As we find ourselves in unprecedented times, with the possibility of adapting your teaching to online platforms, we at MAEIA are here for you.
Though our assessment catalog is not a bank of lesson plans, the following assessment items might provide a start from which you can reverse engineer the content you would first teach. With a vast number of video resources now being shared online, we as educators have an even greater opportunity to focus on the standards related to Create and Respond.
Using compositional and reflective units can be effective in helping students process what they are experiencing and they allow us to reinforce for our students why the arts matter and the function they can serve us personally as well as pre-professionally. As such, changes to item prompts could lead students into themselves using dance as a means to convey all they are currently holding.
We, at MAEIA, also recognize that online instruction will not be an effective strategy for all of our students in Michigan. We do, however, feel the following items might be helpful given the current state of education.
Below you’ll find select performance assessments in Dance, Visual Art, Theatre and Music that can speak directly to the Create and Respond elements. These items are also easily adapted for grade spans other than those listed, which can be useful for differentiation and meeting the needs of more students.
We made these selections with the belief that they could transition more easily to virtual contexts. Many include tasks that students can do by themselves, including making a video to send to their teacher. Also, students can use found objects, include siblings/parents in group work, and use available online resources for reference and research.
In the very least, we hope these assessment items help spark your thinking about how teaching Dance, Visual Art, Theatre and Music can exist within a digital environment.
Contributing authors: Heather Vaughan Southard, Joni Starr, Amy Pobanz, Cathy DePentu and Holly Olszweski
Click here for a Printer friendly version of this article.
Thank you for the work and time to draw out assessment opportunities for students in this time of new experiences for all.