Differentiating the Product

The product is the outcome of acquiring a set of knowledge and skills over a period of study. It is often aligned with assessment, which tests whether or not the learner has achieved the learning objectives, and to what level of success. Teachers can go about differentiating the product by providing the learner with a student contract (next section), using informal as well as formal testing, allow various ways for assessing students and giving students the choice to design products around essential learning objectives. 

Strategy: Choice

Students will make choices based on their interests, and with consideration of their strengths and weaknesses. Giving students the opportunity to choose in some instances can be beneficial for them. Gifted students may find it more rewarding to attempt the more difficult question, as it is more challenging.

Using Bloom’s revised Taxonomy to design essay questions [17]

Students either choose to do topic (a), (b) or (c)

(   a)  Discuss the ideas that motivated the surrealists with reference to 2-3 artists. (Skills = Remembering, Understanding)

(   b)  Compare the similarities between Rene Magritte’s The Son of Man (1946) and The Lovers II (1928). (Skill = Analyzing)

(   c)To what extent were the surrealists considered ‘radical’ for their time? (Skill = evaluating)

Strategy: Formative Assessment and Feedback

Visual Arts is a unique discipline that allows teachers to easily conduct formative assessment and feedback through tools such as the visual arts diary. There is a multitude of research that supports the use of formative assessment [18][19] even for low achieving students [20]. Formative assessments differ from summative assessment, which assesses the learner’s performance at the end of a unit [21]. It can be used to evaluate a learner’s progress, check for understanding, learn about the student’s interests and figure out their learning. All the information collected can be used to modify instruction and formulate assessments that are suited for the learner.

Using discreet-embedded classroom assessments to check for vocabulary and understanding [22]

The visual arts diary can be useful for teachers to check whether the student has grasped the vocabulary and key concepts that are embedded in the unit of work.

Figure 1.7

Evidence of student applying content-specific vocabulary

As well as the visual arts diary, classroom discussions can be counted as a form of formative assessment. Teachers may want to keep record of discussions that occur in class as evidence that a student has understood or not understood the content.

Strategy: Student contract as form of self-directed learning

A Student contract is a planned agreement between the teacher and student that allows a student to develop a learning objective, such as a knowledge or skill. It can also be used for behavior management where good behavior is met with positive affirmations.

Learning contracts facilitate independent learning, allowing students to be meta-cognitive in relation to their learning. Not all learners will successfully benefit through this process, such as students with particular disabilities [23]. However, some learners such as gifted and talented students could benefit from setting goals to an objective [24].

Example of a student contract for gifted learners and ESL students