Adelynn Torchia

Observation Response

11/30/2017

For basically all of Ms. Belts projects she uses two forms of assessments, a rubric, and a

critique. Her rubrics consist of different categories of criteria and the total possible points that

category is worth. In addition to having a column where Ms. Belt writes in the points given for

each category, she also includes in her rubrics a column where students conduct a self-evaluation

of their work and assign themselves points for each category. Ms. Belt always includes a written

category of criteria that is based on a question they must answer, regarding some aspect of their

project or their artmaking process. Before students are able to turn in their projects, they must fill

out their self-evaluation. For Ms. Belts Ceramic classes she has two separate rubrics for herself

and her students to complete, one is after they have built their pieces, and are ready to be fired in

the kiln, and the other is for after they have been glazed and fired again, with the rubric

consisting of criteria specific to how the piece was glazed. For each individual class (Photo and

Ceramics) Ms. Belt has a generic rubric that she will use, and depending on the project, she may

add/change categories, as well as change the written response question, to make the rubric more

specific to the elements of the project. The following are the rubric Ms. Belt uses for her Portrait

assignment in her Photo 1 class, and the rubric:

Portrait Evaluation- your pts my pts

Visually pleasing image (50):
Creative Idea (20):
Quality of image (20):
Contact Sheet (20):
Written (10):
What kinds of portraits do you prefer to take and why?
Pop Art Evaluation- your pts my pts
Realistic representation (40):
Connects to popular culture (20):
Use of Time/Effort (20):
Craftsmanship (20):
Written (10):
What does your object say about our current popular culture in America?

For Ms. Belts ceramic classes she always adds a category for use of time/effort, because

grading the product of an art project can be very subjective, she wants to make sure that students

are being credited for their participation and work in the classroom. Because Ms. Belt has been

teaching for many years now, and therefore has graded countless of art projects, when she looks

at the completed projects, she basically already knows what grade it reflects. However, to be fair,

and so that students are able to see the breakdown of why they received a certain grade, she will

still assess each category of the rubric and assign points accordingly. Ms. Belt lets her students

know after she passes back the graded rubrics, that if they feel like they are confused about the

grade they were given, they should come ask her for clarification.

After completing projects, Ms. Belt has her students engage in a group critique, allowing

students to speak about their work and their artmaking process, allowing students to make

comments about their classmates work, and allowing for Ms. Belt to give her feedback. Mostly

for her ceramics classes, before critiques, Ms. Belt usually has her students fill out a sheet of

critique questions. An example of the sheet of questions is below:

Ceramics Project Critique Questions:

1. What was the best part of your project and why?
2. What part of your project would you change and how?
3. What did you learn during the process of making this piece?
4. How could this project be improved in the future?