During my observation this Thursday, I had the opportunity to ask Mrs.

Belt about

curriculum standards. First, being a Catholic school, I asked her if the high school has a set of

standards different from or in addition to the Ohio standards, and she told me that they only use

Ohio standards. Mrs. Belt says that since she has been teaching for so long, she has a pretty good

grasp on what meets standards, and so she creates her lessons first, then she sees what specific

standards apply.

To introduce a new project, Mrs. Belt hands out a sheet of paper describing the projects

and the criteria that needs to be met. For example, in her Intro to Photography class she was

introduced a new project on portraits. One of the objectives on the sheet of paper was that

students will take different types of portraits using point of view, frame, angle, depth of focus,

and one environmental portrait. After giving an overview of the project, Mrs. Belt showed a

series of portrait photos from a few photographers who are famous for their portraits, and she

also showed some past student work. Throughout the presentation, she made it very clear what

she is looking for in the project. For this part of the lesson, the standards that apply would be:

2PE Identify and describe the sources artists use for visual reference and to generate ideas for

artworks, 3RE Use appropriate vocabulary to define and describe techniques and materials used

to create works of art. 4RE Investigate the role of innovative technologies in the creation and

composition of new media imagery. The standards that could apply to the project portion of the

lesson would be: 4PR Establish the appropriate levels of craftsmanship when completing

artworks, 5PR Investigate how to access available digital tools and innovative technologies to

create and manipulate artwork, 6PR Identify and apply visual literacy as a means to create

images that are personally expressive.

 In her Ceramics 1 class, the students spent the whole class time finishing their projects.

The project they were working on was to create a slab built fish. After Mrs. Belt introduces a

project in her ceramics class, she performs a step by step demonstration. After the demonstration

she writes down the steps or criteria on the board. She does this so that students have a clear

understanding of what is expected for their project and so that students dont ask questions over

and over again. For the clay fish project, the standards that apply would be: 1PR Demonstrate

basic technical skill and craftsmanship with various art media when creating images from

observation, memory and imagination, 2PR Apply the elements and principles of art and design

using a variety of media to solve specific visual art problems, 3PR Explore multiple solutions to

visual art problems through preparatory work, 4PR Establish the appropriate levels of

craftsmanship when completing artworks.

To asses these projects, Mrs. Belt uses a rubric that she hands out to her students and has

them do a self-evaluation of their work. After they complete their self-evaluation, Mrs. Belt

completes the rubric with her own evaluation of their work. Another form of assessment Mrs.

Belt uses is critique discussions where students are able to make statements about their own art

and their artmaking process, and they are able to make comments about their classmates work.