I am a student attending college to become a high school Art teacher. When asked to come up with some sort of inquiry proposal to research for my English 1102 class, I will admit I was stumped. I at first came up with the idea of researching how art can be used for therapeutic means, but my English teacher came up with a proposal better suited for me. How is art graded? What sort of curriculum does an Art class follow? I followed up with: how do students think art should be graded? Naturally, I agreed that this proposal was far better than my initial proposal. With that settled, I set out to find the answers to my questions.
When talking about how art is graded in the classroom, there are a couple different ways to go about it. Katie Lyles, an elementary school Art teacher from Colorado, says that she uses a portfolio system to keep track of the kids' art as well as measure their progress. This is a method of grading art that I am very familiar with, as my own Art teacher in high school used this system of grading to assess our work. It's a very useful way, as Lyles puts it: “to monitor their learning and growth.” I visited my old high school to sit in on one of Mrs. Keziah's (the available Art teacher) classes and asked her what she used to grade art; she told me that she follows a rubric that lists out certain criteria that is she is looking for in the assignment. Some of the criteria included are: unity, harmony, emphasis, and other criteria. The principles of art play a role in how art is graded as well, as you can see from some of the criteria listed. The principals of art are: unity, harmony, emphasis, rhythm, contrast, movement, variety, and balance.
The curriculum that an Art class follows can vary, depending on the teacher, or the school system. According to the article, The Business of Art Education: A Fairytale Adventure, an art curriculum is made up considering the wants and needs of the students, parents, and other community members. In most cases, the curriculum is designed by the respective teacher and approved by the school system. There are rare cases however, such as Mrs. Keziah's class. My former high school, is a charter school, and so it does not fall under the guidelines administered by CMS (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools), the local school system. Mrs. Keziah forms her own curriculum to follow. There are some people however, who say the ideal curriculum for an Art class would be no sort of curriculum at all. As mentioned in New School Art Styles:The Project of Art Education, however, this idea is flawed, because most students wouldn't know what to to with that kind of freedom in the classroom.
Finally, I turned to the students for their input on the matter. I wanted to know how they thought their art should be graded. I asked Seth, a young man in one of Mrs. Keziah's classes, what he thought. Seth said he thought that art should be graded on the amount of effort put into the project, as well as the amount of time put into it. Another student I asked from a different class, Casey, replied to the question with her opinion that art shouldn't be graded according to specific criteria, it should also be graded on effort, “and maybe skill as well”.
Going into this inquiry project, I had very little idea what I was doing, but I caught on quickly. I think my inquiry research yielded interesting result both with the primary and secondary sources. I'm glad my English teacher set me on a better path at the beginning of the project; looking back on it now, I don't know how I would've been able to read through and interview people and articles on therapeutic art. It sounds a little tedious, if you ask me.