Cartouche, Cartouche!

Another batch - just finished on Friday, the end of the marking period. And there's a handful of stragglers who are doing GORGEOUS (but slow) work that will be in my room during lunch and study hall time Monday/Tuesday to finish, so they can get graded before their grades go on the report cards Wednesday morning. My mom used to say about me: "slow as molasses in January, moving uphill..." so I guess I should be more understanding of these kids, but NO. I always meet my deadlines. They just don't seem to 'get' it.

Then there's the lovely 6th grade student, a girl who came with her family from Mexico 4 years ago not speaking a word of English. She's totally fluent now, as matter of fact no longer qualifies for any ESL time, a hard worker, really sweet, and I've got nothing bad to say about her. BUT. And it is a big BUT: she went with her family to Mexico for more than a MONTH and just got back this past week. With the Christmas vacation in the middle of her trip, she still missed at least 3 weeks of school. We had just begun the project when she left, and she came back as everyone was finishing and starting something new. The first day she was missing I thought she was out sick. On the second absence, I asked the other kids, "is she OK?" and they told me she was in Mexico.

And while I'm betting she told her homeroom teacher (who in our 6th grade setup is also her social studies, ELA, and science teacher) and I'm sure she told her math teacher (the only other 6th grade teacher; they switch for social studies and math and keep the homeroom teacher for all other academics), and while I'm sure they gave her work to do to keep up during her absence, it didn't occur to her to tell me she was going. And the homeroom teacher certainly didn't pass on the info to me. I don't know if the student told the music teacher, or the teacher of whatever other 'special' she has right now. (I see the 6th graders twice for 40 minutes each, in a 6 day cycle, as does the music teacher. But they also have Home and Careers, and Tech, and other stuff I can't recall, each daily for a 10 week cycle.)

So am I the only one of her teachers confused what to do about grades? I haven't heard a 'peep' about it from anyone else! When the girl came to art this past Monday, and still had to prepare the sheet rock for carving, I gave her a set of hieroglyphics and newsprint to take home and prepare her design so that she could immediately start carving in the next art class. She didn't do it. So she had art again on Friday and spent the class doing what she should have done at home. I explained how upset I was that she hadn't told me. I would/could have given her an alternate assignment to do in Mexico - she could have done a fabulous art journal. She said "I'll get this done". She now has her design drawn and transferred onto her sheet rock, and the marking period is officially over.

But really - she can come in during lunch on Monday and engrave the lines. She can put a coat of paint on it during study hall on Tuesday. But it will lack the relief carving of all of the other student work. Is it fair to give her a grade on something done quickly, even if it looks nice (which it will; she is meticulous)? OR conversely, is it fair to penalize her for a choice her parents made?
The grades are numerical grades that are entered electronically. I can give her an incomplete but she'd still have to make it up, and unfortunately she is generally not able to stay after school.
What would YOU do?

Here's a closeup of one of the works shown above:

6th grade Passports

My 6th graders are an odd "in between". As of 2 years ago, they are no longer considered elementary; they are now part of the middle school (which is pretty simple in my school, since we are all in one building). Even though they are now "middle school" for most else, they still have art class and music class with the elementary art teacher (me) and the elementary music teacher. They are scheduled just as they were for elementary art - two 40 minute classes in a 6 day cycle.
But now I have to put a number grade on their report card, which is a real challenge. We tend to do rather large projects in 6th grade, and so I don't have much completed when grading time comes around, since over a 10 week marking period I may have seen them 15 times. So my solution was to use the passports for grading.

They had a set of requirements (yup, written on a BLACKBOARD) for getting the best grade for their passports. They will have a similar list for every project they do. They know their grades are based on following directions, completing their work as required, using best craftsmanship, using materials appropriately, cleaning up their messes, positive attitude, participating in class, and using best effort. I suppose this should all be on a rubric, but since they are only a small part of my student load, I feel I have to leave it a little open-ended because of the time it takes to grade. Maybe the person who becomes the next art teacher will have a better idea, a better way.
We assemble the passport with "half holes" punched on the spine of the pages. The pages and cover are stacked together open, and a rubber band is threaded from the center of the book, up through the holes, and a cut-off meat skewer gets slid through the ends of the rubber bands on the outside, as you can see on the passport below. You could sub string or yarn for the rubber band, and a pencil or a twig or a drink stir stick for the skewer. It's such an easy construction and works so well!


I like to always give the kids ways to earn extra points - so I have given them the opportunity to add a picture - they may bring in a photo, or draw their own. Last year a couple of kids did humorous drawing of themselves that were a wonderfully creative solution.

When each project is done, the passport is filled out first by the student, then written in by me, and finally assigned a letter grade and a "stamp". I convert the letters to numbers to average at the end of the marking period.

I must admit, I was terribly spoiled by last year's 6th grade. These kids radiated, they sparkled, and I swear you could see the creative genius bubbling over. They are the kids whose altered books I showed you last year, plus their tooling foil African inspired masks, and especially their plaster bandage sculptures of people in motion. They are an immensely talented group of children, smart, without any snarky attitude or chips on their shoulders. This year's 6th grade however is different. They are also sweet, loveable kids, with lots of enthusiasm, but they lack the creative "zip" of last year's group, and they struggle academically. They think they are doing a fabulous job on their passports; I do not. I think their lettering is slopppy but boy are they trying hard. I am going to have to pull back my expectations a little, and then I think they will shine. They all LOVE art. Anyhow, the passports are just the beginning. The kids could come a long way this year, right?

6th grade art passports

My 6th graders are caught somewhere between elementary and middle school. They are part of the middle school for much of their schedule, but still come to the elementary art and music rooms, and have art on an elementary schedule. I see them twice in a 6 day rotation. BUT they get a number grade on their report card, like middle schoolers, so these "passports" are what I devised for their grading system. I used the idea of a passport because some of what we do in 6th grade art takes us to different places, cultures, civilizations, and eras in history. So a passport seems to suit their art program. I'll explain how we make them and how the grading works.

First, we make a tagboard cover, and 2 punch half-holes on the spine. We punch matching half-holes on the folded pages to put inside. Here's how a page looks opened after being punched.

Then, the pages are stacked on the open cover, and a rubber band is inserted from one hole to the other. A stick is slid through the rubber band ends on the outside of the cover. This time, I used meat skewers cut to length, but I've used drink stir-sticks, branches, etc. The possibilites are endless, and the assembly process is quick and easy.

For their best grade, students had to follow some basic guidelines: their name had to be on the front and their teacher's name or initial on the back. After that, they were to personalize them however they wanted. Here's Emily's front cover, and yes, those basic rules are written on a BLACKBOARD!!!!

Here's the front page that needs to be filled in. Then, the other pages all have a place to write the name of the assignment, and something about your work. Again, here's what Emily wrote. The blank page to the right is where I write my comments, plus I stamp it with a different stamp for each project, and sign, date, and record the grade. I haven't done that yet.

Below is Kyla's example of what she wrote in her passport. In the second photo, you'll notice the drawing of herself that she did on the front page. I told the kids, as was written on the blackboard, that if they included pictures of themselves they would get extra credit. I like Kyla's imaginative interpretation of that opportunity to boost her grade.

These are the qualities I look for when determining grades for all 6th grade art projects and assignments:

The kids absolutely love using the passports (they get to keep them at the end of the year) and think it is really cool to get grades in art!

Changing seasons and more work avoidance...

I have a lot of work to do; all my averages need to be completed for my 6th graders, my classroom is a mess, and I am in a funk this afternoon. So I'm taking a brief break to do this posting and then it's back to getting the job done.
I don't have any beautiful artwork to post today, but I thought I'd show you my school, which I think is pretty nice, especially this green time of year.
The views above are the front of my school, after all the kids had gone home yesterday. (I was here LATE, as I seem to be a lot lately.) Isn't it pretty? The grounds are very well cared for.

But below are some views of my school at a different time of the year that I thought I'd post for those of you who are in the south. The first two are views of the back of the school, the next photo is taken in the same location looking in the other direction (there's a hill beyond the stand of trees and then a road), and the last photo, of the playground and the woods beyond, was taken out my 2nd floor classroom window, all on the same very snowy day. Seems like a million years ago!


Now it's back to the gradebook..... I'm ready to work!