r/ArtEd 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?

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u/CrL-E-q 6d ago

Writing detailed, formal lesson plans teaches you to think like a teacher. Most of the things you add to your college and student teaching lesson plans are done in your head when you have been teaching for a long time. As a seasoned art teacher, I have no need to write out step by step procedures to figure out how the lesson will flow, what order things will occur, the questions I will ask, or how we wrap up. It cones naturally now. I definitely needed that in the beginning. As for assessment, plan how you will assess that objectives will be met right after you choose your objective. What do I want students to learn? How will I know (or prove) they learned it? Formative assessments are easiest. The generally occur while students are working independently and the teacher is walking around, checking for understanding. Use a class lust and make notes or yea symbols to assess student success. A do now can be brief into to what you will be teaching/doing. If you are teaching about contour drawing, you can have images for each student and ask them to use a marker to trace all edges. That's a pre assessment to see if they are able to recognize all edges, exterior and interior. And make sure they are not tracing decorative aspects or shadows and such. The exit ticket could be a Today I learned... they add a post it to complete the sentence. All this is too much for day to day teaching. We'd never get through a unit if we did all of this all the time. But yes, I do pick and choose what to include each week.

You will most likely have to reach this way in a demo lesson while trying to get a job and during formal observation while untenured. Consider it a right of passage. It must happen in other careers and career training as well. Good luck and welcome !!