Midwest+Art+Assessment+Results

Hand out an artwork to each table with a critique worksheet to talk about and fill in as a group. Have them refer to the descriptor brainstorm from the beginning of class. (Since we had extra time, the groups switched art pieces and did critiques of both works.) In the critique, I was looking for answers that got students thinking about the content of the two works. Regionalists loved the Midwest and painted what they knew and loved about this region. I was especially interested in their responses to the last two questions on the worksheet: What is the purpose or meaning of the artwork? and What is the artist expressing ideas about?  Their answers to these two questions revealed their understanding of the __purpose__ of Regionalists' work. __Art Critique question responses:__ //(Arbor Day)// "Show how people help each other, life in the small town." "People work together like big family." //(Good Crop)// "Show hard-working farmer in Midwest." "His life depends on nature--farming."
 * [[image:arborday2.gif width="349" height="254"]] || [[image:good_crop.jpg width="202" height="291"]] ||
 * Grant Wood--- //Arbor Day//, 1932 || Clarence Holbrook Carter—//Good Crop//, 1942 ||
 * Group #1:**

//(Arbor Day)// "Show life in the farmland, how happy it looked." "Feelings of tranquilty and serinity. The painting has a calm feeling to you and it shows how happy the people seem. Nature: shows life on the land, very green and outdoorsey." //(Good Crop)// "Shows hard working farmer and how his hard work got him a bagillion patatoes" "Feelings:hardworking. Nature shows the green grasslands and his potatoes."
 * Group #2**

I think that both groups showed their understanding of Regionalism by taking words that I had used in the powerpoint lecture, as well as their own words, to describe the works of art I gave them.