Category: Exam

Week Eighteen

1/20/2018

Goodbye with GIFs

For our last week of class, students focused on their exams. In Art, there are two parts to their final exam before leaving for a new rotation in second semester. The first part is to create a GIF using works from our Intermediate and Elementary students art that is posted on their Artsonia sites. The second part is a test that asks students to more formally answer questions based on the content they learned covering media, artists, and techniques.

To help students study for their test portion, we use a study guide and play a game called "Stump the Student" where students ask each other questions on teams for points. It is a fun way to end the semester and creating the GIFs gives students a chance to make some art as a final way to express what they have learned in the class. Here are a sample of what was made (a special thanks to Ian Sands for the idea years ago):

Final Thoughts

Areas students said they felt were covered in class and through projects.

In the effort to improve what I do as a teacher, I ask students to provide me some feedback for the end of the semester. I ask them what areas they feel like they learned new information about, something that was the best part of the class, something that I should do differently for next time, and then a section where they can send me a message of their choosing. This is anonymous, so I never know who left what as their comment and it also opens students up to give me genuine responses.

From their responses, a few things are clear: 1. Students appreciate having choices in their learning, 2. Students would like more opportunities to collaborate, 3. Students appreciate the work I have put into making this class what it is.

It was fun to read through the messages and it offered a nice boost to the ego as we complete the term. This was a really nice group of students. I look forward to getting to start a new term on Monday with another set of great kids!

Just a sample of some the things students said was the best thing about the term.

Some lovely final thoughts from my students as we gear up for a new term with new classes.

First Projects Complete in 3D

Last week students worked on collaborative drawings based on the work of Heather Hansen. This week, students took those drawings and translated them into relief paper sculptures. It was really fun to see how far students stretched their original works and ideas to land on their final projects.

In this challenge, students were asked to create an asymmetrical and symmetrical relief sculpture. Here are some of the results:

This was a pretty action-filled week and I know next week will be even more so with a whole new group of kids to teach in art. And we are starting a BRAND NEW class next week, called STEAM. It will be fun to post more about that in the coming weeks!

The End of the Semester

1/20/2017

Stump the Student

Students finished up their time in the Art Room with me this semester. To finish off the class, students worked on their Final Challenge and Exam this week. In order to get ready for the Exam, students were given a review guide and some went beyond just filling it out to create a guide to help them study.

The day before exams stared, students were asked to come up with two questions based on their review. Then, after breaking into two teams, students played "Stump the Student." The first team action is for students to pick their team names. I required students to use "artful" names and some of my favorites from the day are "McWarhols," "Chick-fil-Art," The Chuck Closers," and "Chuck Far Away."

The rules for the review game are simple: students are placed on two teams to go head-to-head, asking their opponent a question based on the review. They may use images or other props to help visualize their question and they must know the answer to what they are asking. If the student being asked gets the question right, their team gets the point. If they are stumped, then the student who is asking the question gets it right if they know the answer. Then roles change before two new students are up.

It can be an intense game, so ground rules of behavior are also set before we begin to ensure it is fair and all benefit from the question/answer to help them review for their exam. I started doing this a few years ago and enjoy it beyond any other review activity I have tried prior or since.

Exams

For the Exam, students were asked a series of questions that covered the bulk of concepts they learned from this year. From identifying basic color groupings in famous works, to ordering the stages of clay, and labeling the parts of an image structure, students were tasked with being accountable for the terms and concepts they were taught over the last 18 weeks. The best part of this is that Schoology grades it for me, so students and I receive immediate feedback on how they did and what could be improved upon.

In addition to that, they also had to create a GIF using a work from one of our elementary or intermediate art students. I have Ian Sands to thank for this idea. This is one of my favorite things to do to end the term because it gives kids one more tool set before they leave and they get to use that to create something using another BCPS student's work.

Here are some highlights:

Lego Wall Update

Thanks to DonorsChoose and the amazing support of those who gave, we now have the makings of a Lego Wall over by the STEM classroom! I am very excited to get kids involved with making art on this and have Tricia Fuglestad to thank for sharing various Lego Art Lessons on her blog.

One project I hope to adapt for our wall is this one on Rotational Symmetry. It is a great opportunity to showcase STEAM in action, especially since the work will be in a public space. I also think this work, using students as models for character traits is a great way to use Lego to connect concepts to the classroom. The STEM teacher and I are working on a few ideas in hopes we will have a solid plan by 4th marking period.

If you are interested in building your own lego wall, here is where I drew inspiration before getting my project organized on DonorsChoose. It took me about a year of thinking about this before I went to action on it. I started by talking to our building leadership and the STEM teacher, who were on board from the beginning. Then I created the project on DonorsChoose, which ended up being funded by the end of first semester. Finally the boards were installed days after getting the shipment.

It has been really exciting project to have funded and one that has gotten a lot of positive reactions from students. The fist pumps and excited smiles alone have made it a success.

Saying Goodbye

To finish out the term, I also had students fill out an exit survey. I use this for a few things. I use it as a point of data to reflect on my effectiveness as a teacher and if we met the goals set; I also use it as a way to make improvements and adjustments for the future. It is a nice way to end the class, especially reading the responses I got to what was the best thing we did and anything else they think I needed to know.

I use Google Forms for this because it will organize the data for you in a very easy-to-read way. Here are some of the responses from those sections:

I had a great first half of the school year and know that this next week with a new group will make way for a great way to finish it out!

Final Exams

6/10/2016

Our last days of school is filled with exams, clean-ups, and saying good-bye.

To finish out the year, I have students take a test that quizzes their retention and understanding of various terms, concepts, skills, and artists we have studied over the semester and then I have them create a work that demonstrates their learning.

Visual Arts has the unique ability to make learning visible. I was happy to see and read the reflections of my students on these last days of school as they showed me what learning went on during this past year.

I am already looking forward to planning the learning for next year!

Matthew G.: Throughout the course of this year, I have learned a great deal. Most of which has been about Photoshop. I created a space landscape from scratch using Photoshop. I created two different textures, one that is Earth-like, and one that is Mars-like, and put them in a space setting. I added a lense flare to add the effect of a sun. Overall, I would say that this is one of my best Photoshop landscapes.

Sydney C.: I had made the art piece Summer Vibes because I like sunglass and printmaking so why not add both of my favorite things together? Throughout the year I really liked print making and I wanted to do it for one last time before I go up to the high school. Printmaking has helped me grow as an artist throughout the tool and had helped me expand my horizon of materials. This year it was my first year of art and for my final exam I wanted to use the skills I had learned this year and make a print using cool colors. Summer Vibes is not only my final piece as an 8th grader but also my last farewell to printmaking for the next year.

Eli G.: For the final project of the year, I decided to make a photoshop portrait of myself. In the 30 minutes I had, I thought it would look cool do do a portrait, and represent how I have gotten much better with photoshop than when I just started 2 years ago. I chose to do this because I felt like it would be a cool thing to try out as my last project this year. Even though it was a quick piece of art, I really liked the whole concept and enjoyed creating this piece.

Ella P.: The reason why I created this artwork is because, you can see with your eyes when your drawing or making artwork but your hands can also see what you a doing. Thats why the hands have eyes and are covering the face. Also I have learned to use texture in my art to make it more live like, so in the hair I gave more texture to make it look more real.

Finishing Up

6/5/2015

Today is the last day of school. Students are finishing up and saying good-bye to a school year that was filled with laughter, learning, and lots of messy moments in the art classroom. To finish out our last day together, students showed their learning through exams. Part of the exam was question based. Students were given a series of matching, multiple choice, and true/false questions that quizzed their understanding of the elements and principles of design, artists throughout history, as well as materials we used to create art throughout the year.

In addition to a more traditional means of testing, I also asked students to create a composition that expressed their learning over the semester. It is always fun to see how students interpret the directions and all of the various ways they use the skills they have learned to show what they know. Even better, are the artist statements that accompanies them and explains what they made.

Here are a few examples (the rest can be viewed on Artsonia):

Jewel: I learned a lot of things in art this year and this is an example of just a few. I learned my new favorite media, stippling. It's not just drawing and shading with a pencil. Noli Novak has inspired me to do something different with my artwork and to work to expand my comfort zone. I chose to represent the color wheel in my picture using water color. When I first came into 7th grade, I hated using water color because I didn't know how and what to do with it. Now, I know so many different techniques that I would love to use water color in the future and present. I am showing the color wheel because I never knew what a tint was or a shade, I didn't know the compliment pairs and the primary and secondary colors. Their was so many different things that I learned in art that I could only show the things that I think I grew the most in on one sheet of paper.

Andrew: This piece is a reflection of this whole art semester. It shows some of the many new things that I learned. I came in thinking art would be boring and I would know most of the stuff. I had no idea how wrong I was. There were so many cool and interesting new things that I learned from you. I learned all about elements and principles and the four C’s. I also became familiar with tons of amazing artists that gave me inspiration for my own art like Bansky and Mitchell Feinberg who where probably my favorites. When I first came in I only thought of art as drawing and painting. Over the semester I learned so many new ways to make art that I had no idea existed. Print making, Photoshop, movies, photography, and many others. Now I have a much larger arsenal of art that I can make. I hope to use these great techniques in the future to make over better, more creative art in the future. I learned a ton of new and interesting things in this class and I am very glad I chose to take art this year.

Ana: From the final art piece, I used a lot of shading techniques, but combining a lot of the different shades, then taking Q-tip and rubbing it all over, so that the different would blend in better. I also had perspective in the, but showing a shadow of the mountains and trees. I also had a reflecting lakes to reflect the scene.

Gabby: I learned a lot of things this year in art. I learned many watercolor techniques, as seen on the top of my drawing. I also learned more about cool, warm, and complimentary colors. I tried to add the element of color, which I think I did well, by adding many varieties of color to make my art pop. I really enjoyed this year and learned a lot more about art, such as shading, value, and more about cool, warm, and complimentary colors.

Leah: In this last piece of art I have made for my eighth grade piece there are a few things that did not go as planned. I had the intentions on making a foreground, middle ground, and background landscape piece. For the foreground I made a wave made from oil pastel. For the middle ground I was going to do the ocean made from oil pastel, but in a darker shade to add realism into the picture. Lastly, I was going to do the background as an island to add more interest into the picture. This art piece did not meet my expectations because of a couple different reasons. Throughout the year I have been used to having a week to finish my art pieces and today I was only given 45-30 minutes. Another reason why I did not finish this art piece is because there was not any ideas popping into my head because I have used most of the materials through out the year and the ones I didn’t use would not be done in a day (clay and wilting). I feel that if my intentions went as planned then this art piece would have showed how this eighth grade year has shown how much I have improved. The reason why is because I have done many different things relying on pastel and I have had much practice, also we have learned about the way to set up a landscape art piece and this is what I did. All in all, this year has been a great impact on my art skills and the use of creativity.

Finishing Strong

6/5/2014

Students finished out the year strong as they reflected on what they have learned and had a chance to create a work that demonstrated that. The two videos are a result of asking students to reflect on their learning and share it with others.

In addition to taking their final exam on Moodle, students also created a work of art using methods and materials to demonstrate what they learned over the course of the term. You can see all of the creations on our online Artsonia gallery.

Strong Finish

1/18/2014

Students finished out the term with their final exams this week. In addition to taking a 20 question test over the materials, artists, and methods learned over the last 18 weeks, students were challenged to create a composition that explored what they had learned over the term.

It is interesting to see how students compose their final compositions and which things they decide to highlight from what they have learned over the term. It is also fun to see the amount of growth students have demonstrated from the beginning of the semester to now.

It was a great semester in the art classroom! We have published over 2200 pieces of art on our Artsonia gallery and have had students selected for numerous awards programs - some of the best results from our program, ever! I am sad to see this group go, but I am really excited to teach the next group of students. We have a lot left to do before the end of the school year and it is going to begin with making art from the start - get ready for some clay and paint on day one, kids!

exams, day 1

6/6/2012

Students took their first round of exams today, but before taking their tests many took up the challenge of making a creative study guide for extra credit.

The image on the left was created by one of my 7th grade students using her iPad and the Pic Collage App. Can you tell what we learned this semester in Art from the images?

It was fun to see the various drawn guides (as well as the paper airplane) made by my 8th grade students, too.

Only two more days to go...

folding paper

5/31/2012

7th grade students are continuing to create various origami creatures for our mural in the library. Students voted on what they wanted the mural to say, and decided on YOLO (You Only Live Once).

This mural will be a nice way to wrap up the year and something to look forward to seeing again once we come back in September. We will start to hang the butterflies, cranes, and pinwheels tomorrow. Hopefully the installation will be complete by Monday so we can review for the Final Exam (yes, we give an exam in art) on Tuesday!

final exam

4/26/2012

Today was the last day of the Dual Enrollment Color class I teach for Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University. I am very proud of the work students made this semester and look forward to teaching another KCAD class next year. For now you can see these and other projects students created at our upcoming display for the student show in the Van Singel Fine Arts Center starting next week!

color mandalas

1/5/2012

7th grade students finished transferring their organic and geometric line designs (showing radial symmetry) before applying their understanding of color.

Students are using each divided space to explore a color concept in art. Warm, Cool, Complementary, Tint, Shade, Primary, Secondary, and Gray Scale are all being used in this piece.

I adapted this assignment from an Arts and Activities magazine article where they used rectangles instead of the circle to divide the space and create their designs.

This last project will help students study for their final exam, which will cover these color concepts as well as organic and geometric shapes and symmetry.