Rubrics

I think that rubrics are important to art teaching. In Sandra McCollister's article, she describes that rubrics can allow and display the different levels of understanding and execution. This gives the less advanced child an opportunity to see upon what they can improve and the more gifted children opportunity to excel in a subject in which they excel. For children who try hard and are just not very talented in the skill being taught, they are able to be evaluated on effort and thought in addition to product, so that the students who are good at art are not the only ones who get good grades. When a child can look at a rubric and see what they need to accomplish, it is more inspiring. If they know that they are being graded on their performance effort wise rather than product wise, they will fear art less.

I was, and still am, "bad" at art. I think that art is something that people allow themselves to feel like they are "bad" at because they think they know what is "good" but really, it's all relative. In elementary school and junior high school, I did poorly in art class. I think that this is because my teacher evaluated mainly on the basis of talent rather than creativity. I was always upset because I thought that my creativity was greater than my ability to translate it onto a canvas (literally and figuratively). Though my ideas were solid, I didn't have the skills to express them visually. For this reason I respect and appreciate the rubric shown in the McCollister article. I would have often fallen under the Novice category, and that would have been more OK with me had I seen a rubric like this where I could find ways to improve upon my work. I will undoubtedly incorporate rubrics into my art lessons to assist students like myself in the subject.

Davis Haines
Syracuse University