Differentiation by
outcome
Intervention may seem an unfamiliar term to art and design
teachers. This may stem from a
fundamental belief in differentiation by outcome (each student will achieve the
best and most personal outcome that they are capable of, demonstrated by an
assessment at the end of the project/activity).
This is largely historical and a product of two aspects of the
subject. The first is a belief in each
student’s potential to achieve with the support and guidance of the
teacher/artist (the old ‘apprentice’ model).
The second is a belief that each student originates creatively to realise
their own ideas through personal creativity and expression. To help them achieve the best outcome, they incorporate
the advice of the teacher into their actions (again a historical model). Whilst I do not entirely refute some value in
these beliefs for FE and HE students engaged in extended personally driven
study, they are largely out of step with assessment for learning approaches and
certainly unsustainable within a school based, learning focused model. With this approach, the weakest will
underachieve and we could argue that the most able will not reach their full potential.
Differentiation by
task
In reality, art and design teachers most often practice differentiation
by task, as they constantly modify expectations and outcomes through discussion
with individuals and groups. Because this is a natural and intuitive model for
those who are ‘art school trained’, many do not realise the extent to which
they implement this as their dominant model. This approach can be manageable
with examination classes but can become difficult with the numbers in a key
stage 3 class and across a cohort. For example, within an examination group of
20, a teacher can set a broad project and work with groups and then each
individual student to direct, model and suggest lines of investigation and
research. This approach develops
personal responses and individual development, resulting in original outcomes
that will engage and motivate the student. However, teachers will need to find
ways to record and track these discussions, particularly if they want to
maintain a focus on improvement and ensure good progress. (see Unit 6 Module
6.2 Securing progression in art and design, Appendix 6.2 C.1 Curricular target
setting in art and design – from the subject development materials, released as
part of the National Strategy Assessment for learning Pack) downloadable from: http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/154656
Differentiation by
criteria and outcomes (Assessment for Learning)
Art and design teachers are very familiar with using criteria
referencing as a means to determine standards.
GCSE Boards publish Assessment Objectives and these are set out to
specify the expectation of each mark awarded, before being converted into a
grade award by the Board following moderation.
So these criteria statements determine what students have to do, in
order to achieve a mark or grade. The
same is true in the classroom. When art
and design teachers write and share lesson outcome statements and success
criteria at the start of the lesson, then students are very clear about what is
expected of them by the end of the lesson or a sequence of lessons. Increasingly, teachers are setting these out
in a differentiated form using ‘All, Most and Some’
statement stems, to target expectations at particular groups or specific
students and to give some challenge to those who may exceed their normal
expectation or predicted grade. This is particularly effective at boosting
achievement in small manageable steps across a course.
What then do I mean
by Intervention?
Intervention in art and design requires a different way of thinking
about achievement and about the expectations we, as teachers, hold for
different students. This is made a
little ‘fuzzy’ as a concept in our subject, precisely because in art and design,
we hold personal creativity in such high esteem and our desire to stimulate
creativity can dominate our objectivity in defining specific, measurable learning
outcomes. Let me explain it this
way. If I plan a very traditional
still-life drawing project for a group of Year 9 students to improve their
drawing competence, then I know that the quality of outcomes will have enormous
range, certainly including evidence between Levels 4 to 6 and possibly as broad
as Levels 3 to 7. As part of our teaching to produce a still-life drawing, we
will certainly show students examples by artists, possibly other students and
probably encourage creative independence in the use of the media. So the Key Concepts of Creativity, Critical
and Cultural understanding may well be part of the planned development and
assessment processes, alongside the development of improved Competence in
drawing skills. We certainly also have
some students who even at this stage in their art and design education will
complain loudly “I can’t draw!” And there will be others who genuinely will
struggle, having failed to act on their teachers guidance to visually measure,
compose their layout carefully, fill the paper or use their choice of drawing
media to record a full tonal range using marks and shading techniques such as
hatching and cross-hatching.
If we differentiate by outcome then each will be assessed against the
specific success criteria or a set of differentiated criteria, with the award
of a suitable grade or Level at the end of a project. The focus in this context is on guiding
students as best we can and only then measuring their achievement when the work
is completed. In order to improve,
students must act on the ongoing guidance given by their teacher and may really
only fully understand how successful they have been when the work is finished
and assessed. This means that to
progress, they have to understand, apply and put into action what they learn in
one project, within each of the following projects. The problem with this approach is that teacher
feedback is not continually criteria referenced to help them maximize their
grade in that same project. Hence, any
formative feedback only becomes qualified in relation to a summative grade or
level. Teachers have to work hard in
this approach to provide high quality individual guidance, but it relies on
students following all guidance on trust, recognising the quality of guidance
from their teacher only after the assessment. The other problem with this
approach is that it undermines independence and can limit a student developing their
own creativity.
Assessment for Learning encourages us to use formative feedback to
gather information from students about their learning, regularly, throughout,
or at key points in the stages of an activity.
This way we can help students take the next step, knowing the criteria
for success, they decide what to do next and how well to do
it. If they still struggle, we
intervene. An intervention may be as
simple as some verbal guidance (reminding the student of guidance previously
given), it may be a little drawing demonstration on some spare paper (so they
can place this in their sketchpad and use this to refer to), or it may direct
their attention to an example of work by other students or an artist. We make these small interventions all the
time when guiding students.
Assessment for learning also encourages us to pause at points in the
lesson and observe all students working, to reflect on how well they are
progressing and consider whether we need make further interventions. This might include, either selecting a group
of students who need gathering together for a further demonstration or providing
guidance to clarify something they have not fully understood. Questioning is a further form of formative
assessment and feedback, enabling teachers to check what is known and how well
it is understood. By probing, teachers
challenge assumptions and can test the depth of understanding, followed by
modifying the level of challenge in line with needs.
What do we do then? When despite our best efforts some students are
clearly underperforming and still do not meet expectations? If at the end of
these ‘in lesson’ small and medium interventions, these students proclaim “I
still can’t draw” or “I’m useless at designing and developing ideas”. What then do we do next?
Differentiation by outcome may have led us to form a view that some
students, just don’t get it. So they
leave the lesson without having met the expectation and we try again in the next
lesson, or move on to another project, accepting that these students cannot
draw as well as others. Perhaps they never achieve the expected outcome. No surprise then that in frustration and with
low self esteem they say “I can’t draw”.
What
if we held a different expectation?
What if we thought that ‘if a student has decent gross and fine motor
skills, if they could draw graphs in maths, write in English, control a pen or
pencil to make notes, act thoughtfully and are well organised’, should they not
be capable of controlling drawing media and applying the principles of, for
example, line, shape, mark, shade and tone in the way that it is being taught?
The question is, how do we Intervene in a meaningful and
impactful way?
If we consider the situation from the perspective of the student
(learner), should we not expect to have success when well taught? And should we not also expect them all
to be able to achieve? Clearly, such
students need larger scale interventions, something that provides them with:
■ more time to learn
and apply guidance from the teacher;
■ more one to one
guidance from a teacher, artist or perhaps even another student;
■ less stress in the
learning situation;
■ confidence building
activities that improve their self-esteem;
■ an opportunity to
try alternative approaches and gain confidence through small successes.
The problem is: Do we believe in intervention?
Although art and design teachers are well versed in the alternative
approaches to drawing that engage learners, they may not choose to employ such
strategies and we rarely see these being taught to a class. The views teachers
hold on what is right, run deep within us, often stemming from our own artistic
training. The problem is that we as
teachers are successful products of the system. Was this because we found our
own way to draw, our own personal creativity and were successful? And is there a correct way to teach art and
design?
In her book Children’s Drawings,
Maureen Cox seeks to debunk the concept of ‘innate creativity’ developed over
the early decades of the twentieth century, at which time many thought it
‘should not be inhibited or corrupted by formal teaching of adult artistic
conventions’. She quotes Viktor Löwenfeld (1957), appealing to teachers: ‘Don’t
impose your own images on a child. Never give the work of one child as an
example to another. Never let a child copy anything’. By the mid eighties, the
fallacy of this belief was being exposed and the understanding that we cannot
protect children from images that may influence (environment), will be balanced
by the work of the teacher, instructing and mediating this experience. However,
the belief in the sanctity of an individuals’ creativity has not entirely
vanished at the beginning of the twenty first century. Coupled with this, there is a curious
disrespect of formalised teaching methods exemplified by the ‘How to Draw’
books we find in the leisure section of bookshops. Perhaps this is a product of the background
of many current teachers of art and design, who were themselves trained during
the ‘conceptual art’ decades, which celebrated personal creativity and the
primacy of ‘concept over skill’ towards the end of the twentieth century.
Maureen Cox explains that this dichotomy between formal and conceptual
approaches has not been too much of a problem, until children’s willingness and
enjoyment to draw begins to fail, when in Years 5 and 6 ‘they become
dissatisfied with their work and they substitute rather detailed fussy drawings
for their former bold and more confident efforts’. We see this problem
exacerbated in Key Stage 3 where we expect to build on basic drawing skills and
help students to develop control of their skills under specialist guidance in
the creation of more complex works. When the skills and understanding are not
in place, we have little time to go back and correct the misconceptions, or
teach the skills that are not in place.
It is easy to see therefore the problem we are faced with. We often see some amazingly creative work in
primary art and design and extremely varied standards in secondary classrooms,
where the focus is on applying skills and techniques with some control and to
convey meaning. Without a sound grasp of basic skills in drawing and designing,
it is hard to see how students can continue to feel confident as they are asked
to expose their creativity in the harsh competitive and comparative climate of
early adolescence.
Other educationalists have addressed these problems from different
perspectives. Those working in the field of educational psychology have
explored this alongside broader aspects of how we learn best. Carol S. Dweck
investigates research on: is artistic
ability a gift?, in evidence from US research referenced in Mindset – The new psychology of success;
Both Howard Gardner and David Perkins in their work as co-directors of Project
Zero have examined this from different perspectives exploring formal and
non-formal models of creative and skills development (see Gardner: Art
Education and Human Development) and the importance of learning to think through
looking, explored by Perkins in The
Intelligent Eye. This importance of
looking also sits at the heart of the model for improving skills as set out by
Betty Edwards in her book: Drawing on the
right side of the brain and also specifically through critical response and
development in the UK by Rod Taylor in Educating for Art. There are also many books available on
‘Improving your drawing’ and most instruct by breaking down a specific task
into series of smaller steps i.e. ‘chunking learning’. We know this is of value when you wish to
achieve specific outcomes, and measureable improvement in learning, but this is
rarely seen as a common model in the UK art and design curriculum. Why is that?
Is then the dominant model of teaching art and design in Britain, as
follows: The teacher provides opportunity for learning with sequences of
activity with personal support, designed to lead to a successful outcome. The students who are successful or respond
well to the guidance achieve well and all others fall by the wayside?
Art teachers do not always structure further opportunities to follow up
with these students who fall by the wayside, or establish after school events,
with an expectation of ultimate success. Instead, we seem torn between our valuing
of personal creativity and skill, and yet technical achievement is a part of
the measure for examination success at GCSE art and design, particularly in
achieving the C grade. Does this then make a case for a more formalised model
of intervention?
Why do we need
Intervention?
The need for intervention is evident either through the lack of progress
being made by a student or group of students in a class. Teachers who are making regular and effective
use of data will have their perceptions from the classroom confirmed. The evidence provided by data in the arts
will, however, usually only demonstrates a case for intervention after at least
half a term and more usually beyond a term.
Detailed teacher assessments are made only over these timescales and as
a part of a pupil self-assessment, peer or summative teacher assessment.
Taken from the National Secondary Strategy
First indications of the need for a Tier 1 intervention in art and
design are more usually evident by student attitude and in response to
disruptive behaviour, loss of self-confidence “I can’t draw”, or progress much
less than planned by the teacher or than their peers. They may also demonstrate behaviours such as
time wasting strategies and frustration evident in their inability to meet the
prescribed standard or their own standard, particularly where they are more able
or talented in other subjects.
Throughout this guidance paper, drawing is used as the key indicator and
context for modelled solutions, although the principle applies equally in any
aspect of art and design making.
Cohort
level Intervention (Tier 1: – Core Instruction)
Cohort level interventions should be identified
in response to the subject curricular targets, based on cohort data and from
performance in lessons and on-going assessments. Typically, an art and design department may
judge a Year 8 cohort as being particularly weak, in for example, observational
drawing skills including proportion, perspective and tone. Equally they may
judge a Year 9 cohort as having poor design skills. (see Unit 6 Module 6.2 Securing progression
in art and design, Appendix 6.2 C.1 Curricular target setting in art and design
– from the subject development materials, released as part of the National
Strategy Assessment for learning Pack) downloadable from: http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/154656
In both cases, these
need some unpicking of the detail and specific weaknesses, in order to define
and layer some clear and SMART curricular targets such as for the Year 9
example:
■
Increase the teaching of stages in the design process
in all Y 9 projects, including use of thumbnail studies to explore different
compositions, annotated pages and evidence of investigation/experimentation.
■
All projects to have sketchbook evidence of a sequence
of 4+ pages of good quality Creativity, Competence and Cultural understanding
(minimum L5) development.
■
Improve research skills to require study or
artists/designers and their work to show evidence of analysis, reflection and
identification of what is relevant and what has been selected and developed
from the study of the artist/designer. In both homework and classwork, avoid
copy and paste from the web, include web references and personal response.
■
All students to complete several pages of
experimentation/investigation where students test media and make several
studies that improve the quality of their idea and how they use the media.
■
Self and peer assessment used at key points to set
targets for improving work.
■
Teachers to mark sketchbooks every two weeks using 2
stars and a wish or WWW (what went well) and EBI (even better if) to make
recommendations for action.
■
All teachers to check that where improvement or
completion of tasks is required, that students complete this to the required
Level standard.
Demonstration
■
Students who are unable to progress are often
unwilling to lose face in front of their peers if they admit to needing direct
help. Art and design teachers are
particularly adept at small interventions with each student, where they
demonstrate how to use media or work in a specific way. However, this can become a poor use of lesson
time if this ‘demo’ is being repeated around the classroom to many students and
where there is no follow-up by the teacher to check progress.
■
Whole class demonstrations can be useful, but more
usefully, a small group ‘demo’ is more powerful if a group of students are
selected by the teacher and gather together for a short focused presentation or
demonstration targeted on their needs.
There is no loss of self esteem to these students if this is a normal
and regular feature of a teachers teaching style. This strategy is powerful if used with all
abilities, where teachers gather together those with a specific need and share
characteristics in their skills and work.
Explore using learning mentors and coaches
■
Many schools are starting to explore the development
of students as researchers and co-creators in their learning across the
curriculum. Some schools are nominating
students as learning mentors and coaches, within their year group or class, and
sometimes specific to a subject. They
have badges and some wear a doctor’s coat indication they are available to give
advice in that subject. This is still in
the early stages of development, but is proving powerful in using students with
the correct skill set, both in a subject and in supporting others in their
learning (e.g. emotional intelligence/personal and interpersonal skills).
■
These students are also increasingly being used in two
other important ways. One is to observe
learning and feedback to the teacher on learning, from the perspective of the
students. The other, is to offer their
support in partnership with the teacher as part of an extended learning
programme.
Support teachers and teaching assistants
Use can be made of
support staff in several ways to enable effective intervention. They may be
in
the room to support a specific student with learning needs or a small group.
■
The support assistant can support self and peer/small
group self assessment activities, ensuring students understand and correctly
use the criteria.
■
Provide a whole classroom presence to enable the
teacher to run a focused activity with a small group for 3-5 mins.
■
Use exemplars prepared by the teacher to manage small
group discussion about actions to improve.
■
Support small group differentiated activity.
NB. The purposeful use of support staff (when
present), is essential for an outstanding lesson, as set out by Ofsted. So please ensure they are tasked effectively
(in relation to differentiated success criteria) and deployed specifically to
make an impact on the learning of one or more identified students.
Targeted
(Tier 2: – group interventions)
Class level
intervention
When a whole class
is underperforming and failing to meet the expected standard, how long will you
wait before you take action? One week? Two weeks? A month? Half a term?
How will you choose
to take action?
■ You could try and
continue the project but split the class into ability groups and work with each
group separately.
■ Redesign or change
the project completely.
■ Place support
materials on the VLE, including video instructions and hyperlinks to enable
students to improve their understanding and complete meaningful activities.
■ Move to a different
medium, technique or process, although you may retain the same project outline.
■ Select a technique
or craft activity that develops a different set of skills, more of a process or
sequence of actions, breaking the activity down into shorter more easily
manageable steps.
■ Stop the project and
work on the weaknesses students have with their e.g. drawing, use of colour,
technique etc by running demonstrations, after school workshops and intensive
instructional activities.
■ Shift to more
experimental or expressive approaches, and away from representational
techniques.
■ Work on a larger
scale, in a broader media, or possibly introduce a modified way of working e.g.
drawing at arms-length using broader media attached to a 1metre length of
dowel.
Homework clubs, out of hours learning clubs or ‘art
clubs’
In art and design,
the tendency is to run coursework clubs after school for examination students
in a slightly informal way. These are
often also attended by KS3 students who are enthusiastic. Lunchtime versions also occur where time
permits. These arrangements are usually too
informal for some students who need more structured interventions, but do
suit some students who are well motivated, but just need more time and
individual guidance.
■
Try setting up a structured Homework club for
those who want access to the art and design rooms to access facilities and the
camaraderie they don’t receive at home, but also some directed one to one
teaching.
■
Very weak students will need more structured teaching
within a club arrangement, so they need to be near the teachers desk and have
their materials and activities well set-out.
If they are giving up their own time in response to you identifying a
need, you should make provision that challenges and supports their development.
■
Motivate attendance - playing music, providing
biscuits, sweets or squash.
■
As an intervention – provided sequences of taught
activity, demonstrations, a chance to try things out and gain focused support.
Intensive
(Tier 3: – individual interventions)
Skill support
“I can’t draw!” This is probably the
most common vocalization of the student who openly declares their need for
support, either within earshot or directly to the teacher. This requires a diagnosis of needs and rapid
remedial support targeted at the required skill or competency. Often more associated with a confidence issue
than a real lack of skills, although sometimes the student is correct and they
have not previously been well taught. In
these situations as stated above, it is often helpful to identify several
students who would benefit from being brought together to actively engage in
some focused and structured learning to cope with the current task. More development may need to be postponed to
the next lesson where these students can receive a carefully structured set of
activities to diagnose and tackle the larger issues of why they believe they
can’t draw.
Supporting issues of low self esteem
Students who have
low self-esteem may well either seek to become invisible in the classroom
or
use poor behaviour to mask their problems.
In all cases, early intervention is essential in
preventing these
problems escalating and students losing any motivation they feel they have for
the subject and activities. Low
self-esteem can be identified through many characteristics such
as: small-scale
drawing, avoiding starting an activity, minor disruption, excessive pencil
sharpening, invisible drawing etc, all of which describe different outcomes of
a lack of
confidence.
To build students’
confidence they need to have some rapid successes, often gained through a
series of short, well structured intervention activities that build skills and
capacity to return to the
task.
■
Use several short tasks (chunking) that set small
incremental improvements in the skills to enable students to clearly see their
own progress.
■
Use strong verbal rewards and praise to reinforce the
successes.
■
Homework can be modified to help provide some of these
short skills based interventions, as can VLE content and after-school provision
(see Homework club - below).
Other
Intervention Strategies for use in any Tier
Artists in residence supporting intervention
Artists in residence
are always a positive experience in the classroom and students usually benefit
greatly from the opportunity to work with an artist and see the creative
process at work. We often see this as
being of particular benefit for our strongest students, but we also know that
the experience of working with an artist can be transformational for all
students. For our weakest students, this transformation in understanding and
successful creation can be most profound. The right artist can also have a
motivational effect, engaging students interest and helping them understand
what to do and how to achieve their best outcome.
■ Selecting and using
an artist for a short residency project, with a group of weaker students or
whole class can be a very effective way of developing key coursework and
boosting achievement.
■ Select an artist
whose medium or working process is well suited to a small group of weaker
students. Craft skills and techniques
are best e.g. carving/sculpture, printmaking, photography, jewellery and
ceramics.
■ Organise an artist
to work with and mentor a group of weaker students as part of a regular after
school programme, to create a piece of work for a commission or installation in
the school.
Interventions with other
Vulnerable Groups including Able, Gifted & Talented
Class and student
data will identify vulnerable groups and also indicate particular learning
needs, for challenge, modified expectations and perhaps even differentiated
materials and teaching approaches.
■
Organise a seating plan by ability or needs and modify
outcomes and activities by group or for those grouped on specific tables.
■
Plan your time in the lesson, where you will need to provide
particular support, show exemplars and make specific efforts with particular
students to develop skills and concepts. Have a clear strategy and the
resources in place to assist vulnerable students before the lesson starts e.g.
guidance on steps to follow that improve outcomes/skills.
■
Prepare suitable resources or visual materials to
address the learning needs of vulnerable groups, place them on the tables where
these students are working. Help them to use these exemplars to develop their
own skills and practice.
■
Prepare support resources on the VLE to develop
independence and to provide additional challenge or extension tasks for the
most able.
Rewards for students
following successful intervention
By rewarding
students who have successfully risen to the challenge and improved their work,
you will improve their Mindset and develop a Growth attitude to learning and
success (see Carol S. Dweck - Mindset).
■
Send home a postcard praising their effort and
attitude.
■
Give rewards for effort and achievement (merit points,
feature as artist of the week, praised openly in assembly, their work on
display).
■
If you run an after school intervention club, provide
drinks, biscuits etc to motivate and create an improved atmosphere.
A National
Strategy model of intervention – adapted to reflect art and design needs
■
Teachers hold a fundamental belief that all children
can learn and improve the quality of their art and design skills, knowledge and
understanding, through the actions each teacher takes.
■
Recognition of the value of good first teaching,
ensuring high quality, research-based instruction, well resourced and
exemplified, with effective AfL practice.
■
A focus on professional development for teachers to
guide their intervention activities.
■
Teaching teams use data to set layered curricular
targets and by modifying planning for learning and teaching, address misconceptions
and weaknesses.
■
Monitoring student progress to inform planning and
instruction.
■
A multitier model which includes classroom, small
group intervention, and individual intervention (see illustration on page 4),
multiple strategies including a VLE to build independence.
■
Dynamic and diagnostic assessment and effective progress
monitoring.
■
Curriculum-based measurements (assessment activities,
Levels and Assessment Objectives).
■
Systematic data collection and assessment management
showing longitudinal results/trends.
■
Access to funding/budget to be used to support early
intervention.
Ged Gast
I Creativity Consultant I
Babcock 4S 2011
