One of the major concepts that I teach in my class is how to look and respond to art using the Art Elements and Principles of Design. I introduce the Elements and Principles in eighth grade. As a formative assessment to see how they respond to art, I put up a work of art and ask them to tell me about the strongest Element or the strongest Principle. They need to write a minimum of five sentences.
When reading the responses, I look for the use of art vocabulary and the strength of their reasoning behind their opinion. I constantly tell them to back up their opinion. I track the students' progress on a spread sheet. When they respond using very few art vocabulary words, name more than 1-2 Elements, and/or don't back up their opinion, they get a minus sign. When they begin to grasp the concepts and back up their opinion using some art vocabulary words, they get a dash. Once they have mastered choosing one Principle or Element and full backing up their opinion utilizing art vocabulary they get a check mark.
When reteaching and expanding on these concepts, I do a lot of it through discussion. We do whole group discussion and one on one. I use my spread sheet when speaking with my students one on one. Throughout the quarter, the majority of the students are at least to a dash mark. I plan on using this information when students take art at the high school level.
