Blog Topic #6 - The Beattie Chapters

I think in retrospect to the Beattie chapters, my evaluations would be based upon performance assessment strategies.  


I believe that art (especially Graphic Design), is a performance-based profession as a whole. It is evident that artists and designers make a living based on their performance.  


I would focus on certain criteria such as:

• Presentation
• Participation
• Overall Appearence
• Creativity
• Quality of Work

Because I am focusing my BIG IDEA as Historical Art of the Early Americas, I am already expecting students to be able to relate to the Fine Art piece and make an assumption of the particular part of history that is taking place. 

I have found (in my four years of teaching), that students who create designs fail to appropriately research the criteria prior to creating a piece of work.  That is one of the defining factors in my decision to utilize History as a topic for VTS.  I feel that it forces them to reflect and research a specific historical topic in order to create a piece of work comparible to the era of time.  Research, either self or group is vital to the success of any piece and is an intregal part of the Design process.  

Curriculum in my unit calls for open-ended instruction, that has to be tied in with closed, signed and sealed standards that follow state standards.  I must reinforce the design process with kids as per my standards and encourage research-driven designs.  I feel as though this may "hinder" my ability to completely open the VTS realm to my guys, but it works.

If my summative evaluations are performance based (please reference bullets above), I feel like I could potentially highlight all areas of the design process and keep the VTS open-ended for proper discussion and thinking strategies.