1997 Arts Assessment Strategies ReportExercise Eight From the Interior Space Task

Once students had been given the opportunity to observe, describe, and interpret both works, they were asked to do some creating work of their own. Notice how the directions for the creating exercise shown below encouraged students to apply the observing they have done already in the written exercises to their creating work.

Note also the effort made to convey to students exactly what is being asked of them. One of the most important aspects of developing performance assessment tasks is to be sure students know what skills they are being asked to demonstrate. Without such specificity, it is difficult to gather useful information from student responses during scoring.

Think about how the artists whose works you just looked at explored ideas, feelings, and human experience in their interiors. Now think about an idea, feeling, or experience you could express by creating an interior space.

Using your oil crayons and your drawing paper, create an interior space that communicates to someone else a feeling, idea, or experience that interests you. As you work,

think about how the kind of space you create and objects and/or people you place in it can communicate your ideas;
organize objects and visual elements to effectively use the space on your drawing paper;
choose colors, lines, and details that help to communicate your ideas; and
focus on expressing what your interior space is meant to tell someone, not on portraying it realistically.

Scoring Guide

5 - VERY GOOD The formal elements work together to communicate an idea or mood and are very good throughout the whole work.

There is a sense of integration, so that the work is fairly cohesive and unified.
Choice and use of material show good awareness of line and color and the relationship of these qualities to depicted objects.
Features are placed in careful, deliberate ways to represent ideas.
Expressive: strong ideas or mood about place are conveyed through color, detail, contrast, and/or variations in line, such as direction or thickness. [Sample Response]

4 - GOOD The work generally communicates an idea or mood, although some aspects may seem superfluous or contradictory to the intent. The use of formal elements is good throughout most of the work and shows an ability to create an expressive interior space.

Composition is mostly integrated: Objects are shown in relation to one another and to the whole page.
Use of oil crayons shows an awareness of line and color and the relationship of these qualities to depicted objects.
Moderately expressive: some ideas or mood about place are conveyed through color, detail, contrast, and/or variations in line, such as direction or thickness. [Sample Response]

3A - UNEVEN The work shows some sense of an idea or mood, but the intent is ambiguous. The work shows an emerging ability to create an interior space that has one or two expressive aspects (for example, the use of a very vivid color to express a strong feeling). The use of formal elements is fairly good in parts, but weak or unfinished areas diminish the overall effect. [Sample Responses]

3B - UNEVEN The use of formal elements is good in parts or most of the work, but does not work to create an expressive interior space. [Sample Responses]

2 - MINIMAL There is evidence of an attempt to communicate an idea or mood. The use of formal elements is elementary and shows limited ability to create an expressive interior space. [Sample Response]

1 - UNSATISFACTORY The work does not communicate an idea or mood. Use of formal elements (such as line, shape, and color) is very elementary and creates no visual impact or an incoherent visual impact. OR, the work is not an interior space.

The paper space seems unconsidered.
Color, line, and objects are not unified.
The work is characterized by large areas of empty space and/or random marks.
[Sample Response]

NEXT: Exercise Nine From the Interior Space Task

Last updated 10 June 2022 (YA)