Blog 3: Backward Design with Assessment in Mind

            Many aspects of last week’s lecture and readings were rather interesting.  The concept of having a backwards design process reminded me of techniques that apply to drawing a detailed picture.  As in the case of curriculum, you must begin with the end in mind (often in the form of a reference photo or concept much like mandatory overall expectations) and work backwards, breaking the drawing down into simpler parts (much like specific expectations) which when built upon form the overall image.

            The initial steps of an art commission are similar to the initial steps for designing curriculum.  The pre-steps for curriculum involve knowing your curriculum document and knowing your students.  The teacher must know what big ideas they need to get across and the best method for doing so based on knowledge of their students.  Similarly, the artist must understand their medium, the particulars of their subject (such as their personalities and identifiers, for instance, knowing that Calvin is much smaller than Hobbes or that Hobbes is a tiger rather than a lynx) and what their commissioner want to get across in the drawing.  The curriculum must be designed around the particular needs of the class and individuals within the class who may respond better to a certain activities and means of assessment.  Similarly, the artist must design the drawing in a way that satisfies the needs of the commissioner who may prefer the work to be designed one way over another (such as Calvin throwing a snowball at Suzy verses Calvin and Hobbes laughing hysterically).

Artwork also came to mind when I read the section on integrative thinking.  This is “the ability to see in two dimensions simultaneously and to bring the best of both dimensions together” (Drake, Reid, and Kolohon, 59).  The text used the example of the Hoberman sphere which can expand or contract.  Similarly when drawing, at a certain point the artist must be able to simultaneously focus on a particular aspect of the drawing, such as a limb or facial feature, while still seeing the larger picture so as not to make the particular part they are working on disproportionate to the rest.  In this case, I had to ensure that the name would be large enough to be visible while still leaving enough room for the image.

This also relates to the KNOW, DO, and BE.  In this case, I had to know the big ideas were to create a nametag that could be seen across the room while displaying the name and theme effectively.  These larger themes had to be broken down into more focused parts, such as knowing how much space I had to work with, what mediums were available to me, and the proper spelling of the commissioner’s name.  I had to know my subject (like the teacher must know their student) as I chose the theme of Calvin and Hobbes with Darren in mind and what pose would work most efficiently for this particular context.  I demonstrated this knowledge through DOING, by applying the knowledge through a particular form of assessment, in this case, an art project with a particular function in mind.  Unlike in the school setting where the student illustrates the BE, in this case, the artwork had to reflect the BE in the sense that it illustrated both the theme and the commissioner’s personality clearly and accurately.