Blog

Early childhood curriculum and Pedagogy

Assessment Overview

Your digital visual journal will showcase your artistic explorations across the unit.

It is to be shaped around a central inquiry concept that emerged for you as you explored the content. 2500 words

The recommended number of artefacts is in the range of 4 – 8. For example, you may choose one thing from each session, or you may choose 3 things from one session and none from another, as they relate to your inquiry concept.

Purpose

The purpose of this assessment task is to:

1. Showcase your own artistic processes
2. Connect this learning to readings and resources

The unit learning outcome(s) assessed is/are: 

• LO1: Contextualise music and movement in Early Childhood from personal, social, and philosophical perspectives.
• LO2: Explore the languages of movement, music, drama, and visual arts in general and in the context of early childhood.

You will provide focus to your Digital Visual Journal by choosing a concept that emerged for you throughout the unit.

Some examples of concepts might be:

• Movement, Encounter, Ecologies, Assemblage, or Time (the concepts in the Encounters with Materials book)
• Specific concepts like: ‘Using Natural materials’ or ‘Embedding Indigenous perspectives’
• Broader concepts like: Form (What is art?), Function (How does art work?), Change (How is art changing?), Connection (How is art connected to other things?), Responsibility (What is our responsibility as ECEs when teaching art?)
• Any other concept that has emerged for you throughout the unit! Be creative! Post ideas on the discussion board if you’re not sure

You will provide focus to your Digital Visual Journal by choosing a concept that emerged for you throughout the unit.

Some examples of concepts might be:

• Blage, or Time (the concepts in the Encounters with Materials book)
• Specific concepts like: ‘Using Natural materials’ or ‘Embedding Indigenous perspectives’
• Broader concepts like: Form (What is art?), Function (How does art work?), Change (How is art changing?), Connection (How is art connected to other things?), Responsibility (What is our responsibility as ECEs when teaching art?)
• Any other concept that has emerged for you throughout the unit! Be creative! Post ideas on the discussion board if you’re not sure

You should title your journal ‘An inquiry into…’ (and complete the sentence with your concept)

Your Digital Visual Journal will examine this concept through your artistic inquiries with sound, music, movement, drama and materials.

You will use a range of media – photography, written or audio narratives, videos, drawings, music, sound recordings and other creative media in this journal.

You will reflect on your own learnings as an artist and discuss how these learnings can be applied to your practice as an educator, making connections to the unit readings and resources.

Instructions

To get started on your assessment task, please follow the below instructions.

1. 1. As you work through the sessions, document, document, document! You will document your activities, responses to readings, artistic explorations, and material inquiries. Document your own explorations as if you would a child’s – observe yourself! This documentation will form the raw data for your journal.
   2. Decide on a concept, theme or idea (see list of examples in the ‘Details’ section above) that has emerged throughout your studies in this unit. Think about your journal as “An inquiry into…” that theme/concept/idea Refine your documentation from step 1 so that it relates to this concept.
   3. Write an introduction that outlines your concept, how it connects to the unit material and how you will explore it.
   4. Artefacts: Consider your artefacts. These are your samples of the art you created and how you created it:
      1. Sketches, plans, drawings, paintings, sound recordings, video, photographs, aural documentation
      2. Notes about the materials, techniques and processes used
      3. The recommended number of artefacts is in the range of 4 – 8. For example, you may choose one thing from each session, or you may choose 3 things from one session and none from another, as they relate to your inquiry concept.
   5. Discussion: Discuss connections to early childhood education research and literature. Use the unit text (Encounters with Materials), other unit readings, the content and resources in the unit to support your discussion (and your own further research, if you wish (use the VU library to research).
   6. Implications for practice: Provide a description of a rich, multidisciplinary learning experience, using the language in the artefact and showing how your artistic learning and understanding of the readings can be reflected in an early childhood setting.
   7. Write a short conclusion that ties everything together.
   8. Provide a reference list, (check your in-text citations!) in line with Harvard conventions.