No paper art diagnostic test

I work at a school that had no art before I came, so I wanted to test the student's knowledge of art the first day of school. There are around 700 students and I see all of them. I didn't want to be making copies of a diagnostic test for all those students, and I sure as heck didn't want to grade them. What I  wanted was to know what the kids knew right on the spot.

Enter MRS (multiple response strategy) and a PowerPoint. All I needed was kids, a projector, a computer and my presentation. Zero papers to copy or grade. This is how it went:

• I wrote down 10 things I thought my students should know about art concepts and turned them into multiple choice questions. I numbered the answers 1-3.
• I made a PowerPoint presentation introducing myself ( what I liked, where I studied art, some of my drawings, etc.). I also included the class rules. Then in the same presentation I added the questions and the multiple choice answers. After each question I made a slide for the correct answer.

Letting them know we were going to take an art test. ;)

• During class I introduced myself and the class rules. Next I told the kids they were going to take a test, the look on their faces was priceless. I explained it was a diagnostic test to see how much they knew about art concepts. I told them we would do the test together and we didn't need paper or pencil to take it. 

Question

• The diagnostic test: I read the question out loud, then read the answers. I asked the students to put up one finger if they think one is the correct answer, put up two fingers if they think two is the correct answer, or put up three fingers if they think three is the correct answer. I gave them time to think for 5-7 seconds, and let them know everyone had to choose an answer in order to reveal the correct number. Tip: You can read the question one more time before revealing the answer. Repeat with the rest of the questions. Reinforce that they show you the answer not say it out loud.

Answer

• As the students got the hang of it the pace increased, they would also be looking around to see who else had the same number up and encouraged everyone to participate so they could see the correct answer.
• I looked around to see who had the correct answer, the signs and grunts let's me know who didn't get it right.

I hope this idea inspires you to try a new way of assessing student knowledge without making a paper and pencil test.

Happy art teaching!

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Here are some questions you can use for your test:

• What line goes from top to bottom?
• The primary colors are...
• A triangle is a...
• What materials would you use when making a painting?
• Cool colors are...
• Which of the following is a color wheel?
• What is the first record of art made by humans?
• A portrait is a picture of...
• Which of the following is a gray scale?
• Which of the following is a brayer?
• What is a sketch?

Welcome to art class! from CaramelBun