Designing an assessment guideline for the kindergartners and integrating in to the curriculum is going to be a big change. Right now, I just informally assess the younger students on whether they can or can’t do a task. I then re teach the skill by breaking it down even further or doing hand over hand guidance for the students who don’t have as developed motor skills.
To acknowledge the needs of the students, the unit will incorporate art experiences that are process oriented (skill building). The major emphasis will be on formative assessment, as Beattie suggests. I will probably use checklists, tallies, and note/journal reflections. For the students, I might have them use a pictoral rating scale to judge their work. Kindergarteners like to talk, so I think I might try modeling a whole class critque a few times, then let them work in small groups at later dates to critique their work. The formative assessment for this grade level will mainly be verbal or through the use of picture symbols. For the summative assessment, I will be asking the students to tell me about their work (interviews), since students at this level use narrative and action to explain their work.
VTS is a great tool for assessing the cognitive skills of my kinders. Since most can’t write well enough to express their thinking at this stage, VTS allows me a snapshot of their thinking. It would be a good summative assessment tool to see if the instructional methods were effective.
You clearly understand these youngest students and are scaffolding their skills and understandings to make them confident and capable young artists! Your assessment strategies seem well-considered and wisely selected. I'm eager to see how this unfolds!
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