Assessment Categories

The primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning.

Evidence of a student's learning will be collected from a multiple sources including observation, conversations, and physical products in a variety of forms. Students will be evaluated in the follow categories on the various projects and tests in the semester.

Knowledge and Understanding:

• knowledge of content (e.g., facts, genres, terms, definitions, techniques, elements, principles, forms, structures, conventions)

• understanding of content (e.g., concepts, ideas, styles, procedures, processes, themes, relationships among elements, informed opinions)

Thinking:

• use of planning skills (e.g., formulating questions, generating ideas, gathering information, focusing research, outlining, organizing an arts presentation or project,

  • brainstorming/bodystorming, blocking, sketching, using visual organizers, listing goals in a rehearsal log, inventing notation)

• use of processing skills (e.g., analysing, evaluating, inferring, interpreting, editing, revising, refining, forming conclusions, detecting bias, synthesizing)

• use of critical/creative thinking processes (e.g., creative and analytical processes, design process, exploration of the elements, problem solving, reflection, elaboration,

  • oral discourse, evaluation, critical literacy, metacognition, invention, critiquing, reviewing)

Communication:

• expression and organization of ideas and understandings in art forms (dance, drama, media arts, music, and visual arts) (e.g., expression of ideas and feelings

  • using visuals, movements, the voice, gestures, phrasing, techniques), and in oral d written forms (e.g., clear expression and logical organization in critical responses to art works and informed opinion pieces)

  • communication for different audiences (e.g., peers, adults, younger children) and purposes through the arts (e.g., drama presentations, visual arts exhibitions, media installations, dance and music performances) and in oral and written forms (e.g., debates, analyses)

  • use of conventions in dance, drama, media arts, music, and visual arts (e.g., allegory, narrative or symbolic representation, style, articulation, drama conventions, choreographic forms, movement vocabulary) and arts vocabulary and terminology in oral and written forms

Application:

• application of knowledge and skills (e.g., performance skills, composition, choreography, elements, principles, processes, technologies, techniques, strategies, conventions) in familiar contexts (e.g., guided improvisation, performance of a familiar work, use of familiar forms)

  • transfer of knowledge and skills (e.g., concepts, strategies, processes, techniques) to new contexts (e.g., a work requiring stylistic variation, an original composition, student-led choreography, an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary project)

• making connections within and between various contexts (e.g., between the arts; between the arts and personal experiences and the world outside the school; between cultural and historical, global, social, and/or environmental contexts; between the arts and other subjects)

The Arts Achievement Chart