{"id":17938,"date":"2023-08-02T10:45:25","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T14:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/?post_type=cw_post&p=17938"},"modified":"2023-08-22T16:34:18","modified_gmt":"2023-08-22T20:34:18","slug":"a-self-portrait-of-a-graduate","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/a-self-portrait-of-a-graduate\/","title":{"rendered":"A (Self) Portrait of a Graduate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow do you grade art?\u201d As a high school visual art teacher, this was the question I was always asked, and my response was usually: \u201cYour guess is as good as mine.\u201d All sarcasm aside, this is a major issue to contend with for any teacher in any subject area.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Traditionally, we have approached assessment as falling into two categories \u2013 formative and summative. Most of us have been taught and modeled a method in which the educator takes the predetermined learning product and breaks it down into more manageable and disparate steps so that once students complete them we can say, \u201c\u2018Ta-da\u2019! Now you just need to combine them all together to prove you learned something.\u201d The problem with this method is that students have no part to play aside from receiving information and tasks, and then all too often, robotically puzzle-piecing those elements together.<\/span><\/p>\n

By sticking to this <\/span>industrialist method of education<\/span><\/a>, it becomes hard to imagine that the learner themselves already brings knowledge and experience to the classroom and that they each have their own inspirations and aspirations. Most would agree that students who have more meaningful and authentic learning experiences will retain more knowledge and transferable skills. But how do we honor this concept without continuing to rely on the same metrics of assessment and success? Let\u2019s use an example of a self-portrait assignment to illustrate the nature of this change.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Drawing<\/span><\/h2>\n

Steps to a Self-Portrait<\/span><\/h2>\n

In my art classes, one of the goals was to have each student create a self-portrait. For this assignment, I asked students to carefully consider their own features while looking in a mirror. The goal was to make deliberate observations and not simply draw what they <\/span>thought<\/span><\/i> they looked like.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before my assessment \u2018awakening\u2019, drawing an eye, like one to the right, was one of the ways I scaffolded and formatively assessed for creating the portrait. But now that I\u2019ve taken a step back, is this really telling me that this artist (in this case, myself) knows how to draw a face? No.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see what happens if we expand this further by adding more parts to analyze\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Drawing<\/p>\n

\"Drawing<\/span><\/p>\n

When we break everything up into these siloed pieces and then combine them at the end we may get something close to what we were aiming for, but it\u2019s still not exact. Close may result in what you see to the left. This is technically a self-portrait in the sense that it has all of the correct elements, and they are drawn and shaded accurately (if I do say so myself). However, none of the facial features reference each other, and therefore the work ends up looking like a sad attempt at postmodernism.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Drawing<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

Finding the Full Picture<\/span><\/h2>\n

Whe<\/span>n we consider the <\/span>bigger picture, <\/span><\/i>if you will, and account for how the smaller parts relate to the whole, whether that be a portrait or a person, we will get a more\u00a0<\/span>complete sense of understanding. A singular eye, nose, or mouth, doesn\u2019t offer any information about the way a person looks because we have to see the perspective and relationship of one feature to the next to make sense of the face. If we want learners to think critically, find their intrinsic motivation, and explore their passions, then we have to give them opportunities to attempt and practice deeper learning that doesn\u2019t shy away from the complexities of the larger goal. We literally and figuratively need to offer students mirrors, so that they see themselves reflected in their work, and understand why that work is meaningful.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Self-Portrait to Portrait of a Graduate<\/span><\/h2>\n

An even bigger picture to consider (a portfolio? a retrospective?) would be how we segment school into disciplines, courses, units, etc. I\u2019ve never known a single adult who had a predetermined hour every day in which they only focused on math or science or anything else. The truth is that every person outside of the traditional, industrialist K-12 school system synthesizes information in interconnected ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"JCPS
JCPS Graduate Profile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a district, Jefferson County Public Schools has begun to address this issue with our \u201cBecoming Me\u201d Graduate Profile. Throughout their tenure, students are asked to gather artifacts of their learning and consider how and why these have helped them grow in a set of global dispositions (effective communicator, productive collaborator, etc). At specified points in time, learners will present to a small panel about these reflections and discuss how their growth fits in with their larger goals. While it\u2019s not a perfect system, it\u2019s certainly a starting point to get our ~100,000 students to see the larger picture of their education.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of the JCPS Deeper Learning Team, we\u2019re working to make more opportunities for authentic and meaningful educational experiences available to every learner \u2013 kids and adults alike. We offer support to teachers on topics related to project-based learning, competency-based education, personalized learning, and a lot more yet-to-be-trademarked methodologies. When our team creates professional development for school staff, we try to model what we hope to see in classrooms: collaborative protocols, co-creation of rubrics, and multiple opportunities for feedback and revision. Additionally, we like to start from an asset-based lens \u2013 what do our participants already know about this topic? What do they need more information about?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In my own classroom, after students completed a once-a-week, year-long passion project, I asked them to respond to a survey about their experience. Most of the form related to what they learned about, if they would choose the same project knowing what they know now, etc. One of the final questions related to whether they felt their passion project added to or detracted from their overall school experience that year. One student wrote something to the effect of, \u201cIf anything, the rest of my school experience detracted from my passion project. I wish I had way more time to work on this.\u201d Imagine if this teenager had been given the opportunity to explore their topic or the necessary materials through the lens of other disciplines. Perhaps they would have more easily seen themselves reflected in their work.<\/p>\n

\"Courtney
\nCourtney Williams<\/b> is a Deeper Learning Resource Teacher in Louisville, Kentucky. She is National Board Certified as a High School Visual Art Teacher. She hopes to spread the use of performance-based assessment, student passions, and creativity in all subject areas!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","mapsvg_location":""},"legacy_category":[],"issue":[383,371,399],"location":[120],"class_list":["post-17938","cw_post","type-cw_post","status-publish","hentry","issue-rethink-instruction","issue-learn-lessons-from-the-field","issue-activate-student-agency","location-kentucky"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA (Self) Portrait of a Graduate - Aurora Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how JCPS is working to make more opportunities for authentic and meaningful educational experiences available to every learner.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/a-self-portrait-of-a-graduate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A (Self) Portrait of a Graduate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn how the Deeper Learning Team at Jefferson County Public Schools is working to make more opportunities for authentic and meaningful educational experiences available to every learner.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/a-self-portrait-of-a-graduate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aurora Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuroraInst\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-22T20:34:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-07-31-at-3.34.18-PM-768x790-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"790\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"A (Self) Portrait of a Graduate\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Learn how the Deeper Learning Team at Jefferson County Public Schools is working to make more opportunities for authentic and meaningful educational experiences available to every learner.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-Shot-2023-07-31-at-3.34.18-PM-768x790-1.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Aurora_Inst\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"Courtney Williams\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/a-self-portrait-of-a-graduate\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/a-self-portrait-of-a-graduate\/\",\"name\":\"A (Self) Portrait of a Graduate - 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