What is the role/ importance of assessment in art education? What methods of assessments have you used?

One of the most important tasks that teachers have is assessing students. Assessing students' work gives me the ability to find out what they are having difficulty with, so that I can provide some support and boost their expectations for success. Assessing the students' work and checking back for understanding of terms, important processes, and instructions also informs me what I need to work on. If I assess the students and most do not understand the content or instructions they I have just given, it makes me reflect on and reevaluate the way I presented my lesson.

The most common method of assessment that I use is a quick visual inspection of student work as they're working. This enables me to give very specific help and suggestions to students immediately. It also enables me to encourage students that are doing well, and show students examples when happy accidents occur.

A quick visual assessment of the entire class gives me a bigger picture to consider. I can quickly see where I may not have placed enough emphasis on important procedures of the lesson and allows me to stop the class so that I can get explain a concept from a different angle or refresh the students' memories.

As students begin turning in their work, I like to examine their finished projects. Reflecting on the finished pieces helps guide my instruction for the next class that will encounter the same lesson. I can constantly rework my lesson through this type of assessment so that the students get the best lesson possible.

Scoring rubrics are now an absolute must for the students that I am currently teaching at the high school. I write them so that they are very specific. At the beginning of an assignment, every student receives a copy of the rubric and we review every item on it so that the students can effectively assess themselves. Attached to the rubrics is a schedule that the students can use as general guidelines as to where they should be as far as completion is concerned.