Grading Art

This is an excerpt from a forthcoming book on teaching.

Once upon a time, when I taught grade school level students, I also taught art. As anyone who knows me is aware, this was a stretch. However, what I learned is that art if art. Anyone can be artistic, if we only believe in ourselves.
This was not easy to teach students then, and it is not easy to teach students now. We are much too quick to take the commercial, Photo Shop, tinkered with version, and believe it is someone’s art work. We’re too quick to compare our attempts with those of someone who’s been schooled in art from childhood. We’re too quick to slap a negative value on what we’ve produced.
It would be nice if creativity existed for its own end, and if we could appreciate everyone’s creativity. Sometimes we can. Sometimes we need to grade art projects, and use these grades toward a report card “Art” entry. However, there was a report card slot for “art,” and so part of the grade school experience, I needed to grade art (hopefully while still valuing the students).
Grading tactics
Spread out all the corn pictures, and look at them. Some will immediately have you saying, “Yes. Exactly.” Some look good. Some look as appealing as cold oatmeal.
Who learned? Who became artistic? Who had fun – good fun? Who created the spirit of the project, even if the art of the project was not perfect?

No matter what the grade, all art deserves a positive comment. If they have done any art at all, the students have created something with a piece of themselves in it. It’s cruel to write “C” without some mitigating and positive comment. Keep grades on the back of the art, especially if you are hanging this project in the hallway or classroom. No student wants to be ridiculed for “not as good work.” The students who feel they have failed art, will be reluctant to ever again attempt art. When we “do art” we offer the world a part of who we are.