STAR-POST (Art) January 2020 FINAL_STAR Post Art Jan 2020 | Page 52
Reflecting on Authentic
Assessment in the Art
Classroom
Tan Wanxin Sherry
Art Teacher
Qifa Primary School
T
he assessment workshop
Making Marks: Subjectivity
+ Objectivity in Art Assessment
by STAR gave me many ideas
for practical assessment tools
that we could utilise in the art
classroom that will help inform
us of our learners’ progress. The
workshop was conducted in an
organised manner with authentic
case studies for us to engage in
discussions with our fellow art
teachers. We enjoyed very much
the insights and rich content that
was shared.
Before I attended the workshop, I had
questions on how to make the grading
of art as fair as possible for my students.
I found it challenging to develop a very
objective and specific set of rubrics to
measure the learning outcomes for art.
Creativity manifests in multiple forms,
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how best could it be assessed? Through
the discussions, I realised that assessment
for art is complex; there are multiple or
different ways to assess outcomes and a
straightforward rubric for assessment may
not always work. What is more important
is how the teacher could make the
objectives clear, scaffold and unpack the
learning for the students meaningfully.
After the workshop, I intend to adjust
some of my learning activities and rubrics
for a more holistic assessment of the
learning outcomes.
(Top & Bottom) Teachers sharing their assessment
practices in groups.
The workshop also had us reflect
on our personal teacher beliefs, the
syllabus outcomes and how they inform
assessment. The sharing by Senior
Teacher (Art), Chor Howe, from NJC
also led me to re-think the teaching
approaches for art. For him, art could be
used to solve real- life problems, such as
having his students design furniture for
the elderly. He explained his rationale
and shared how he created a holistic
assessment approach for the module.
I thought that his approach of letting
students take ownership of their learning
and assessing their processes and
prototypes in various stages was a good
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