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We are in the middle of the November visual arts examination session so I thought that I would highlight some assessment-related things that friend and colleague Jayson Paterson recently said on My IB. (As many will know, Jayson is one of the My IB visual arts experts and responsible for the visual arts Community forum. In some sections below I am quoting Jayson because his considered opinions are very much in line with my own.) Here are five issues that can play ...
Last month I answered some questions that students had asked me about the Process Portfolio. I have had a few more questions since then, so here are answers to the most recent PP questions. MORE questions — and answers — about the Process Portfolio 1 'I like painting, so most of my intentions are just to create paintings, but my teacher says this intention is "not enough". Why not?' In terms of media, you cannot just focus on one medium/technique in the Process Portfolio. ...
If you are teaching in a “November session” school, October is a busy month! Here are some reminders: IBIS upload deadlines: 10 Oct Predicted Grades and Internal Assessment marks 20 Oct Internal Assessment (Exhibition) upload 30 Oct Comparative Studies and Process Portfolio upload Exhibition Reminders Students can use as many or as few processes/techniques as they like: there are no restrictions in the exhibition criteria for the range of media used. Students will not be penalised for only using ...
It’s September, so some of you will be just starting the bright and shiny adventure that is IBDP visual arts, while others will be returning for your final year. So (unless you have already completed it) part of the visual arts coursework that you will be/are engaged in is the Comparative Study. Examiners have now seen work uploaded for three examination sessions (May 2016 and 2017, and November 2016), and some issues and patterns are beginning to emerge. This blog is not intended ...
Just so we’re clear, NO MORE ‘INTERVIEW’ VIDEOS NO VIDEOS IN THE COMPARATIVE STUDY NO VIDEOS IN THE PROCESS PORTFOLIO VIDEOS OK IN EXHIBITION BUT MAXIMUM 5 MINUTES NO SOUND IN VIDEOS "Only 5 minutes and no sound????” VIDEOS: 5 minutes maximum Yes, but you can do a lot in 5 minutes. You can actually do a lot in two minutes, so just think “less is more” when your students are wielding that camera. In fact don’t just think it, write in on a big board in ...
Conceptual art can be stimulating, provocative and even fun, so it’s no surprise that DP visual arts students occasionally upload files for their final assessment that have an emphasis on idea and concept rather than, say, technical skill. They are often in the form of a found object – a feather, a glove, a light-bulb, a chess piece, rubbish, a clock, a computer circuit board, dead flowers - not forgetting, of course, Barbie (etc.) They all represent something and - given the ...
A couple of weeks ago I travelled through the Spring sunshine to the hallowed halls of the IB Assessment Centre (Cardiff, Wales). The Subject Manager for visual arts met me there. The purpose of my visit was to film a video for examiners, so we spent the morning discussing, amending and finalizing the things that would be said. Although of course examiners have been going through a pre-examination qualification process for years, this is the first examiner qualification video, and all examiners ...
“How much time do you spend teaching skills, as opposed to, say, discussing originality or the art and culture of different times?" There is no simple answer - because students are all different. It depends on who you get in your art class. It tends to change with every new group of students, and it also changes over the course of the programme. My school has a very fluid student population and a fairly wide ‘open door’ policy with regard to admission ...
Some examiners have recently expressed concern that some teachers are allowing their students to create a relatively small small number of investigation pages. In one case an HLA student completed only about 50 pages over the two years and chose half of this number to be assessed in the final examination. Perhaps predictably, this student did not do very well. As is so often the case, its a quality vs. quantity issue. Obviously it serves very little purpose if students just produce a ...
A recent comment (thanks Greg!) made me think about images that examiners see repeatedly, the stereotypes, the clichés. Greg’s particular bête noir is the half human, half robot face. It’s a cliché now, of course, but at some point – a long time ago – it wasn’t. When I first saw Westworld in the mid-70s (Michael Crichton director and writer, 1973) the Yul Brynner cowboy robot seemed at the time (to me) a great image. In fact I did some ‘human face/robotic structure drawings’ ...
