8th Grade Drawing Improvement

Alya Whitaker

The past few weeks I have had several classes working on different assignments where they complete a pre-assessment drawing at the beginning of the unit and another, post assessment drawing, at the end.  I hold onto the first drawing during the whole process.  Typically the students are very shocked to see how much they improved.  As I pull out the pre-assessment drawing most of the kids are making comments along the lines of “Like, I totally bet I didn’t improve, like, at all” (I imagine most of my students saying that like a Kardashian).  

Makayla May

Aly Potter

First up is 8th Grade Art.  At the beginning of the semester I make the 8th Grade do a plant drawing just to assess where their drawing ability is.  Nine weeks later I then have them do another one just so they can see how much they have grown in ability.  I have yet to have a student, who did the assignment with effort, not improve over the nine weeks.  

Bree Reynolds

Jadin Reese

Probably my favorite part of seeing the before and afters is the fact that they they actually draw the plant the second time.  I think during the first round a lot of the students think the stool or pot is easier so they focus on that instead of the plant.

Aiden Cox

Maddy Tomlinson

Also another big improvement, that almost everyone does, is to utilize their space better.  You see a lot of kids with little drawings that only take up about one tenth of their paper.  I could have given them a Post-It note and there would have probably still been too much space around the edges.  Now however most of them are real good about running the drawing off the edge of the picture plane and creating some nice negative shapes.  

Mayson Cole

Hailey Dougherty