Giving Students Options to Explore and Artwork’s Cultural Relevance

Overview

Students are given two options to complete an assessment in which they explore the ways that art encapsulates cultural meaning at a particular time and place.

Why Use This?

Giving students options is always a good thing for learner agency and motivation. It also makes grading more interesting and varied for the instructor.

How Does It Work?

Students write an essay exploring the cultural relevance of an existing artwork or create their own artwork and discuss its implications regarding intercultural communication. The purpose of this assessment is for students to appreciate the symmetrical relationship between art and culture.

In addition to this assessment, many of the other course assessments give students options for how to complete them. Another assessment gives students the choice between writing an essay and producing a video. Likewise, many of the written assessments have two prompts so students can choose what they write about.

Screenshot of assignment instructions — Directions for the assignment. Most assignments in this course provide a similar type of choice.

Assessment: Explore the Cultural Relevance of a
Work of Art

Purpose

Every culture can be represented by its artistic creations. In a sense, the work of art encapsulates the meanings of a
culture at a particular time and place. The purpose of this assignment is to understand the symmetrical relationship
between art and culture.

Instructions

Culture involves surveying the traditional forms of the past and choosing what best can be utilized in the present. In this
sense, as Mathew Arnold argues culture moderates the best of the past into the present and then pushes it forward into
the future. Art comprises the aesthetic relationships of symbolic form. In other words, art involves the placing together
of stimuli to convey some type of dramatic or creative meaning. In this sense, works of art are historical and speak to a
unique time and place but also influence who we are now. For example, one of my favorite poets is Claude McKay. He
was a writer during the ‘Black renaissance’ of the early twentieth century. He wrote poems related to Black culture such
as ‘The Lynching’ and ‘Harlem Dancer: His poems both capture and represent the Black culture of 100 years ago and
inform our understanding of Black culture today.

Choose one of the following options

Option A: Explore the cultural relevance of a work of art.

Utilizing the concepts of art as discussed in your readings such as aesthetics, the muse as cultural memory, materialism,
philistinism, the meme, taste, art and cultural evolution, creativity, dramatist, and style, please choose a work of art and
articulate its cultural meaning. You may choose a song, poem, statue, painting, dance, movie, etc. Make sure to define
and appropriately apply terms from your readings. Please include a link to the work of art that you choose.

Option B: Create a work of art and discuss its intercultural communication implications.

You may create a work of art with intercultural meaning. You may write a poem, make a film, compose a song, write a
short story, paint a picture, arrange a photo montage, mold a sculpture or develop any original artwork that you find
significant and important with respect to intercultural communication. If you choose this option, please include a
150-300 word paragraph to unpack the aesthetic work’s intercultural meaning. In your paragraph, briefly articulate the
relation of the work of art that you create to class concepts you found interesting. This assignment is deliberately open
and vague to give you as much freedom as possible to create something unique and meaningful. Please make sure you
have clearly justified how the artwork connects to course concepts, through the artwork and written statement.

Keep In Mind

Consider using a single rubric that applies to both options for an assessment.
To mix things up, consider including an assessment where the entire class must answer the same prompt.

The image is of a rubric titled "Explore the Cultural Relevance of a Work of Art Rubric". It consists of three main criteria on the left column: "Use of Language," "Artwork," and "Application of Intercultural Concepts to Artwork." Each criterion has a three-column rating scale next to it, ranging from "10 to >7.0 pts" indicating "Meets Expectations," "7 to >3.0 pts" indicating "Partially Meets Expectations," to "3 to >0 pts" indicating "Does Not Meet Expectations." Points are assigned on the far right, with each criterion worth 10 points for a total of 30 points. For "Use of Language," meeting expectations involves correctly defining key terms and including supporting details. For "Artwork," it involves a clear description and appropriate supporting detail. For "Application of Intercultural Concepts to Artwork," it requires the full and correct application of intercultural communication concepts to the artwork. Partially meeting expectations in each category involves some lack of detail or partial application, and not meeting expectations involves a misunderstanding or inadequate application of concepts. — Example of a rubric that applies to both options for the assessment.

Testimonial

In the course design of my Introduction to Intercultural Communication course for the UW Milwaukee Flexible Option program, almost all of the assessments provide different options for students. Often students can choose among different essay subjects to demonstrate competency. And sometimes instead of an essay students can craft a video or create a work of art. Giving students different assessment options to demonstrate proficiency in a subject area maintains several benefits. First, it allows students more freedom to choose something that they find interesting and useful. I find that choice tends to enhance student interest. Second, the flexibility to choose across subjects creates a greater likelihood that the student will find something in the material with which they identify. Students have different life experiences, and offering more assignment options enhances the potential to find areas with which to apply the course concepts. Third, the possibility for students to create a video or a work of art to demonstrate their mastery of a subject area provides for a situated exploration into what they are actually studying. Students can be artfully creative in demonstrating their understanding of the meaning of art in intercultural communication.

Barry Liss, PhD, Associate Professor, UW-Milwaukee

I really like this assessment because providing students with different ways to show their learning is always a good thing for boosting learner agency and motivation.

Eileen Horn, Senior Instructional Designer

Giving Students Options to Explore and Artwork’s Cultural Relevance

Overview

Why Use This?

How Does It Work?

Assessment: Explore the Cultural Relevance of a Work of Art

Purpose

Instructions

Option A: Explore the cultural relevance of a work of art.

Option B: Create a work of art and discuss its intercultural communication implications.

Keep In Mind

Explore the Cultural Relevance of a Work of Art Rubric

Criteria and Ratings

Use of Language

Artwork

Application of Intercultural Concepts to Artwork

Testimonial

Assessment: Explore the Cultural Relevance of a
Work of Art

Application of
Intercultural
Concepts to
Artwork