Adapting the Viewing Process For the Discussion of Student Work

In assessing student progress in the creative/productive component of the curriculum, teachers should use a variety of assessment techniques. This is one method of evaluating student work in a group reflection or self-evaluation session.

The objectives of this process are as follows. Students will:

reflect on and discuss the intentions, development and interpretations of their own and their peers' art works
perceive, describe, analyse and interpret art works and make informed judgments about art works using increasingly appropriate vocabulary
support opinions and interpretations for particular types of art based on evidence found in the work.

Teachers who use this peer evaluation/self-evaluation method must be sensitive to their students and must establish an open and non- threatening environment for discussion. The discussion should be a learning and growing experience and should not include any form of judgment.

The following are examples of questions that could be asked in the group session:
Can you describe what you find in the art work?

What has the artist done to achieve certain effects? Can you think of other ideas, materials, techniques, etc. that might work well?

What was the student artist trying to communicate to the viewer through his or her choice of materials, images, colour, etc.?

Teachers must remember that students are entitled to their own interpretations and feelings. Students should not be evaluated upon their ability to conform to the norm or to the opinions of the teacher. The teacher can evaluate the students on their ability to express their ideas and feelings and their ability to justify the reasons for their choices based on the evidence found in the art works.

The following are some ideas for adapting "The Viewing Process" for the discussion of student work.

Display student art work in the classroom. Because many students will be more concerned with experimentation and discovery some works may lack the finesse of a beautiful product. Students should be consulted by the teacher before their works are displayed.
Description: Describe specific student works on display and begin to describe some of the specific components in the works. Here students may want to compare and contrast works which may have a similarity to or difference from the first work chosen. Teachers should remind their students to stress the positive in each work.
Examples of observations using this process could be: "Sarah and John both used a large sheet of paper. Sarah chose to place her paper vertically while John used a horizontal format. Sarah used pencil to draw her friend while John chose ink to render the image of his dog. Both images have large eyes and appear to be very happy. Sarah left a lot of space at one end of her paper while John filled his space and had his image of his dog going beyond the edges of the paper."
Analysis: In this stage, teachers and students should begin to analyse what the student artist has done to achieve certain effects. This discussion will centre around techniques, images, the elements and principles of art, etc. In this way, teachers can reinforce these concepts within meaningful contexts which the students can easily understand. Many topics can be discussed in relation to the information found in the works.
Some examples of questions that could be asked are:
What elements and principles did they use in their work and how are they used to express certain ideas or feelings?
How are variety, harmony and unity demonstrated in the work?
What techniques has the student artist used to express certain ideas?

Teacher Note
Technical proficiency is often something that middle years students and many adults appreciate. Students who have not yet developed their skills to draw realistically can still be excellent artists because of their ideas and their ability to express them. Teachers and students should always value works which are about an idea or an expressive quality as much as they value technical dexterity.