Radar Plotting Visual Rubrics (AEP Portfolio)
Contributed by CHOO JING SARAH, TONG SOI MUI, CHANG MICHAEL HSIN-JU
Current Situation:
In 2016, Nanyang Art Elective Programme started implementing a compulsory sketchbook component into our art curriculum and integrating the Study of Visual Arts with Studio Practice. There is a shift in the function of a sketchbook with the need to incorporate analytical writing to portray student’s understanding and insights to various art theories and history. Previously, teachers are free to choose how they want the students to use the sketchbook in their own art rooms. But more frequently, the sketchbook serves as project preparation filled with brainstorming and research sketches and technical drawings. However, after much review, the art team would like the sketchbooks to be more educational and expressive in nature, so that students would have a personal attachment and take pride in their sketchbooks. We would like the sketchbook to be a fun reference book where students are able to see their own growth, not just in terms of their technical skills but also the maturity in their thinking and ideas, as they flip through the pages. Idealistic as it may seem, the difficulty of these sketchbooks lies in them sitting as a component for assessment. How do we fairly grade a student when it comes to a personal expression and free drawings? How do we assess disposition observed through free drawings? There are great challenges faced in putting a grade to these highly personalised sketchbooks as there are no longer standard assignments for all students to have a benchmark for. Hence, there is a need for a grading system that does not mark just for fairness. As assessment shapes learning habits and informs teaching, it is crucial to assess an art project in totality and to credit students for growth and improvement, which are too abstract to be captured in marks. The consideration of student’s individual aspiration is also something that has been lacking in grading rubrics for a long time. Yet, this individual aspiration is the core to this creative subject, where different aspirations are what sets each student apart and makes their creation unique. In the attempt to resolve our difficulties faced in grading sketchbooks, we took references from various aims and objectives of the subject set out by MOE and AEB and finally arrived at a rubric that captures the following disposition(s): 1. Creativity 2. Curiosity 3. Diligence 4. Perseverance 5. Reflectiveness
Current Situation:
In 2016, Nanyang Art Elective Programme started implementing a compulsory sketchbook component into our art curriculum and integrating the Study of Visual Arts with Studio Practice. There is a shift in the function of a sketchbook with the need to incorporate analytical writing to portray student’s understanding and insights to various art theories and history. Previously, teachers are free to choose how they want the students to use the sketchbook in their own art rooms. But more frequently, the sketchbook serves as project preparation filled with brainstorming and research sketches and technical drawings. However, after much review, the art team would like the sketchbooks to be more educational and expressive in nature, so that students would have a personal attachment and take pride in their sketchbooks. We would like the sketchbook to be a fun reference book where students are able to see their own growth, not just in terms of their technical skills but also the maturity in their thinking and ideas, as they flip through the pages. Idealistic as it may seem, the difficulty of these sketchbooks lies in them sitting as a component for assessment. How do we fairly grade a student when it comes to a personal expression and free drawings? How do we assess disposition observed through free drawings? There are great challenges faced in putting a grade to these highly personalised sketchbooks as there are no longer standard assignments for all students to have a benchmark for. Hence, there is a need for a grading system that does not mark just for fairness. As assessment shapes learning habits and informs teaching, it is crucial to assess an art project in totality and to credit students for growth and improvement, which are too abstract to be captured in marks. The consideration of student’s individual aspiration is also something that has been lacking in grading rubrics for a long time. Yet, this individual aspiration is the core to this creative subject, where different aspirations are what sets each student apart and makes their creation unique. In the attempt to resolve our difficulties faced in grading sketchbooks, we took references from various aims and objectives of the subject set out by MOE and AEB and finally arrived at a rubric that captures the following disposition(s): 1. Creativity 2. Curiosity 3. Diligence 4. Perseverance 5. Reflectiveness
Improvement:
The Art Unit has observed that the current available assessment rubrics is not holistic in capturing the desired dispositions within the curriculum outline. It is vital to develop a process-based assessment that advocates for a growth mindset rather than a predetermined standard of excellence. The Art Unit has developed and implemented an alternative assessment through giving visual feedback in the subject area of Art. This will come in the form of Radar Plotting Visual Rubrics, which can is plotted visually and can, at a glance, tell the strengths and weaknesses of an individual student in place of a specific mark or score. This Radar Plotting Visual Rubrics can also act as a target setting tool for students, motivating students and advocating for process based learning within the classroom.
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