One of my goals this year was to have my students really understand the artistic behaviors.  I thought last year the students were looking at them only on the surface.  I want a deeper understanding for them this year as I feel the behaviors I use are important, not only for growing as an artist, but they are things that can be transferred to other aspects of their academic and their personal lives.

One way I am stressing the artistic behaviors and thinking like an artist is that I will be assessing my students based on the process/behaviors they show in class, not on the physical artwork they create.  Here is the rubric I created based on the artistic behaviors.  I wrote more about it here.

I wanted my students to be introduced to the 9 Artistic Behaviors before we jumped into creating art.  But, I didn’t just want to do a power point on them.  I wanted something more to go along with each behavior.  That’s how I came up with my Artistic Behavior Boot Camp.  In this boot camp, we would spend about a week and a half being introduced to the behaviors.  As a class, we would do an activity.  Then the students would be given a reflection sheet where they were asked to look through the artistic behaviors that are listed on their sheet and posted on the wall (with a brief description under each), and choose which behavior they thought the activity best connected to.  They had to say why they felt that way, what they learned from the activity, and how they thought it connected to being an artist.

THE BEHAVIORS AND THEIR ACTIVITIES

Artists Collaborate:  In this activity, I copied an MC Escher print I had and cut the print into 2″x 2″ squares.  I handed the students a square and a 3″x 3″ post-it.  The students had to transfer their piece to the post-it and then go in the hall and assemble the puzzle.  In hindsight, I chose a very hard image to work from.  I know better for next year.

M.C. Escher, “Reflection”, 1950, linocut printed from two blocks, 26 x 32 cm.

Artists Solve Problems:  I had lots of ideas for this activity.  In the end I decided to show the Ted Talk “Embrace the Shake” about artist Phil Hansen.

Artists Take Risks:  I had stumbled upon this video we ended up calling the “Baby George Video”.  It was short, but I think the message was super clear.

Artists Communicate.  In this activity, students found a partner.  One partner was given an image and had to describe the image, and without showing the partner or pointing to the partner’s page, get them to draw the image.

Artists Observe: I had taken this quiz on facebook that I thought would make a great observe activity.  The students were shown four squares and had to choose the one that was a different shade.  Every time they got it right, a new grid (with more squares) would appear.  It got harder and harder as the difference was slighter and slighter.  On top of that, it was timed.

Artists Create Original Art:  What better way to kill 2 birds with one stone, but to do a short Slides presentation about Copyright, Fair Use, Appropriation, and Parody.  In the presentation, I briefly went over a concept, then the students were shown a case and they had to decide what the outcome was.  The presentation ended with a mock violation between DisneyLand and Street Artist Banksy’s Dismaland.

Artists Develop Art Making Skills: Each student was equipped with a marker on the end of a 3′ dowel.  We went out into the hall where I rolled out a long paper and had the students look out the window and draw what they saw.

Artists Have a Global Awareness of Art Making:  The third video I had them watch was the trailer for Season 7 of the PBS series Art 21.

Artists Reflect:  For our final activity, I handed back all of the 8 previous reflection sheets and gave them a new reflection sheet.  I asked the students to review what they had chosen and written for each activity over the past week and a half. They then had to choose one behavior for each activity.  (On the previous reflection sheets, many students circled several behaviors for each activity and had repeated behaviors from activity to activity.  I will come back to this shortly.)  After making connections, they were left with one behavior,  They were asked what filling out all the sheets had to do with that behavior, and they had to connect that behavior with being an artist.

I returned all the reflection sheets the next day and we had our Boot Camp Wrap Up.  I created one more slide show and engaged the students in a discussion to decompress all we had just done.  We went through each activity and I asked them what behavior they thought it was.  I asked why.  Sometimes they all agreed and sometimes they didn’t.  And, they were able to say why for all opinions.  I would reveal what behavior I had intended to connect with the activity.  Then with my enormous passion and animation, I talked about what that behavior meant in terms of art and being an artist.  As I walked around the room and looked at the students, I could see they were taking it in.  I see the sparks.  When I got to taking risks and how my classroom was a place to be comfortable, a place to explore and fail, I could see the looks on their faces change–a change I thought was positive.

The slide show ended with a review of how they would be assessed in my art class.  I asked them what an 87 on an artwork meant.  I could see them reaching for something, but floundering.  I assured them that their lack of finding a answer was okay. The number grade in art seems arbitrary.  It doesn’t help you know where you are or where you need to go.  They agreed.  They now knew why we spent time looking at these behaviors and how we would use them in the coming year.

I learned as much from this boot camp as my students did.  As the first reflections sheets started to come in and I began reading, I was surprised.  Surely the students would have the same thought process I did.  ::face plant::  I became so interested in the different behaviors they chose for each activity and the various reasons why.  I decided to make a chart to record all the different choices.  Artists collaborate and artists communicate were two that were often connected to each other.  The same was true with artists solve problems and artists take risks.  The students made connections between the behaviors without even knowing it–connections that are just inherent in the behaviors.  Of course there were those students that went through the motions without much thought, but there were many that I saw really thinking about what they had just done and making connections.  And, students were honest by saying they didn’t understand what a behavior meant (like global awareness), so they weren’t really sure if they were making the right connections.

The Artistic Behaviors Boot Camp achieved what I hoped it would.  It introduced the students to the artistic behaviors. It enabled the kids to begin to think and to make connections between what they are doing and what artists do.  And, I got to learn a little about my students and how they think.  Were there rough patches?  Yes.  I wanted to throw in the towel after the first day. But, I am so glad I didn’t.   I am sure I will make tweaks to it in the few weeks before school next August, but for now, I am calling this boot camp a success..

If you teach high school, you know that there is no way to get away from grades.  Grades determine GPA, which determines the top 10%, which could mean automatic acceptance into a state college, etc., etc., etc.  It’s a vicious cycle that personally I dislike.   A lot.

If you have ever read a Facebook post by me about grading, then you know the struggle for me is real.  I am tasked with too many “mandatory” grades in too short of a time.  I wish I could be like Ian Sands and not grade anymore.  However, that really isn’t an option.  I already push it and not fulfill my requirement every marking period.  But shhh…don’t tell nobody.

Now, we all should know that grades=/=assessments.  They are not the same thing.  Currently for me, grades in art are equal to the hoops I make the students jump through.  Did you complete this on time?  Did your artwork have 3 lines and 6 warm colors? (For the record, I don’t grade like this, and I think you should not either.  Seriously, when you make artwork, do you want to be told how many colors you should have?  But I digress.  That’s a topic for another day.)  Do you have at least four sentences in your reflection blog post?

What do these types of things tell me about how well you, the student, are doing in art?  How well are you understanding the process?  How are you improving your artistic behaviors in your journey on thinking and behaving like an artist?  Answer:  They don’t.  They tell me nothing, except that you did something I arbitrarily asked you to do.

As art teachers, we assess our kids every day; or at least we should.  I do.  I make adjustments for what I see my students need.  I make mental notes of where a student is and how can I help facilitate him/her to get to the next step or level.  I am constantly thinking about my kids and where they are going and how can they get there.  What resources can I share?  What artists or art movements can I ask them to look up?  What other media might intrigue them?  I am taking mental notes of how my students are growing as artists and thinkers.  Isn’t that my job?

This summer I have done a lot of thinking and talking about how to connect the assessments I am making everyday with the grades I am required to give to appease administration, students, parents, whomever.  How can I make the grades I give actually mean something…both for the students and for me.  I don’t want to give meaningless numbers anymore.  I want my students to understand that their grade in my class is directly related to how they are growing as an artist.

This is my plan.  I will no longer grade final artwork products.  The product shouldn’t be what is important about the student. The learning that occurs while creating that product is.  The real product is the student herself.  I want to grade her.  How do I do that, you ask?  Good question.

I have taken something I already use to assess my students and that I ask my students to use to assess themselves when blogging about the process.  Apex Art generated a wonderful list of artistic behaviors that I have adopted in my classroom.  I then thought of how my son is graded at his school, and how much it means to me.  I go over with his teacher the standards and where he falls on each standard.  That is so much more useful than being given a report card with an arbitrary number on it.  He got a 3 in math…so what?!  I combined these two things and came up with a 4 level scale:  exceeding, meeting, progressing, and emerging.  I then assigned numerical values to each level.  Now, I know this may seem arbitrary, but it is commonly understood that an A/90 is proficient in a subject.  So, I figured meeting a behavior is kind of like proficient, so that would be an A/90.  Exceeding=100; Meeting=90; Progressing=80; and Emerging=70.   I took these behaviors and levels and put them into a chart, with a space for notes.

This makes sense to me.  I plan on having the students and myself look at 6 of the 9 behaviors for each grading period.  (In my case 6 weeks.)  We will have discussions and meetings and the student will have his/her chart to see where they are at and where they need to go.  I will look carefully at how they assess their process and work in their blog posts.  For me, this will make the grades they receive more meaningful.  We can have conversations about it.  They will be able to explain why they are at the level they are and know why they received the grade they did.

I am very excited to bring this into my classroom.  I think it will help bring forward the “for” in the Teaching FOR Artistic Behavior (TAB) classroom I have set up.  I challenge you to make a greater connection between your assessments and your grades this year as well.

I have some kids that are just super hard workers. They jump right in and get to creating when posed with a new theme.   I wanted to share some new pieces being made in my room.

Joseph, a senior intermediate ceramics student made this delicious set.

Malinda, art 1, clay medallion to go with her painting for theme of Power

LaRunn, a transfer student who just 3 weeks ago joined my beginning ceramics class, making this piece for our Interaction theme

Marisa made two ducks for her Interaction piece…representing her and her daughter

Another Interaction piece. Cassandra made these cute penguins

Marisa, art 1, created this thoughtful piece for the theme of Power

Casey, art 1, found her Power in the ability to create a life. (Don’t worry, pregnancy is far off her radar.)

Just so proud of these kids.

I followed a link posted in my twitter feed by one of my #artsedpln members–Thanks Amy Traggianese.  The link brought me to this article:  Flip This:  Bloom’s Taxonomy Should Start with Creating.  In this article, author Shelly Wright proposes that we flip the bloom’s pyramid upside down and begin with creating.  Wright says,

“Rather than starting with knowledge, we start with creating, and eventually discern the knowledge that we need from it.”

Chris Davis, Powerful Learning Practice LLC

For years I had my kids memorize facts and try to get them to understand what we were learning–whether it be about color mixing or bas relief.  Then they would try to apply what they learned into an artwork that I created for them.  They never really got to the creating part.

With my TAB classroom, I think this fits in perfectly.  My young artists go through this new version of Bloom’s every time we create new artworks.  They brainstorm/draft/sketch ideas first and foremost–create.  They then look over those ideas and see what works and what doesn’t work–evaluate and analyze.  Sometimes they need help with their ideas/artwork, so they get help from peers, teacher, books, online. They do some research, conference with some people and bring that to their work–apply.  They finish their artwork and can reflect on it–understand.  They move on to another artwork, thinking about what has worked before, learning from mistakes, using learned techniques/materials again–remembering.  Finally, the cycle starts again.

While this is a crude and elementary example of how the “Flipped Bloom’s” works, it does work in a TAB/CBE classroom. Wouldn’t you agree?