Assessment
When applied properly, assessment is the most valuable tool for teaching students to learn. No one becomes and expert overnight, and our students are no exception. Clumpner (2021) describes how using grades and due dates to punish students creates an atmosphere of hopelessness, while giving quality feedback to students and time to make improvements builds respect and teaches students to value the process of trial and error involved in learning. Trilling and Fadel (2009) explain that formative assessments aid in student learning, while summative ones simply measure what was learned. Plug and Play has no summative assessment. The process of working through a lesson, creating, documenting work in a digital journal, using quality feedback, and making corrections provides ample evidence of each student's knowledge and ability to apply that knowledge. Assessing these behaviors along the way allows the teacher to assign a grade that is an accurate representation of each student's mastery of the content. Summative assessments are given at the end of learning, but part of the philosophy that informs Plug and Play is that we're never done learning.
mastery-based assessment
Process over product
developing a Growth Mindset
pracitcing Equitable Grading
Assessment is used as a formative tool that aids students in mastering the content through unlimited and unpenalized resubmission of incorrect work.
Using mastery-based assessments doesn't mean the student's artwork must be exceptional. By focusing on the process of developing skills and artworks, all students can achieve mastery.
Through mastery-based assessment and a focus on process over product, a growth mindset can be instilled in the student whereby they feel confident in their ability to excel at whatever they are willing to work for.
Giving all students every possible opportunity to be successful through mastery-based assessment and the fostering of a growth mindset will lessen the impact of bias and opportunity gaps.
Application to the Plug and play curriculum
The Plug and Play curriculum assesses mastery of process, content, and artistic behaviors but rarely at the same time. Each assignment is designed to assess no more than two items at a time. At no point will artwork be assessed in the Plug and Play curriculum, so you won't find any rubrics. By assessing the student's ability and willingness to participate appropriately in the process, instead of their artworks, you give the student more room to take risks. Yes, sometimes this means the artworks are less than stellar, but ultimately the goal of the Plug and Play curriculum is student-directed work, so the motivation to create better work needs to come from the student, not the teacher or a parent worried about their child's grade.
"Students learn best when they have opportunities for safe practice and risk-taking without academic consequences" (Taylor, 2021a, para. 3).
discussion
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references
Clumpner, J. (2021). Art curriculum authenticity: Elevating secondary-student voices in the creative process. Art Education, 74(2), 22-29.
Taylor, J. (2021a, February 5). 4 innovative ways to create with constraints. The Art of Education University. https://theartofeducation.edu/2021/02/05/4-innovative-ways-to-create-with-constraints/
Trilling, B., & Fadel, C. (2009). 21st century skills: Learning for life in our times. Germany: Wiley.