Assessment Narrative Lesson Two

The focus of lesson two is how printmaking is unique from other mediums
and creating expressive features in art. I already know the students will have seen a
PowerPoint presentation presented by their teacher introducing printmaking.
Before I introduce my mono print activity I will pre-assess their understanding of
printmaking from the last class. I will use in-formal assessment by having a group
discussion about the basic components of printmaking and call on students to
answer questions like, what are the different types of printmaking? And what makes
printmaking unique from other mediums?
After the class discussion I will pass around a plate and a print that I created
and talk about the different techniques to motivate students engagement in the
medium. Once I have the students engaged I will pre-assess the students
understanding of a mono print for the printmaking activity. To do this I will ask in
general to the class what is a mono print? Judging by the students answer I will
either ask more in depth questions like what materials are used in a mono print/
how is a mono print different then mixed media art/ and why would you want to
create a mono print. Starting to create his or her print, each student has been given a
word to create a design that expresses the word grotesque, technical, whimsical and
fierce. After they have created their print they walk around the room and choose a
classmates print and place it in the category of the word they think it belongs to.
With this activity I am pre-assessing their knowledge of creating expressive features
and observing expressive features in art.
After the activity we will have a class discussion about what they thought of
creating a mono print, what they experimented with, problems they ran into, how
they solved problems, and what did/didnt work. Then I will pick three to four
interesting prints to talk about and ask the class if they agree or disagree with the
placement and why they think so and what expressive features/color choices sets it
in that category. Next I will have the students do a quick assessment about their
printmaking experience to see if the activity helped them understand the process by
doing a quick write about the materials they used and experimented with and if the
outcome on the paper was expected or a surprise. To assess my teaching the
students will hand in a ticket out the door as they leave answering the questions;
what did you know? What did you learn? What is a question you still have?
I chose to do in-formal assessments because this is an activity to help their
understanding of printmaking and it is not a final project that they will spend a lot of
time on. Discussions help students sort out confusion and hear the information
explained in different ways by their peers that may be more helpful to understand.
The activity is great for building an experience behind their knowledge of
printmaking. I would not grade this activity and just have it be associated with the
printmaking project.