Ways of Assessing
The Arts Scope and SequenceThe 'ways of assessing' complement 'ways of teaching' and aim to support teachers in developing effective assessment practices in The Arts.
The 'ways of assessing' also complement the principles of assessment contained in the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline. The assessment principles, reflective questions and assessment snapshots support teachers in reflecting on their own assessment practice in relation to each of the assessment principles. Here teachers will find:
- background information for each principle
- reflective questions
- guidance for addressing the principle within their own assessment practice.
Refer to the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline (http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au) for further guidance on assessment principles, practices and phases of schooling.
The key to selecting the most appropriate assessment is in the answers to several reflective questions. For example:
- How do you use assessment as the starting point of your lesson planning?
- Do your assessments have a clear purpose?
- Do you design assessment tasks in a way that meets the dual purposes of formative and summative assessment?
- How do you use your observations of students (during the course of classroom activities, in assignments and in tests) to determine how learning can be improved?
- How do you identify students' misconceptions or gaps in their learning?
- How do you identify the next skill or understanding a student, or group of students, needs to learn?
- What information do you collect to evaluate your own teaching?
- How do you work with colleagues to evaluate student achievement data and how does this work inform your teaching?
- What range of evidence do you draw on when you report student performance and evaluate your teaching?
Refer to the Judging Standards tool in the Western Australian Curriculum and Assessment Outline (http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/judging-standards) when reporting
against the Achievement Standards; giving assessment feedback; or explaining the differences
between one student's achievement and another's.
In the Arts, assessment tasks typically address the syllabus content in interconnected ways within relevant, meaningful contexts to students. Assessment tasks should identify the specific applications of knowledge and skills students will use, individually and/or in groups, to achieve clear, creative goals. This provides students with opportunities to find innovative ways to solve creative challenges.
The following table provides examples of assessment strategies which can enable teachers to understand where students are in their learning. Assessments should also be based on the integration of a range of types and sources of evidence.
| Subject | Examples of assessment strategies | Examples of sources of evidence |
|---|---|---|
Dance | Movement skills: students practise planned, movement-based exercises to develop a variety of technical dance skills and performance skills. |
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Choreographic skills: students create their own dance through completing task-based activities that engage in the use of the elements of Dance: body, energy, space and time (BEST), choreographic structures and choreographic devices. | ||
Reflective practice: students reflect, either orally or in written form, using dance terminology, on their own work and the work of others. Reflections will include analysis of the use of BEST, choreographic devices and structures, and design concepts in dance works. |
| |
Dance and contexts: students become familiar, in written or oral form, with historical, social and/or cultural contexts in which dance exists. This can be completed through investigation, where appropriate, and/or by viewing live or digital dance performances as audience members. | ||
Drama | Improvised/devised drama: based on stimuli, students engage in the development of original drama based on particular drama forms and styles and drama skills and conventions. May include the use of design and technology to support meaning. |
|
Scripted drama: based on complete scripts or script extracts (published or unpublished), students engage in the interpretation of drama texts. May include the use of design and technology to support meaning. | ||
Reflective practice: students reflect, either orally or in written form, using drama terminology and language, on their own work and the work of others and the use of the elements of drama, and design and technology in drama. |
| |
Response analysis: students respond to, in written or oral form, using drama terminology and language, the application of elements of drama to create drama forms and styles and dramatic meaning; in particular drama performances (theatre) presented to students live or via digital format. May also include discussion about the role of design and technology. | ||
Media Arts | Media production: students develop skills in all phases of media production, from pre-production and media production, to post-production. Students develop practical skills through the experience of producing in various media forms, styles and genres. |
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Reflective practices: students reflect on their own and others', media productions using media terminology. This includes reflecting on group work and problem-solving strategies about media codes and conventions for the purpose of the production and the intended audience. |
| |
Media Arts and Contexts: students investigate, where appropriate, in oral or written form, the influence of the media, media history, and the contexts that shape the media. Points of view and values that shape productions and audience readings may also be considered. |
| |
Music | Aural and theory: students complete aural and theory tasks identifying and applying the elements of music. They develop music literacy and listening skills through practical and written activities. |
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Composing and arranging: students complete short tasks that reinforce learning concepts, or extended works that incorporate stylistic features and conventions in structured composition activities. Students can use invented and conventional notation, appropriate music terminology and technology, working individually or collaboratively. | ||
Analysis and context: students complete aural and visual analysis tasks using scores and recordings or by listening to live performances. They identify, compare and evaluate the use of music elements, contextual and stylistic characteristics and/or cultural and historical features in a range of musical examples. |
| |
Performance: students sing and/or play instruments to reinforce an aural or theoretical principle; communicate a compositional idea; or create and/or improvise musical ideas. Performance may be a solo or ensemble activity where students practise, rehearse and refine technical and expressive skills, and develop stylistic awareness. |
| |
Visual Arts | Production: students engage in the development of a resolved artwork to develop their skills and technical abilities for the relevant chosen medium and to demonstrate their creativity and knowledge of the visual conventions. |
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Analysis: students analyse, in written or oral form, using visual arts terminology, their own artwork and the artwork of others, based on selected frameworks. |
| |
Reflective practice: students reflect, in written or oral form, on their own artwork and the artwork of others, using the elements and principles of design, to refine and resolve artworks. | ||
Artists and contexts: students explore the social, cultural and/or historical contexts of artists through investigation, where age appropriate. |