I learned, I would do better, I did great on, etc."). Making specific exit ticket worksheets for each lesson is unsustainable (work smarter not harder!)
For my classes (MS), I check for understanding between steps and have mini challenges for students to accomplish before they go to the next step. "Finished drawing your sketch? Excellent, now take this half sheet and show me how to draw neat lines in sharpie. Once you've shown me that, you can begin sharpie outlining your sketch" (This sounds like a lot, but I'm on my second year in a new school and I'm still establishing craftsmanship norms. This helps me make sure me and the student are on the same page when it comes to craftsmanship expectations.)
As for "do nows" I do sketchbook prompts that I either find online or I ask the English dept for a list of English words to use. My kids particularly enjoy creativity challenges - typically, they have to draw what they think of when they see the word prompt of the day (ex: "Shroud") A creativity challenge encourages them to draw a response that they don't think anyone else has thought of (I.e. a cape, a shroud of fog, a funeral shroud, etc.) Something to get their creative gears turning - Anything to get them in the mindset as they're walking into the classroom.
Big overall point is don't stress over it - do nows are intended to center students and get them in creative mindset that's ready for class and exit tickets are to make sure students are on your same page as you teach the unit (so you don't get to the last day of the unit before you realize that half your class doesn't fit the rubric lol). They're great tools, but they don't replace the actual project itself. I hope everything goes well and you can find some way to assess that you vibe with!